Perfecting Partnerships: Employers' Impact through Situated Learning during Computing Internships
Conference
Arunachalam, N, Lunn, SJ, Weiss, M et al. (2026). Perfecting Partnerships: Employers' Impact through Situated Learning during Computing Internships
. 716-722. 10.1145/3803400.3809363
Arunachalam, N, Lunn, SJ, Weiss, M et al. (2026). Perfecting Partnerships: Employers' Impact through Situated Learning during Computing Internships
. 716-722. 10.1145/3803400.3809363
Partnerships between academic institutions and industry for internships can benefit both parties. Experiential learning may help students prepare for their futures, while employers can help identify potential talent for jobs. Although the student perspective has been well explored, scholarship around employers remains limited. In this experience report, we describe a micro-internship program for (n=95) computing students that combined 7 weeks of university-led upskilling workshops with three weeks of practical experience with (n=18) employers to complete challenge projects in small groups. We elaborate further on the preparation and implementation required, as well as detail our qualitative evaluation of the program from the employer perspective. Situated learning theory (SLT) guided the investigation, which involved gathering feedback from employers through semi-structured interviews. Applying reflexive thematic analysis to employer interviews, we inductively examined: (1) how industry mentors integrated students into professional computing communities of practice (COP), (2) the mechanisms they employed to facilitate students' legitimate peripheral participation, (3) their observations of growth in students' technical and professional skills and identity formation, and (4) reciprocal learning that occurred during the internship period. Six resulting themes were then deductively mapped to SLT sub-constructs to further understand employers' impact during computing internships. Employers facilitated authentic problem solving and real-world learning experiences for students while gaining new perspectives and insights regarding new technology and problem-solving approaches in the process.
