Recap
Solving The Internship Supply Shortage
Students need experience to get hired. But as employers increasingly expect relevant work experience from entry-level candidates, too many students are still graduating without access to meaningful opportunities to gain it.
In our recent webinar, Solving the Internship Supply Shortage, Alchemy’s CEO Matt Gurney sat down with Ryan Craig of Achieve Partners, an expert at the intersection of education, workforce innovation, and work-integrated learning, to discuss what’s behind the internship shortage and what it will take to expand access.
The conversation looked at a changing entry-level labor market, the operational barriers limiting internship supply, and why institutions, employers, and intermediaries all have a role to play in building more scalable work-integrated learning opportunities.
Here are a few of the biggest takeaways.
1. The first rung of the career ladder is changing
For years, the first job after college was where many graduates gained the experience, professional judgment, and industry knowledge they needed to build their careers.
AI is beginning to change that model.
As Ryan explained, many of the routine tasks that traditionally gave new graduates a place to start are increasingly being automated. At the same time, employers are asking entry-level employees to contribute to higher-value work earlier in their careers.
The catch? That work often requires experience.
That makes relevant work experience before graduation increasingly important. Internships and other forms of work-integrated learning are no longer simply a résumé booster. They can provide students with an opportunity to apply their skills, develop professional judgment, and demonstrate what they can do before entering the full-time job market.
2. The internship shortage is largely a capacity problem
The demand for internships is clear. The harder question is why the supply of quality opportunities hasn’t kept pace.
One theme surfaced throughout the webinar: capacity.
Employers may want to host interns, but developing a meaningful internship takes time. Someone has to determine what the intern will work on, recruit and onboard them, supervise their experience, manage payroll and compliance, and ensure the internship creates value for everyone involved.
Institutions face capacity challenges of their own. Building employer relationships, identifying opportunities, supporting students, and ensuring internship quality can require significant staff time and resources.
As attendees shared at the beginning of the webinar, challenges range from staffing and cost to geographic reach, time restrictions, and employer engagement.
Increasing internship supply, then, isn’t simply about convincing more employers that internships are valuable. It’s about making them easier to offer and easier for institutions to support at scale.
3. Quality matters just as much as quantity
Creating more internships is only part of the equation.
A meaningful internship should give students real experience with a real employer and an opportunity to contribute to work that matters. It should help students build skills, confidence, and evidence they can carry into their next opportunity.
For employers, that means internships shouldn’t be viewed simply as an added responsibility. A well-designed internship can create real value for the organization while helping develop future talent.
For institutions, scaling internship access also means finding ways to maintain quality as the number of opportunities grows.
The goal isn’t simply more internships. It’s more meaningful, high-quality work experiences that create value for students and employers alike.
4. Scaling work-integrated learning will require new infrastructure
One of the central ideas Ryan shared was the role intermediaries can play in expanding work-based learning.
He pointed to apprenticeship systems in other countries, where intermediaries take on much of the operational work required to build and manage opportunities between employers and learners. A similar model could help address the internship shortage.
Rather than expecting every employer and institution to build the infrastructure themselves, intermediaries can help reduce the administrative and operational lift, connect students with employers, and support quality at scale.
That’s also the idea behind Alchemy Works, Alchemy’s approach to helping institutions expand access to quality internships while reducing the operational burden on employers.
By supporting internship planning and execution, recruiting and matching, employer operations, and quality insights, the goal is to make it easier for employers to say yes to internships and easier for institutions to connect more students with meaningful work experience.
The Opportunity Ahead
Ryan closed the conversation by calling work-based learning one of the most important challenges facing colleges and universities over the next five years.
As the transition from education to employment changes, institutions have an opportunity to rethink how work experience fits into the student journey.
Solving the internship supply shortage won’t happen by asking institutions to simply work harder at finding placements or asking employers to create more opportunities. It will require new models that reduce friction, expand capacity, and make quality work-integrated learning easier to deliver at scale.
And that’s a conversation we’re just getting started on. If you’re interested in exploring further, you can watch the full webinar recording on Alchemy’s YouTube channel.
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