Students Reveal Obstacles Preventing Them From Taking Internships

January 27, 2025 | By Kevin Gray

Internships
Someone looks are barriers along a pathway to a door.

TAGS: Internships, nace insights, student attitudes, surveys, talent acquisition,

When students responding to NACE’s 2024 Student Survey were asked to identify the obstacles preventing them from participating in internships, their responses revealed they attributed their decision to a lack of time, concerns over pay, and scant opportunities.

More than 43% indicated that their course load was too high to put the necessary time into searching for internships, while 38.9% said they had to stay at their current job.

Other pay-related reasons students cited for not participating in internships included that they weren’t selected for a paid internship (26.4%), the opportunity was unpaid (24.3%), or that the internship had insufficient pay (14.6%).

NACE’s 2024 Student Survey, sponsored by Indeed, was conducted March 13 through May 15, 2024; a total of 20,482 college students took part, including 2,281 graduating seniors earning bachelor’s degrees. Participants can access the report and dashboard through MyNACE. The report and dashboard are also available in the NACE Store.

blank default headshot of a user Kevin Gray is an associate editor at NACE. He can be reached at kgray@naceweb.org.

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