Retail Internships: An Experiential Learning Challenge

Abstract

Experiential learning has become an important component of the instructional process in many disciplines. The presence of this teaching technique offers significant opportunities and challenges for marketing educators. To adopt the experiential learning technique, one has to recognize that the underlying infrastructure of knowledge, skill, and self-evaluation is facilitated by an integrated process. One realm of experiential learning, internship, will be examined in this article. Through modeling and a written instructional component that merges theory and practice, an integrated internship process is presented. The structurally controlled internship program was designed for the retail environment and incorporates the Mazur Plan as a theoretical base. This structured, theory-driven internship format focuses triad members (university coordinator, employment supervisor, and intern) on the intern’s knowledge and skill development as well as personal growth. Models coupled with a written component enable the critical aspect of matching individual and experience to create a mutually beneficial experience-based learning environment for the internship triad members.