Attitudes of Retailers and College Educators Toward Fashion Retail Internships

This study examined the attitudes of retailers and college educators toward fashion retail internships to provide information useful in the development of meaningful and realistic retail internships. The attitudes were related to characteristics influencing retailer participation in internship programs, intern selection criteria used by retailers, prerequisite coursework to internships, and activities to which interns should be exposed. Groups compared in the study were (a) retailers and educators, (b) different types of stores (department, specialty, and discount), (c) chain and non-chain stores, and (d) main and branch stores. The results showed some significant differences in all the comparison groups. The major differences were related to the amount of exposure to buyer-related activities interns should receive versus manager and salesperson-related activities. Educators (compared to retailers), non-chain stores (compared to chain stores), and main (compared to branch) department stores indicated that interns should receive more exposure to buyer related activities.