Internship bottleneck: How to break the work experience Catch-22.

Internships remain one of the most valued forms of work experience, yet millions of students struggle to access them. In this University Business op-ed, Riipen Co-Founder and CEO Dana Stephenson and higher education advisor and author Elliot Felix argue that solving the internship bottleneck may require a different starting point. Rather than asking employers to commit immediately to traditional internships, institutions can create lower-barrier opportunities through project-based learning embedded into the curriculum. The piece explores how work-integrated, employer-connected projects can help students gain experience earlier while allowing organizations to see the return on engaging emerging talent.