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PLSO Issue 2, 2016 March/April

„ Reprinted with permission of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (see more at www.naceweb.org/internships) 13 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 15 BEST PRACTICES FOR INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS 15 Best Practices for Internship Programs Best Practice #1 Provide interns with real work assignments. * Providing interns with real work is number one to ensuring your program’s success. Interns should be doing work related to their major, that is challenging, that is recognized by the organization as valuable, and that lls the entire work term. You can guarantee that hiring managers provide real work assignments by checking job descriptions, emphasizing the importance of real work assignments during a manager/mentor orientation session, and communicating with interns frequently throughout the work term to determine how they perceive what they are doing. *Note: e best practices presented here assume the organization’s goal is to convert interns to full-time hires and is therefore paying its interns. Unpaid internships present a number of problems for organizations focused on intern conversion, not the least of which is legal issues that arise if the unpaid intern is given real work assignments. Best Practice #2 Hold orientations for all involved. It’s important that everyone “be on the same page,” so to speak. Make this happen by holding an orientation session for managers and mentors as well as a session for students. Orientations ensure that everyone starts with the same expectations and role denitions. is is time well spent—the eort you put into these sessions will pay o throughout the program. Best Practice #3 Provide interns with a handbook and/or website. Whether in paper booklet format, or presented as a special section on your website, a handbook serves as a guide for students, answering frequently asked questions and communicating the “rules” in a warm and welcoming way. A separate intern website serves many of the purposes of the handbook, but has the advantage of being easy to change. You can use your website as a communication tool, with announcements from the college relations sta or even articles of interest written by the interns themselves. Best Practice #4 Provide housing and relocation assistance. Few employers can aord to provide fully paid housing for interns, but you’ll nd that you get a lot of appreciation if you oer any kind of assistance toward housing expenses. If that’s not possible, provide assistance in locating aordable housing: For those relocating to the job site, the prospect of nding aordable, short-term housing can be daunting. Easy availability of aordable housing will make your opportunity more attractive to students, broadening your pool of candidates. If you can pay for all or some of your interns’ housing, be sure to design (and stick to) a clear policy detailing who is eligible. is will eliminate any perceptions of unequal treatment. In addition, be aware that employer-paid or employer-subsidized housing is considered a taxable benet. Check with your internal tax department on exceptions to this. You will also want to consider the issue of relocation, which is separate although related to housing. Many organizations pay some or all of their interns’ relocation expenses to and/or from the job site. Best Practice #5 Oer scholarships. Pairing a scholarship with your internship is a great way to recruit for your internship program—and this is especially true if you are having diculty attracting a particular type of student or student with a specic skill set to your program. Attaching a scholarship can increase your pool of candidates with the desired qualications. Best Practice #6 Oer ex-time and/or other unusual work arrangements. Students mention ex-time as one of their most-desired features in a job. (A exible time schedule during their internship eases their transition to the workplace.) If you think about how students spend the day on campus (varied schedule each day, with varied activities such as work, class, social time), you can understand that 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday is a bit of an adjustment for them. A exible schedule can make them feel less chained in by an unchanging routine. » continues on page 14 »


PLSO Issue 2, 2016 March/April
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