Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships

Kristina Rigden

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14

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Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships

Kristina Rigden

Published in International Journal of Education, Culture and Society (Volume 4, Issue 1)

Received: 2 May 2019 Accepted: 5 June 2019 Published: 19 June 2019

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Abstract

Internships are important for secondary students so they may develop academic, social, and decision-making skills that will be applicable in the real world. Secondary students acquire internships in the summer with organizations or universities, but the learning outcomes are unclear. This qualitative study determined if secondary student interns develop academic and social growth through a two-week summer engineering internship. This internship required secondary students to work as classroom assistants with teachers learning engineering curricula to teach to K-12 students. The secondary students assisted in the classroom with CAD drawing, programming and constructing robotics and animatronics. The objective of the student intern program was to give these interns an authentic experience on a college campus with the necessary tools and skills, so that these students will choose to attend university and major in an engineering field. Within the internship, daily one-hour workshops took place with a focus on developing soft skills. The workshops ranged from intern roles, professional communication, interview process and skills, how to write a resume, how to apply for college, financial aid and scholarships, and college experience. The results from this study show students do develop soft skills, such as communication and public speaking, new knowledge gained, and confidence through the internship learning environment.

Published in	International Journal of Education, Culture and Society (Volume 4, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14
Page(s)	28-35
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Soft Skills, Secondary Students, Internships

References

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Kristina Rigden. (2019). Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 4(1), 28-35. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14

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ACS Style

Kristina Rigden. Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2019, 4(1), 28-35. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14

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AMA Style

Kristina Rigden. Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2019;4(1):28-35. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14

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@article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14,
  author = {Kristina Rigden},
  title = {Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships},
  journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
  volume = {4},
  number = {1},
  pages = {28-35},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20190401.14},
  abstract = {Internships are important for secondary students so they may develop academic, social, and decision-making skills that will be applicable in the real world. Secondary students acquire internships in the summer with organizations or universities, but the learning outcomes are unclear. This qualitative study determined if secondary student interns develop academic and social growth through a two-week summer engineering internship. This internship required secondary students to work as classroom assistants with teachers learning engineering curricula to teach to K-12 students. The secondary students assisted in the classroom with CAD drawing, programming and constructing robotics and animatronics. The objective of the student intern program was to give these interns an authentic experience on a college campus with the necessary tools and skills, so that these students will choose to attend university and major in an engineering field. Within the internship, daily one-hour workshops took place with a focus on developing soft skills. The workshops ranged from intern roles, professional communication, interview process and skills, how to write a resume, how to apply for college, financial aid and scholarships, and college experience. The results from this study show students do develop soft skills, such as communication and public speaking, new knowledge gained, and confidence through the internship learning environment.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships
AU  - Kristina Rigden
Y1  - 2019/06/19
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14
T2  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JF  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JO  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
SP  - 28
EP  - 35
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-3363
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14
AB  - Internships are important for secondary students so they may develop academic, social, and decision-making skills that will be applicable in the real world. Secondary students acquire internships in the summer with organizations or universities, but the learning outcomes are unclear. This qualitative study determined if secondary student interns develop academic and social growth through a two-week summer engineering internship. This internship required secondary students to work as classroom assistants with teachers learning engineering curricula to teach to K-12 students. The secondary students assisted in the classroom with CAD drawing, programming and constructing robotics and animatronics. The objective of the student intern program was to give these interns an authentic experience on a college campus with the necessary tools and skills, so that these students will choose to attend university and major in an engineering field. Within the internship, daily one-hour workshops took place with a focus on developing soft skills. The workshops ranged from intern roles, professional communication, interview process and skills, how to write a resume, how to apply for college, financial aid and scholarships, and college experience. The results from this study show students do develop soft skills, such as communication and public speaking, new knowledge gained, and confidence through the internship learning environment.
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Kristina Rigden

Director of Outreach Programs and Women in Engineering, College of Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, USA

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APA Style

Kristina Rigden. (2019). Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 4(1), 28-35. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14

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ACS Style

Kristina Rigden. Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2019, 4(1), 28-35. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14

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AMA Style

Kristina Rigden. Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2019;4(1):28-35. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14,
  author = {Kristina Rigden},
  title = {Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships},
  journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
  volume = {4},
  number = {1},
  pages = {28-35},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20190401.14},
  abstract = {Internships are important for secondary students so they may develop academic, social, and decision-making skills that will be applicable in the real world. Secondary students acquire internships in the summer with organizations or universities, but the learning outcomes are unclear. This qualitative study determined if secondary student interns develop academic and social growth through a two-week summer engineering internship. This internship required secondary students to work as classroom assistants with teachers learning engineering curricula to teach to K-12 students. The secondary students assisted in the classroom with CAD drawing, programming and constructing robotics and animatronics. The objective of the student intern program was to give these interns an authentic experience on a college campus with the necessary tools and skills, so that these students will choose to attend university and major in an engineering field. Within the internship, daily one-hour workshops took place with a focus on developing soft skills. The workshops ranged from intern roles, professional communication, interview process and skills, how to write a resume, how to apply for college, financial aid and scholarships, and college experience. The results from this study show students do develop soft skills, such as communication and public speaking, new knowledge gained, and confidence through the internship learning environment.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Teaching Soft Skills to Secondary Students Through Internships
AU  - Kristina Rigden
Y1  - 2019/06/19
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14
T2  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JF  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JO  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
SP  - 28
EP  - 35
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-3363
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.14
AB  - Internships are important for secondary students so they may develop academic, social, and decision-making skills that will be applicable in the real world. Secondary students acquire internships in the summer with organizations or universities, but the learning outcomes are unclear. This qualitative study determined if secondary student interns develop academic and social growth through a two-week summer engineering internship. This internship required secondary students to work as classroom assistants with teachers learning engineering curricula to teach to K-12 students. The secondary students assisted in the classroom with CAD drawing, programming and constructing robotics and animatronics. The objective of the student intern program was to give these interns an authentic experience on a college campus with the necessary tools and skills, so that these students will choose to attend university and major in an engineering field. Within the internship, daily one-hour workshops took place with a focus on developing soft skills. The workshops ranged from intern roles, professional communication, interview process and skills, how to write a resume, how to apply for college, financial aid and scholarships, and college experience. The results from this study show students do develop soft skills, such as communication and public speaking, new knowledge gained, and confidence through the internship learning environment.
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download