A study examined employer involvement in the school-to-work (STW) internship strategy by comparing characteristics of participating employers to a sample of nonparticipants. The five STW programs chosen for study were ones in which students spent a significant amount of time in work-based learning outside the classroom. A telephone survey gathered responses from 334 participating employers and 323 nonparticipants. Findings indicated that almost 25 percent of employers already provided internships. The most important motivation for participation remained philanthropic, although a strong minority of firms reported that bottom-line oriented reasons were the most important motivations. Students' work-based learning experiences were for the most part not in the traditional youth employing sectors. Nearly one-half were in administrative support positions. Interns were also overrepresented in technical occupations. Firms tended to provide higher quality placements when they expected the interns to stay at the firm. Data suggested higher quality for internships in not-for-profit and government organizations than in private, for-profit firms, but the internships in the for-profits provided somewhat more opportunity to learn. Implications for future research and program development were as follows: need for a more comprehensive analysis of costs and benefits of participation and need for better measures of quality. (Appendixes contain 22 references and additional data.) (YLB)