College Students Want More Work-Based Learning

Sumeet Dave always wanted to work in engineering. It just took him 20 years—and an apprenticeship.

“I had so many closed doors,” he said of the job opportunities that followed a stint in the U.S. Army National Guard, an initial attempt at a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in the ’00s and an eventual bachelor’s degree in allied health administration and management. He’d pivoted to allied health when he didn’t find a job as an MRI tech after a separate two-year program in nuclear medicine technology, he explained. But a viable career path never quite materialized.

After working as a pharmacy technician, among other jobs, for years, Dave was looking to reskill, again. A chance conversation about apprenticeships with an administrator at Howard Community College in Maryland opened his eyes to a program in information technology with AT&T.

“I was like, ‘What do you mean, I can actually work and take some classes?’” he recalled. “I didn’t even know there were apprenticeships out there, because I thought it was something of the past.”

Three years later, Dave has a full-time job, a national credential in IT and a federal security clearance. He’s also looking to pursue a master’s degree with tuition reimbursement from his employer.

“That was my dream—to go into some field of engineering—so it was great to find something like AT&T, which has an apprenticeship program where you can jump into it, which later becomes software engineering,” he said. “It’s given me a great opportunity to get my foot in the door. You make a difference, contribute to the organization, and then the sky’s the limit.”

Dave’s years of underemployment could be read as data points against college in the escalating college-versus-career debate—especially at a time when the hiring edge for college graduates is especially narrow. But study after study shows that college remains worth it for most learners, even when postgraduate earnings are debt-adjusted. So instead of being a simple referendum on college value, Dave’s story captures a broader shift in how career-connected students expect—and need—their college experiences to be.

In Inside Higher Ed’s main 2025 Student Voice survey, most students expressed confidence that they have what they need to succeed postcollege, but they also wanted their institutions to stack the deck with more targeted career-readiness efforts. And in a follow-up Student Voice flash survey, out today, on work-integrated learning (WIL), nearly all 1,135 two- and four-year students express interest in engaging in some form of WIL.

A quarter are interested in apprenticeships, like Dave’s, while half are interested in internships. Part-time work related to their majors, another paid option, also appeals to many students. But pay is not the only motivating factor, nor is extended exposure, as short-term job shadowing ranks relatively highly.

Students say their top goals for WIL are technical skill development and professional networking.

Most respondents are confident that their institution will be able to provide WIL experiences, either directly or indirectly—even if they’re not really sure what differentiates, say, an internship from a cooperative education program. But WIL participation gaps and strong interest even among students who’ve already engaged in such experiences show that demand for career-connected learning is outpacing access to it. And for many respondents, there’s new urgency around the rise of AI and automation: More than half say this makes hands-on experience even more important.

Here are eight takeaways from the survey.

1. Internships remain the most prevalent form of WIL, but more than a third of students haven’t participated in WIL of any kind.

The top three models in which students have participated are internships (27 percent of the sample); part-time jobs related to their majors, on or off campus (27 percent); and undergraduate research or research assistantships (20 percent). But 36 percent of all students haven’t participated in any form of WIL, a share that increases to 40 percent for Black students and 49 percent for Hispanic students in the sample (versus 26 percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander students, 31 percent of white students, and 29 percent of those from other racial groups). Adult learners 25 and older also have an elevated nonparticipation rate of 49 percent. By institution type, private nonprofit institutions have an edge: 27 percent of their students have not participated in WIL versus 38 percent of public institution students. In a related finding, community college students were more likely than their four-year counterparts (public or private nonprofit) to signal nonparticipation, at 58 percent versus 30 percent.

2. Most students who’ve participated in work-integrated learning found it valuable.

Of the 750 students who have participated in WIL, three in four report that their experiences were highly valuable. Just 3 percent say their experiences had low or no value. This is relatively consistent across the sample, including among two-year students. It’s also somewhat consistent across experience types: Some 80 percent of students who’ve participated in an employer-sponsored project say it was highly valuable, as do 82 percent of internship alums and 77 percent of microinternship participants, for example.

3. Few students understand the full spectrum of WIL options.

From internships to co-ops to job shadowing, just 11 percent of students say they understand the differences among various WIL models to explain them very well to someone else. Most of remainder say they could explain them fairly or somewhat well, meaning that students tend to grasp some of the options in this space but could use help understanding them fully. Different forms of WIL offer different—and ideally overlapping—benefits.

4. Nearly all students want WIL—and those who’ve already experienced it want more.

Nearly eight in 10 students are somewhat (33 percent) or very (47 percent) interested in engaging in WIL. This is consistent across the sample, including among Hispanic students, who had the lowest participation rate in a previous question, suggesting that these students are not disproportionately missing out for lack of interest. And despite their own relatively low participation rate, 74 percent of community college students are interested in WIL—as are 70 percent of adult learners. In terms of repeat customers, 82 percent of students who’ve already participated in some form of WIL want to engage in more of it in the future.

5. Part-time jobs and internships are of greatest interest to students.

Paid work related to their major is the No. 1 model in which students express interest (52 percent of the sample). Internships, perhaps the most widely recognized model, are a very close No. 2, at 51 percent. No. 3 is job shadowing, at 33 percent. Apprenticeships are No. 4, at 25 percent of the sample. Fewer adult learners are interested in internships than in part-time work related to their studies.

6. Students are looking to learn technical skills related to their field and to network and build professional relationships.

Students view WIL as an opportunity to build practical expertise and professional connections and identity. Half say they are most interested in developing technical skills related to their field or industry, while 45 percent cite networking and relationship-building opportunities. Another 37 percent seek to build self-confidence and professional presence, and 36 percent seek stronger problem-solving and critical-thinking skills—which employers consistently rank as a top want.

7. In the age of generative AI, many students think hands-on experience is more important than ever.

Some 55 percent of students say this when asked how the rise of AI and automation is influencing their thinking about WIL. Thirty-nine percent are also concerned about job security in certain fields. About a third each are looking for roles that emphasize uniquely human skills and want to understand how AI is being used in their specific field. Just 8 percent say that AI has not influenced how they think about WIL.

8. Most students express at least some confidence that their institution can offer or help them find WIL opportunities to fit their career goals.

Some 27 percent are very confident in their colleges’ abilities here, while the majority, 52 percent, are somewhat confident. Just 4 percent of students don’t plan to seek this kind of help from their institution. This is relatively consistent across the sample, and while it’s a vote of confidence, it’s also an expectation.

While colleges are doing more to meet that expectation, opportunity gaps persist: Nationally, participation in paid internships increased to 37 percent of four-year students graduating in 2025, up from 26 percent of graduates from the classes of 2020 to 2023, according to Strada Education Foundation’s 2025 State Opportunity Index. Those gains are mitigated by Strada’s finding that 70 percent of first-year students intend to do an internship (researchers frame this as an intent-participation gap).

Like Inside Higher Ed’s survey, Strada has determined that students most value WIL’s ability to boost their technical skills and expand their professional networks. But internships confer particular benefits, with 73 percent of graduates who completed a paid internship landing a first job that actually requires their degree, compared to 44 percent of those who did not complete an internship. And, as in the Student Voice survey, Black and Hispanic students are disproportionately underrepresented in internship participation nationally.

Looking more broadly, Strada has found that 43 percent of graduating seniors at four-year institutions report having had at least one of five paid, work-based learning experiences: internship, co-op, practicum/clinical/student teaching, undergraduate research and apprenticeship. Among community college students, 17 percent enrolled in 2025 reported engaging in one or more of these.

Ultimately, participation in work-based learning is growing but uneven, and data tracking participation remains “spotty,” according to the opportunity index.

At Butler University’s Founders College—where every student completes at least one paid internship and takes career-development courses throughout the academic year—WIL is built into the curriculum, increasing access and compounding its benefits through layering. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, professor and founding dean of the college, said that the paid internship requirement “ensures students graduate with experiences ready for employment.”

“Parents gravitate to this outcome,” she continued. “Students welcome the exposure, and for leaders like me, having the one paid internship as the goal, we do a better job of proactively embedding learning, exposure and skills leading up to the goal.” In their first year, for instance, students meet with potential employers and participate in job shadowing. They also engage in project-based learning, work-based communication and networking skills development ahead of their internships.

How are employers themselves thinking about this rapidly evolving space? A recent study of human resources, learning and technical officers at global firms by the Learning Society at Stanford University found:

• AI technologies are “transforming demand for human capabilities, and reshaping work and workers as much as they are replacing tasks.”
• Because traditional talent pipelines are “not adapting quickly enough, workplaces themselves are becoming increasingly important—and innovative—sites of talent development.”
• Employers are growing “more skeptical of college degrees as proxies for capability and are developing more differentiated ways to understand people’s skills, adaptability and potential.”
• Continual investment in workers “across lengthening lifespans is becoming more common, reflecting a broader recognition that as lives lengthen, economic resilience matters more—for individuals and for the companies that depend on adaptive, capable workers.”

Gentle-Genitty said that, in the end, “we are responding to an ever-changing, reshaped society.” And no matter the mode of WIL, “we know it’s here to stay in an AI-enhanced world. But we must define the rules of play and the start and stops—or even the amount of playing time needed for our future workforce to be ready.”

Speaking for students trying to break through in a job market that feels at once highly competitive and full of new opportunities, Dave, the apprenticeship alum, said, “If they can do the job, give them a chance.”