U.S. employer response to COVID-19: Actions taken and future expectations of virtual work-integrated learning

The sudden termination of nearly 40% of U.S. WIL experiences during the summer of 2020 caused employers to quickly adapt to virtual WIL experiences. What employers learned from these adjustments to their traditional WIL practices and perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of virtual experiences form the basis of this paper. Over 350 employers provided comments to a special set of questions pertaining to virtual WIL experiences in their organizations. A strong virtual experience required constant communicate, set schedules, structured workflow, and prepared supervisors to handle remote student employees. The advantages included more innovative practices, safe experiences, and cost savings for both students and the organization. Virtual experiences present challenges, including organizational enculturation, loss of serendipitous connections, and inability to provide hands-on learning opportunities. For virtual experiences to play a more prominent role, issues around tacit knowledge acquisition, trust building, serendipity, and mentoring need to be addressed.