Human Services Remote Internships: What We Have Learned and Where We Are Headed

Abstract

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted human services education programs to rapidly rethink the structure of their fieldwork offerings. Mandated social restrictions led to the creation of alternative options to in-person internships. Some of these options included assignment-based tasks, online workshops and trainings, work-based experiences, limited in-person contact at fieldwork sites, and remote internships. For many programs, remote internships were a novel idea that needed to be quickly developed and implemented. The rise of telehealth services and the unknowns of a post-COVID world leave open the possibility of an increase in remote human services internships for the future. This qualitative study takes a first look at what the field of human services has learned about remote internships, including strengths, challenges, and recommendations, and discusses the role that remote internships might play in the future of human services education.