International internships and employability: a game-based assessment approach

ABSTRACT

This study measures employability following domestic and international internships using a game based analytics tool to predict behaviors associated with employability skills. Exploratory Factor Analysis examined the underlying relationship between 33 behavioral descriptors, which measure skills such as diligence, leadership, learning agility, social intelligence, and logical reasoning. A two-factor structure emerged: a Social factor that centered on how people relate to each other and engage with the world, and a Cognitive factor indicating how new information is learned and the motivation to learn. Participation in an international internship predicted the Cognitive but not the Social factor. To our knowledge, this is the first study using a game-based tool to measure employability through international internships, and the first to demonstrate cognitive and not simply social/interpersonal skills associated with international internship participation. These cognitive skills are aligned with the highest cognitive domain in Bloom’s [(1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Cognitive Domain. Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain. New York: Longmans, Green.] taxonomy of educational learning objectives, and are exactly what some employers value the most [Accenture. (2017). New Skills Now: Inclusion in the digital economy. Retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/t20171009T054838Z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-62/Accenture-New-Skills-Now-Report.pdf].

KEYWORDS:

• Employability
• internships
• international experience
• game-based analytics
• behaviors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 By request, information regarding the company is confidential, but the authors acknowledge, with gratitude, their willingness to share data for research purposes.