Abstract
The sport industry, which has evolved into a multi-billion rand industry, offers an increased number of complex and varied job opportunities. University Sport Management graduates are thus likely to face greater job demands in a highly competitive work environment. Rotations in Sport Management internships have been identified as an approach to prepare students for the job market. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the perceptions of Sport Management interns of rotations in internship. A qualitative case study research approach was used in the study. Eight semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with Sport Management interns who completed their internship. The results of the study indicated that the positive experiences associated with the internship outweighed the negative experiences. Participants reported many benefits of rotations in internship. Among these were their experiences of different aspects of a sport organisation, exposure to different leadership styles, opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge in the workplace, social issues in the workplace and development of different competencies. The findings also identified areas in which the internship experience could be strengthened. Given the great satisfaction experienced by interns, rotations in interns appear to be an ideal replacement to the traditional implementation of internship.