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BY CHRISTINA M.
SEILER
News Editor, The Sentinel
Rochester
High School students will use a state-sponsored Web site to search for
internships in the future.
They will be able to log on to Indiana INTERNnet and list their profiles and
resumes. Employees can log on to the same Web site to look for interns.
The site can help make matches. Students can apply for internships
online and employers can contact students through the Web site.
There's no cost to use Indiana INTERNnet, said Pam Norman, executive
director.
Rochester, Caston and Tippecanoe Valley administrators and
local employers learned about the system last week. It is a state initiative
managed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
They also heard from Peru High School students about their
internship experiences and were given the forms the school corporations
will use when their internship programs begin as early as 2010.
Indiana INTERNnet
also offers workshops for schools and for employers, said Norman.
She extolled the benefits of internships as a way for students to
learn about potential career choices and for employers to get to know future
employees.
"It's no big surprise to anybody involved in the process that it's a
chance to take all that information they amass and take it into their future
workplace," Norman said of the
on-the-job training student interns receive.
She listed these benefits to students who participate in internships:
• The ability to test drive a company's corporate culture.
• Being able to apply skills and classroom knowledge in a real-world
environment.
• Gaining hands-on project experience.
• Accessing professional development and training opportunities.
• Developing a professional network.
Employers also gain from having interns, Norman said, listing these
benefits:
• Seeing back burner projects get completed.
• Seeing if students are a good match for the company and training them if
they are.
• Being able to evaluate a potential employee's work ethic, skill set and
knowledge.
• Freeing up employee time to handle high level projects.
• Grooming future leaders by providing them supervisory experience with
interns.
• Creating a low-risk talent pipeline.
Norman outlined seven steps to creating an
internship program: identifying intern projects; outlining
expectations; creating a job description; assessing compensation, selecting a
supervisor; recruiting a mentor; and evaluating the interns' performance.
She said the trend in Indiana is that high school
student interns do not get paid.
Indiana INTERNnet
can help a company devise a job description with about 15 minutes of time and
six or seven basic questions, Norman said.
The supervisor and mentor, she said, shouldn't be the same person. One will
oversee the program, the other will help the person
one-on-one. "Just because a person is really good at what they do
doesn't mean they're going to be the right supervisor or mentor," Norman cautioned.
"We're offering the opportunity for students to experience their future
right now," Norman said, urging
employers to make the work the interns perform meaningful.
Peru High School student Brandon Alberts completed one internship
at Peru Police Department, riding along with officers. He's presently
completing another at Miami County's central dispatch.
Erica Liven is working at an insurance agency and a bank. For the insurance
agency she developed a presentation to help sell life insurance. For the
bank, she organized customer appreciation days.
Samantha Caldwell works at a local chiropractor's office. She has contact
with patients and hears their diagnosis.
It will be important, Peru Superintendent Andy Melin said, for employers and educators to make sure
student interns understand confidentiality and the consequences of
violating it.
"I don't like sitting in a classroom, looking at text books and saying,
'When am I going to use this?'" said Tyler Brown, another Peru student who interns
at the mayor's office and a law firm.
Any business interesting in learning more about the high school internship
program may contact Rochester Superintendent Deb Howe, Caston
Superintendent Dan Foster or Tippecanoe Valley Superintendent Brett Boggs.
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