How do internships undertaken during higher education affect graduates' labour market outcomes in Italy and the United Kingdom?

In the past two decades, education-to-work transitions for young people have become more turbulent and uncertain. The role of work experience and, more specifically, internships during higher education (HE) in facilitating access to work and enhancing labour-market outcomes has been debated in academic and policy literature.2 For HE students, internships are widely considered a way of accessing work experience and on-the-job training, and are assumed to enhance their labour-market outcomes, in particular at the early career stage.