STEM Workforce Development   STEM Learning and Learning Environments  

The Effect of Geographic Locale on Work-Related Experiential Learning Opportunities

Effective Years: 2020-2024

The project examines how students’ work-related experiential activities (WREAs) may be affected by their institution’s geographic proximity to major economic and workforce hubs. WREAs include internships, co-ops, practicums, job shadowing, and other similar opportunities that enable students to apply knowledge in an authentic setting and that lead to successful and productive employment. The research will fill a knowledge gap by empirically documenting the influence of locale on internships and similar professional development opportunities for students. The research is guided by proximity research, constructs implicit in critical human geography that can be examined through dimensions of socio-spatial relations, and the notion of opportunity structures, defined as the full range of opportunities available to students that organize their education and future trajectories. The study will offer thoughtful insight into the employability discourse and demonstrate the importance of the contextual nuance of geographic locale. The study is expected to produce information about the impact of geographic locale on professional development opportunities for students and help strengthen the STEM pipeline from education to the workforce, particularly for students who may be less connected to major workforce hubs.

Guided by proximity research, the researchers will employ a mixed methods design to answer the following research questions: (1) How and to what extent does geographic locale affect STEM students’ access to work-related experimental activities? (2) Do students, university career officials, and/or new employees perceive access to or benefit from WREAs differently based on their institution’s geographic locale? (3) Are there other facets of structural opportunities that intersect with locale that further affect students’ access to or perceptions of WREAs? (4) Does WREA participation affect time to degree and/or time between degree completion and job offer? (5) For recent graduates, who have not secured employment, does their locale contribute to the reason for unemployment, and was their participation in WREAs different from that of peers who have acquired employment? And (6) Do employees who participate in WREAs receive higher salary offers than peers who do not participate in WREAs? Survey data will be collected in multiple phases from enrolled students, employers, and recently hired alumni employees who recruit from five public universities in Georgia, and geospatial analyses will visually situate students in the study, institutions, and WREA locations. Geospatial analyses will consider factors such as physical and functional distances to workplaces and overall amenities. Analysis of qualitative data will provide nuanced information about specific WREA activities as perceived by employers and recently hired employees, while quantitative analysis will provide students’ attitudes and behaviors that show connections between WREA activities and student success. The study will provide a better understanding of the experiential activities that best position students for employment. The findings can inform effective matching between students and subsequent employment and enable employers to quantify their return on investment.

The project is funded by the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Core Research (ECR)program that supports fundamental research that focuses on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM professional workforce development.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.