43
Internships a plus when done right
YOUNGSTOWN
As part of its learning-lab series, the Youngstown Business Incubator on Thursday welcomed an official from the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education to give a presentation on how businesses can grow a better internship program.
Thursday’s installment of the series, established to host educational and networking events that can help spur entrepreneurship and innovation in the Mahoning Valley, touched on what has become both an asset and a burden for employers looking to use college students or others entering a new field who want to get a jump on their career.
With budgets still squeezed in a lethargic economy, internships have grown in popularity, especially since the recession. Paid and unpaid interns quickly are becoming the modern-day equivalent of entry-level employees.
Labor lawyers, education advocates and others have cried foul in some instances over what they perceive to be violations of minimum- wage laws or situations that benefit employers more than they do interns.
In 2008, the National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that 50 percent of graduating college students had had internships — an increase of nearly 20 percent from the early 1990s. In a more recent study, released Thursday, NACE reported that 63.1 percent of paid interns received at least one job offer compared with only 37 percent of unpaid interns who received one.
Patrick Britton, program manager at the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education, said deciding whether or not to pay an intern depends on the organization’s needs and the kind of program it hopes to build — whether it’s one that helps build internal talent or one that frees up more time for full-time staffers in the workplace.
In any event, Britton said interns can be a valuable asset to any company, so long as a thorough approach is taken in creating their tasks and purpose at the business. He said of utmost importance is matching the intern’s interests with the organization’s interests to create a mutually beneficial relationship.
“Absolutely have them do the things you can’t get to. A bad goal is free labor,” Britton said. “What tasks never get done? You can take lower priorities and farm them out to interns, but they’re still meaningful tasks, and you’ll find that interns add value in the long run.”
In a recent survey conducted by NOCHE among more than 100 companies in Ohio, the organization found that employers were able to save $13,513 on salary and benefit costs when an intern performed special projects such as research, email newsletters or even expanding a company’s social-media presence. The average time saved per week among full-time staffers who would have taken on similar tasks was about 14 hours, according to the survey.
About seven business-people attended Thursday’s presentation.