Undergraduate internships have gained popularity among students, universities, governments and firms since the creation of the European Higher Education Area. However, empirical research on the relationship between internships and labour market performance of graduates is still scarce, particularly in Spain. This paper examines whether internships improve job attainment in the short run (first employment after graduation) and in the medium/long term (employment 4 years later). We use the first Spanish University Graduate Job Placement Survey (2014) to estimate linear probability models and probit models. A novel econometric technique is also implemented to evaluate the sensitivity of our findings to omitted variable bias. We disentangle the internship effect on (i) the time it takes to find the first job; (ii) the vertical, horizontal and skills matching with the first job; (iii) being employed in the medium/long term; (iv) the vertical and horizontal matching with the current employment; and (v) wage quintiles of the current job. Our results show that internship experience facilitates the university-to-work transition for Spanish graduates. Although the effects of internships on being employed do not vanish in the medium/long term, there is weak evidence of positive effects on matching four years after graduation and no effects are found on wages.

自欧洲高等教育区创建以来，本科生实习在学生，大学，政府和公司中越来越受欢迎。但是，关于实习与毕业生的劳动力市场表现之间关系的实证研究仍然很少，特别是在西班牙。本文研究了实习是否在短期内（毕业后的第一份工作）和中长期（在4年后的工作）方面提高了工作成就。我们使用首个西班牙大学毕业生就业安置调查（2014年）来估计线性概率模型和概率模型。还采用了一种新颖的计量经济学技术来评估我们的发现对遗漏变量偏差的敏感性。我们对（i）找到第一份工作所花费的时间没有影响实习的效果；（ii）垂直，水平和技能与第一份工作相匹配；（iii）受雇于中长期；（iv）与目前工作的纵向和横向匹配；（v）当前工作的工资五分之一。我们的结果表明，实习经验促进了西班牙毕业生从大学到工作的过渡。尽管从中期/长期来看，实习对就业的影响并没有消失，但证据表明，毕业后四年对就业的积极影响很小，而且对工资没有影响。