Preparing UK PhD students towards employability: a social science internship programme to enhance workplace skills

Abstract

Employability is rapidly becoming a primary aim of PhD programmes. Internships have been shown to maximise students’ chances of employment; however, there is limited evidence for how relevant this approach is to social science PhD students. This article reports on a mixed methods study, designed to utilise secondary and primary programme evaluation data collected through student (n = 18) and partner (n = 15) questionnaires, student (n = 30) case study reports and interviews with partners (n = 7) in the first five years of an internship programme running at a UK Russell Group university. The study found that the social science PhD internship programme surpassed the high expectations of both PhD students and partners. The key implication of the study is that the programme boosted student employability, demonstrating to students and employers that traditional PhD social science study provides transferable workplace skills and internships enhance these skills and illuminate a wide range of non-academic employment pathways. The study provided the evidence needed to engage future students and partners in the programme, and to improve the framework for programme evaluation. An expansion of the programme is recommended, alongside ongoing monitoring and alignment of non-academic partner, university and student needs.