1. Building Self-Efficacy:
The Role of Experiential Education in Developing Student Competencies
For the 21s t
Century Workplace
Joanne Rath Darbee
University of Arizona

2. Abstract
This review of the literature from 1983 to 2009 examines post-secondary cooperative education and
internship programs and their role in preparing students for transitioning to the 21st
century workforce.
Discussed are the characteristics and history of career-related experiential learning programs, and a
summary is provided of findings on program outcomes and proposed underlying theories. Emphasis is on
student outcomes related to Bandura’s social cognitive theory and the construct of self-efficacy,and to
Parker’s (1998) expansion of this to the concept of role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) which addresses the
competencies graduating students will need for career success. Critical issues and recommendations for
program design are reviewed, and questions are raised for future study about how these programs can
better foster RBSE skills in college students.

3. Se lf-Efficacy, Expe rie ntial Education, and the 21 s t
Ce ntury Workplace :
A Re vie w of the Lite rature
This purpose of this paper is to present information that was gathered from a review of the
literature published over the last four decades on the topic of how post-secondary institutions prepare
their students for life beyond the university, specifically in terms of their graduates’ abilities to transition
to the workplace. There is currently some debate about the primary purpose of a college education, and
whether the college’s mission should be focused exclusively on fostering students’ scholastic
achievements, or whether this mission should instead promote career preparation for the world-of-work
that students will face upon graduation. This paper will concentrate on the latter and will focus on how
prepared our graduates are for the type of workplace they will face in the 21st
century. It will look at what
the nature of that workplace will be and what factors will influence it. Most importantly, it will present
an overview of the types of skills and competencies that experts believe will be demanded of tomorrow’s
workers.
This investigation of the literature also will address the work-related skills our graduates possess
or lack when exiting the university. The transition process from school to work will be discussed in terms
of whether there are more effective tools our schools can utilize to assist students in this process. One
transition tool or intervention that will be explored is career-related experiential education (also called
experiential learning), and particularly, cooperative education (co-op) and internship programs.
Information gathered from the literature pertaining to the characteristics of these programs, along with
related student performance outcomes, will be presented. Included in the discussion will be findings on
the typical methods used over the years to assess these outcomes.
Furthermore, the outcomes of co-op and internship programs will be explored in terms of their
connections to the underlying theories that have been proposed so far. Highlighted will be the concept of
self-efficacy,as has been advanced by Albert Bandura (1977; 2006). In addition, the extrinsic and
intrinsic outcomes of students who have participated in co-op and internship experiences will be

4. compared to those of students who have not participated in such experiences. Moreover, an expanded
theory of self-efficacy called role-based self-efficacy,or RBSE,as proposed by Parker (1998, 2000), will
be introduced. Parker’s RBSE theory will be discussed in terms of its characteristics,its functions, and its
application to the needs of the 21st
century workforce. Additionally, possible connections between RBSE
theory and cooperative education and internship program outcomes will be explored. The central
question will focus on the following: Do experiential education programs such as co-ops and internships
assist students in the development of RBSE and 21st
century workforce skills? Finally, a discussion of
experiential education program practices and related problems and issues will attempt to offer
recommendations as to how experiential programs should be designed. In closing, this paper will outline
areas for further research and specific issues that must be addressed and resolved.
The information sources utilized for this literature review were comprised mainly of scholarly
journal articles found in computerized university databases,and the primary database used was Psych
Info. In addition, the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) membership site houses
a repository of articles from the Journal of Cooperative Education,and this site was accessed as well. An
overview of the features,practices,and developmental history of cooperative education and internship
programs (the most common types of career-related experiential learning programs), has been included in
this report. Locating information in these three areas was relatively easy,as there were a number of
articles addressing such topics. Additionally, there was ample information about general student
outcomes resulting from cooperative education and internship programs. More difficult to locate,
however, was information about field experience outcomes that were related specifically to student self-
efficacy development,which was one of the main goals of this paper. This, though, was a subject that
appears to be under-studied to date,and not an abundance of information was found.
However,one of the main discoveries resulting from a review of the literature, and one that builds
on the concept of self-efficacy and is quite relevant to the discussion of preparing college students for the
modern workplace, was the work of Parker (1998, 2000; Parker et al., 2006). Discovering Parker’s work
during the research process changed the scope of the original paper. Parker expands upon Bandura’s

5. (1997) original self-efficacy construct and proposes a new concept called role breadth self-efficacy
(RBSE), which specifically links achieving career success in the 21st
century to a worker’s development
of self-efficacy skills. The discovery of Parker’s RBSE concept then led to a further examination of the
trends and work competency needs that some experts project for tomorrow’s workplace. As a result of
expanding the original focus of this paper to include Parker’s RBSE concept , this review not only
provides an overview of the characteristics, history, and general outcomes of career-related experiential
learning programs, but it also discusses a very relevant issue for today’s college graduates. That issue
concerns the importance of building work-related self-efficacy skills, and the role that experiential
learning programs may play in this. Additionally, it is vital for educators to understand why these
competencies are crucial to our graduates as they enter the workforce of the 21st
century.