How to Create Internships
Employers create internship programs for a variety of reasons – the build a talent pipeline, to inspire young professionals, and to get help with projects from energetic innovative interns. Regardless of your intention, being thoughtful in your planning from the beginning will help ensure the long-term success of your internship program. Below are steps & resources to help you create internships that are truly a win-win!
Explore
What is an internship?
- Experiential learning opportunities that differ from entry-level roles in that they:
- Have a significant and intentional focus on student learning
- Have a defined beginning & end (typically in line with one academic term)
- Often center around defined projects with clear objectives
- Require 10-20 hours per week during the academic term, or up to 40 hours per week during breaks & summer
In line with guidance from the Department of Labor and NACE, we encourage all employers to pay their interns the prevailing wage whenever possible, regardless whether interns choose to earn academic credit for the learning associated with their internships. For-profit employers must pay their interns to have their positions posted on Handshake.
Establish
Identify your overall goals for an internship program and how much support a program would receive from various levels within your organization.
Identify:
- A meaningful project, important to your organization, that can be reasonably completed by an intern
- A manager willing & able to devote time to support student learning
- Help with onboarding, facilitating training, meeting with the intern(s) to establish learning goals
- Weekly project updates & informal check-ins
- Performance evaluations (mid-term and/or end of internship)
- Intern work space, pay rate and other logistics
Engage
Develop:
- Hiring timeline (8-12 weeks is ideal) with milestone dates and key players who can help
- Position description, including a section on what interns can expect to learn, approximate start & end dates, number of hours per week desired, location of internship site and compensation
- Recruiting plan with varied strategies to help ensure a diverse candidate pool
- Focus on required vs desired qualifications – what can interns learn on the job? what experience is relevant?
- Onboarding plan including organizational introductions, task-specific trainings, and written expectations
- Consider adapting your existing Employee Handbook to establish expectations and communicate workplace policies with your intern(s)
- A high-impact experience by exposing interns to different teams, tasks, meetings, leaders, etc.
