An HRTools survey of college students and recent graduates discovered that students would feel a lot more prepared for the workplace if they were able to find more internship opportunities while they were in school.
“I want a job that will get my foot in the door,” says a 23-year-old senior majoring in Communication Arts. “Most jobs want two or more years of experience, but it’s hard to get experience if no one is willing to give you an opportunity.”
In today’s job market, it’s usually experience that gets you in the door, not your college diploma. But how are college students preparing for the real world supposed to gain the experience necessary to get a job right out of school?
Internships, and lots of them.
Companies interested in hiring more Generation Y employees should evaluate their internship program to make sure it’s effective, or if your company still doesn’t have an internship program, you need to create one pronto!
If you’re evaluating your program:
- Take a look at current and past interns—how many have you had? Were they the right interns for the job? If they were, maintain your recruiting efforts, if they weren’t, it’s time to rethink your recruiting methods. There are lots of ways you can recruit interns—finding colleges with majors relating to your industry and advertising internships with your company all over campus, creating a Myspace or Facebook page for internship opportunities at your company. Check out one of my previous Insights for more recruiting ideas.
- Take a look at the curriculum for the internship—does it teach the interns anything above and beyond or do they just learn job skills? Do you even have an internship curriculum? Although on-the-job training is a great way for interns to get experience, it’s also a good idea to teach them about your company and the industry overall. This will help them see if their chosen field is actually the right one for them.
If your company needs to create an internship program:
- Starting from scratch—if you’re getting ready to develop an internship program, the first thing you’ll want to do is to set goals. What do you hope to achieve from the program? Do you want interns you can hire at the end of the internship? Are you looking for help on a specific project or do you just want an intern to provide general support around your workplace? Thinking about what you want to get from creating an internship program will get the ball rolling.
- Creating a plan—now that you have some idea of what you’re looking for from your internship program, you can now develop a plan for bringing an intern onboard. The first thing you’ll need to do is write up a job description that clearly explains the intern’s job duties. Doing this ahead of time will help you make sure you’re meeting your goals for the program and make sure the intern will get something from the experience.
So you may be asking yourself, why should I create an internship program? What’s in it for me? Having an internship program will benefit you in the following ways:
- It’s a great recruiting tool, and you’re able to evaluate their employee potential before you hire them
- Students are good candidates for temporary assignments and short-term projects
- You’ll have a source for highly motivated pre-professionals that you can later hire if you have an open position
- Increase the visibility of your company with college campuses and in your local community
- Students bring new ideas to the table
- Free up your full-time employees to concentrate on other projects
- You’ll have a flexible, cost-effective worker not requiring a long term commitment
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