Title: Internship Initiative
1 Internship Initiative
- Baseline Survey Fall 2008
2Focus of Survey In what ways are West Michigan
businesses utilizing interns?How can WMSA help
businesses increase the number of interns at
their workplaces?
3Survey Respondents
4The term intern encompasses these programs
- Co-op experienced based learning for college
students through paid employment in practical,
curriculum-related work assignments that can be
tailored to a students schedule - Internship One-time, curriculum-related work
assignment, which may be paid or unpaid depending
on the employer and what is required of the
student for the position. Most offer a stipend
or academic credit. Internships are generally
reserved for upper-division students, completed
for academic credit and one semester in duration - Summer Employment Like co-op, is paid work
experience. However, this type of position may
or may not be directly related to the students
curriculum and is not integrated into the
academic programs.
5Business Type v. Use of Interns
- Over ½ of respondents in nearly all types of
businesses have used interns!
6Size of Business v. Use of Interns
- Interns have been used by the majority of
respondents for every size business!
7Number of Interns
- 217 respondents estimated having 3059 internships
in past 24 months - Average 14 interns per respondent to this question
8Types of Programs
- Half of the respondents use a combination of
programs - (co-op, summer employment internships)
9Internships Paid? Or Unpaid?
- Of 279 responses ALL paid at least ½ of their
internships
10Additional Features Paid ( unpaid) Internships
- 147 respondents indicated their internships have
been for college credit 67 were not for college
credit (43 responded to the question) - 98 (66) of these 147 were paid internships
- 152 compensated interns at an hourly rate basis
(38 responded to question) - The other 38 (responding) paid a stipend or a
combination of both - Both paid unpaid internships were identified in
most all the different business types
11Why have an internship program? according to
survey respondents
12Successful Recruitment Strategiesaccording to
survey respondents
13What barriers prevent or limit having interns?
14Suggestions for overcoming barriers
15Suggestions based on business size
- Regardless of business type or size of business,
help in developing internship programs was the
most frequent suggestion from respondents
16Summary Observations
- Baseline survey data represents a good cross
section of business types and sizes - Sufficient sample of businesses who utilize
interns - Regardless of organization type or size
- the barriers are similar
- suggestions for increasing internships are similar
17Critical Factors Survey Results
- Top two reasons to have an internship program
- To complete project work
- A way to give back
- Major barriers preventing or limiting internships
- Money to pay interns lack of fulltime
positions to offer - Time required to start a program working with
students - Primary suggestions for increasing internships
- Help develop programs
- Help pay for interns
- Help locate interns
- Get management buy-in
18- Prepared by
- Cami Zawacki, Owner
- HRAA Strategies
- 616-540-8244, zawackic_at_hraastrategies.com
- Prepared for
- Cindy Brown, Project Manager
- West Michigan Strategic Alliance
- 616-871-2452, cbrown_at_wm-alliance.org
- This project is funded in full or part by a
WIRED grant from the U.S. Department - of Labor, Employment and Training Administration