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Developing an Internship Program Overview

Internships can occur during the fall, spring, and/or summer semesters. They can range from a couple months to over six months in duration, although the average internship lasts about a semester. While some internships are full-time, others range from 10 and 30 hours per week. Internships can be paid, unpaid, for credit, not for credit, or any combination of these. Details about the number of hours worked, length of internship, rate of pay, and other specifics are usually negotiated between employers and potential interns with the guidance of a faculty adviser. Normally, an intern does not receive employee benefits or retirement benefits.

Benefits of an Internship

Employers who utilize internships are provided the opportunity to temporarily increase staff size and accomplish short-term projects at minimal costs. Interns bring a current knowledge base from their academic coursework and new perspectives to the work environment. Often, employers experience increased company awareness and an enhanced reputation on campus through word of mouth initiated by satisfied interns and through direct relationships with the faculty internship coordinators. In addition, a positive internship experience can lead to a potential new full-time hire that requires minimal training, is able to take on more immediate responsibility, and stays longer with the organization.

Developing an Internship

Internships are developed to assist employers in meeting their particular organizational needs while at the same time providing for the needs of the intern(s). As with any successful endeavor, developing an internship requires research and planning. The decision to develop an internship places the responsibility on you as the employer to provide a well-rounded, positive learning, and mentoring environment for the intern. There are many ways you can incorporate an intern into your organization. Many internships are formed around identifying the following criteria:

• Special projects - Interns can be utilized to accomplish special projects such as creating promotional materials, conducting research, designing web pages and organizing special programs. The goals, deadlines, and outcomes for a project-focused internship should be identified so that everyone understands the purpose and expectations involved.
• Personnel resources - Certain organizations routinely experience peak periods where additional staff are needed, or there is a continuous demand for staff due to limited budgets. Interns can help to alleviate some of these staffing concerns. For example, interns can be assigned to serve as public relations assistants, marketing associates or human resources support staff. Professional experience and development should be the priority in any internship. Therefore, it is not a good idea to assign an intern to a position that is strictly clerical in scope. Obviously, there are clerical duties associated with any position, however these should not be the focus of the internship.
• Time commitments - Once the internship duties have been identified, you should then determine the time commitments required to fulfill the duties of the internship. This includes identifying the number of months (usually between 2 to 4 months) and the number of hours per week the intern will work.
• Level of staff support - Although you or your supervisor may see the need for an intern in your organization, you must also identify and gain the support of other staff members who may be working with and mentoring the intern during his or her stay.

Recruiting for an Internship

Once you have identified the scope of the internship and the resources necessary to support an intern, you will need to create a job description that explains to the prospective intern the duties, skills, qualifications, pay (if applicable), and time commitments of the internship. The completed job description will be used to begin the recruiting process for the internship.

The Career Services Center can assist you with your internship hiring efforts through our various recruiting services.

Evaluating an Intern

Creating measurement tools to evaluate your interns is just as important as the development, implementation and recruitment of interns. The evaluation process can consist of both quantitative and qualitative measurements and can take the form of pre- and post-internship surveys and exit interviews. Please see the "Sample Student Intern Performance Evaluation".