Providing internships

Internships are great opportunities for you to recruit and retain potential employees to work on special projects or events, or to provide support during times of higher demand. Internships can provide you with an inexpensive recruiting tool, and an opportunity for you to train and evaluate future employees — as students integrate and apply their academic coursework into a professional work situation and gain valuable skills and experience.

Student at a medical lab internship

Students will receive academic credit for their internships, so it’s your responsibility as the employer to design internship responsibilities or projects that are substantive and challenging and to provide training and supervision for interns.

Internships are generally 10–20 hours per week during the academic year, and part- to full-time during the summer.

15 Best Practices for Internship Programs

The National Association of Colleges and Employers publishes this guide for 15 best practices for internship programs.
Here are the best practices; for more detail on each one, see the NACE guide.

  1. Provide interns with real work assignments.
  2. Hold orientations for all involved.
  3. Provide interns with a handbook and/or website.
  4. Provide housing and relocation assistance.
  5. Offer scholarships.
  6. Offer flex-time and/or other unusual work arrangements.
  7. Have an intern manager.
  8. Encourage team involvement.
  9. Invite career center staff and faculty to visit interns on site.
  10. Hold new-hire panels.
  11. Bring in speakers from your company's executive ranks.
  12. Offer training/encourage outside classes.
  13. Conduct focus groups/surveys.
  14. Showcase intern work through presentations/expo.
  15. Conduct exit interviews.

Work-study positions

Work-study positions can often be structured as internships, because they directly relate to a student’s field of study. Before hiring a student through the State Work Study (SWS) program, you must be approved by the Washington Student Achievement Council and Seattle Pacific University. For more information on becoming a work-study employer, email the Office of Student Employment at ose@spu.edu.