Internships and social capital are associated with perceived employability

Updated Sep 07, 2026

Sarah Vines and Matthias S. Gobel examine links between social background, work experience and students' perceived employability. The distinction between feeling employable and obtaining a particular job matters throughout this study.

What the survey found

The analysis included 152 UK university students, after six attention-check exclusions from 158 responses. It used self-reports of social background, social capital and perceived employability.

Higher socioeconomic background was associated with stronger perceived employability. Internship or work-placement experience was also positively associated with it. The authors' mediation analyses identified social capital as an explanatory pathway, including when social background was taken into account.

These relationships are consistent with an interpretation involving access to networks. They do not establish that internships caused an increase, rule out selection effects or demonstrate later employment or salary gains.

This review uses the publisher's abstract and selected methods and discussion passages. The complete paper was not read, and the sample should not be treated as a representative UK benchmark.

Questions for careers teams

Our suggestion is to examine access to opportunities alongside students' accounts of readiness for work. Who applies, who participates and what do those who decline say about the options available?

Offer room for students to describe barriers without assuming that low confidence means low capability. Practical concerns such as timing or cost can be explored locally, but should not be attributed to this paper without evidence.

Keep perceived employability, opportunity participation and actual outcomes distinct in reporting. Before-and-after responses may be informative, but changes alone do not isolate an intervention's effect. The student comment analysis governance checklist can help define how comments inform follow-up.

FAQ

Does this prove internships improve employment outcomes?

No. The outcome studied is perceived employability, and the relationships are observational.

Can a confidence score diagnose why a student needs support?

No. Ask about their circumstances and preferences; neither a score nor a comment theme determines the cause.

Reference

Vines, S., & Gobel, M. S. (2025). Levelling the playing field? How social class and internships influence perceived employability amongst UK university students. Studies in Higher Education. Paper source.

Correction, 7 September 2026: Replaced causal claims with associations, added the analysed sample and separated perceived employability from observed graduate outcomes.