An ongoing internship program can be a key talent acquisition tool. You can meet the brightest potential future employees. Managers can improve training skills as they mentor the interns. Plus, you can be an educational resource for college students in your community.
How Do You Create An Internship Program?
An internship should structured. A good program identifies specific educational goals. The term of employment usually lasts three months. It may be part-time or full-time. You often hear the term ‘summer intern,’ but don’t limit your program to the summer months. Not all students have a traditional college schedule. It may work best for your company to have a program during the spring or fall.
An intern should be carefully supervised and mentored. An internship should teach practical skills. Plus, it should help the students develop soft skills and a good work ethic.
Determine which departments would benefit the most (for both your organization and the interns). What teams will they join? What is the schedule for their assignments?
Choose current projects. Let them own some of the sub-tasks. Don’t make the interns do menial work. A few minutes doing filing here and there is okay. But make sure that more than 80 percent of the intern’s time is performing the actual job role. An intern isn’t a temp or volunteer.
Choose Intern Supervisors Carefully
Choose a supervisor(s) for the interns. And work hand-in-hand with them to design the curriculum and timeline. It’s also a good idea to have additional people judge the interns’ performance.
Unpaid Internships
Unpaid internships have firm compliance requirements. Pay your interns to be safe. Besides, unpaid internships don’t appeal to many applicants.
Identify Colleges and Register
Research the colleges and universities in your community. Contact them for the application requirements. They also have valuable resources to help you compose your program.
Job Descriptions
Just like traditional job advertisements, you need a punchy, yet extensive description. First, list the number of months and weekly schedule. Be specific and thorough.
Advertise Your Intern Positions
The college will have platforms for advertising the position. Use your favorite job boards and careers website too.
CBIZ Time Solutions Products For Internship Programs
ApplicantStack Recruit and Onboard can help you develop and manage a winning internship program.
- Create job descriptions for intern positions
- Automate job applicant scoring for interns
- Let intern applicants self-schedule interviews
- Track intern applicants in a central location
- Share review notes with your intern hiring team
- Post to multiple job boards with a single sign-on
- Create a structured intern onboarding
To compete for promising interns, design a modern, mobile-friendly intern application process. Manual processes make your business look like a dinosaur stuck in the past. College students were born in the digital age.
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