The role of mentorship in the retention of graduate interns

Abstract

The objective of the research was to determine whether mentorship, as part of a graduate internship programme, contributed to the retention of graduate interns in a South African Information Communication and Technology (ICT) company. A Mentorship role survey and Retention survey were administered among a purposive selected sample of graduate interns (N=79) and mentors (N=39). Results showed that mentorship was statistically significantly related to the graduate intern’s intention to quit the graduate internship programme. Results further showed a practically significant relationship between the opportunity to apply mentorship skills and the mentor’s intention to employ the graduate intern upon completion of the programme.