American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: April 2007

Establishing Cooperative Competency-based Internships for Parks and Recreation Students
Amy R. Hurd & Barbara E. Schlatter

Abstract:
Since internships are generally the culminating undergraduate experience, it is often assumed that students will be fully prepared to enter the workforce upon completion of the internship. However, senior interns are often uncertain about their professional strengths and weaknesses and about the expectations of agency professionals in terms of entry-level employee competencies. A cooperative, competency-based, internship experience can help student interns learn what the entry-level job expectations are, and competency data can enlighten students and agency supervisors on weak areas where additional experience is needed. This article also describes how the Recreation Management Competency Assessment can serve as a benchmark for competency development.

Article category: Recreation