Internship Guide for Employers

Transcription

1 Internship Guide for Employers Career Services Center INTERNSHIP PROCEDURES 3211 Providence Dr. RH 122 Anchorage, AK Phone: (907) Fax: (907)

2 General Information for Employers The Career Services Center (CSC) provides many services that assist University of Alaska Anchorage students and alumni for present and future success in employment. These services include: Career Advising Resume Assistance Mock Interviews Career Fairs Internships Workshops CSC Website Computer Lab Career Resource Library Our department is an important bridge between students and employers. If a company chooses to utilize all of the CSC capabilities, they are assured to have a continuous and qualified student pool applying for their vacancies. The resources listed below can be requested on our website at For more information on our services and how to become involved on campus, please contact us at (907) or uaa_career@uaa.alaska.edu. Website Job Posting Employers can post part-time, full-time, and internship positions on the CSC website at no charge. Please refer to the Website Navigation Guide for more detailed information. Students are able to review the job openings, and can apply for them online. If the employer is interested, they may contact the student applicant directly to schedule an interview. The website also gives students the capability to sign up for their own interviews. (Please see Interviewing on Campus, below.) Career Fairs/Expos CSC coordinates several career expos throughout the spring and fall semesters. These are great opportunities for employers to meet and hire degree-seeking students. Some events concentrate in particular areas of study while others are open to students in all majors. All events effectively assist in engaging qualified and interested students. The expos are marketed campus-wide over many months. Presentations, workshops, and advertising assure that these events are well attended. Interviewing on Campus We offer access to our well-appointed interview rooms, which are available by appointment year-round. This is especially accommodating if the employer is located out of state and needs a professional setting to interview potential candidates. Internships An employer can create internship positions that allow students to gain essential hands-on training while earning credit in their degree. The internship is a unique and vital educational opportunity that integrates classroom learning with paid, planned, and supervised work experience. The internship program is a wonderful recruitment tool to train and maintain great employees. Interns provide employers with a cost-effective means of recruiting and training for future openings with actual on-the-job performance as a basis for permanent hiring decisions. Other Opportunities to Promote your Company Company logos may be added to the CSC home page throughout the website. Advertise in the CSC s widely-distributed Career Management Guide. (Every UAA graduate receives one.) 2

3 Internship Process for Employers 1. Contact the Career Services Center (CSC) Internship Coordinator to go over the University s requirements for employers to participate in the internship program. 2. Post the internship position online at Please refer to the Website Navigation Guide included in this packet. It may take up to 24 hours for the CSC to review and approve the posting. 3. Once posted on the website, the listing will be forwarded to faculty members to notify students and will be announced in various classes in conjunction with career expos. 4. Participate in upcoming career fairs to promote the internships. Students are notified to arrive to these events professionally dressed and with resumes in hand. 5. Log in to the website every few days to see how many students are viewing the posting, and open any resumes that have been submitted via the website. If a large number of students are viewing the position and not submitting applications, call the Internship Coordinator for advice. The number one recommendation is to include the wage on the job announcement. 6. Review and interview prospective students. 7. Once a student has been selected, contact the CSC Internship Coordinator immediately. Notify the student to contact the CSC to start paperwork. The student will receive an internship packet and will be required to obtain the required signatures that verify the student s eligibility to proceed with an internship. The student must have an overall GPA of 2.0. (Some academic departments have higher GPA requirements.) 8. A Learning Agreement will be created. The Agreement consists of the job duties/learning objectives, wage, and start/end dates. The document will be signed by the student, Internship Coordinator, employer/worksite supervisor, and a faculty advisor. 9. The student has three business days to return the signed Learning Agreement to the Career Services Center. 10. On the agreed-upon start date, the work may begin. 11. An evaluation form will be ed or faxed to the employer halfway through the internship. At the same time, a conference call will also be scheduled with the Internship Coordinator, faculty advisor, employer and intern. For the conference call, the student and employer must be together at the work site, and the Internship Coordinator will call in with the faculty advisor. 12. A final evaluation form will be ed or faxed to the employer and must be returned within three business days. This ensures that the faculty advisor has sufficient time to submit grades prior to the end of the semester. 3

4 Internship Requirements and Recommendations for Successful Recruitment All interns must be paid minimum wage or higher, as required in the Fair Labor Standards Act. Students are not permitted to work more than 20 hours per week during the fall and spring semesters. Hours are not restricted during the summer or between semesters. If a student is participating in an internship through a job they are already employed in, and they would like to receive course credit, they must complete an additional project or extra learning objectives that go beyond their normal duties. Interns receiving course credit for their work must be given duties related to their major, at a level compatible with the internship course level they will enroll in. Employers will be asked to provide a list of measurable learning objectives that interns will meet through their work duties. An example of an immeasurable objective is: The intern will develop an understanding of our financial system. A measurable objective would be: The intern will collect data on resource usage and prepare reports based on collected data. If any problems arise during the internship, the employer and student must contact the Internship Coordinator. It is also the employer s responsibility to promote the internship. It is highly recommended that employers participate in career expos to meet students that are interested in their line of work. The Career Services Center (CSC) does not place students in positions. At times, faculty will recommend particular students. We will ask those and all students to apply online or however is designated in the job posting. Internship courses are usually three-credit courses. To earn one credit, interns must work 75 hours. To fulfill three credits, the student must work 225 hours. The majority of internships run either 6 weeks (during the summer) or twelve weeks (fall and spring) in order to meet those requirements. When posting the internship online, be sure to include the hourly wage. If a designated wage is not determined while submitting the posting, select an hourly wage range and include depends on experience. (Example: $12 - $17, DOE) Post internship opportunities shortly before school starts and repost every three months until filled. Do not allow the announcement to close (which will automatically happen after it has been open for 90 days) or the student will not be able to apply. Classes begin in the last week of August and the second week of January. Classes end the second week of December and the last week of April. If students are viewing the announcement, but not submitting a resume, contact the Internship Coordinator for advice to increase applicants. The job description may be overwhelming or the wage not specific. 4

5 Internship Best Practices Excerpted from Building a Premier Internship Program: A Practical Guide for Employers, National Association of Colleges and Employers. 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 fills the entire work term. 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 definitions. This is time well spent the effort you put into these sessions will pay off throughout the program. Additionally, whether in paper booklet format, or presented as a special section on your web site, a handbook serves as a guide for students, answering frequently asked questions and communicating the rules in a warm and welcoming way. If applicable, provide housing and relocation assistance. Few employers can afford to provide fully paid housing for interns, but you ll find that you get a lot of appreciation in you offer any kid of assistance toward housing expenses. If that s not possible, provide assistance in locating affordable housing. Easy availability of affordable housing will make your opportunity the more attractive to students, broadening your pool of candidates. 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. Offer 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 difficulty attracting a particular type of student or student with a specific skill set to your program. Attaching a scholarship can increase your pool of candidates with the desired qualifications. Offer flex-time and/or other unusual work arrangements. 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 flexible schedule can make them feel less chained in by an unchanging routine. Have an intern manager. Having a dedicated manager for your intern program is the best way to ensure that it runs smoothly and stays focused on your criteria for success. (Unfortunately, the size and resources available to most internship programs mean that this isn t always possible.) This gives the interns a go-to person, and gives you and your staff a break from the many daily tasks involved in running a program of any size. For this to work, you have to plan the program structure in advance (don t expect your intern to do it), and be very accessible to your college relations intern. 5

6 Encourage team involvement. Involve your college recruiting teams whether they are volunteers who participate in college recruiting, staff members dedicated to college recruiting, or some combination of both in your intern program. They can sponsor social or professional development events, and help to orient the interns to your company culture. Invite career center staff and faculty to visit interns on site. In general, career center staff and faculty members have relatively few opportunities to visit employer work sites to see firsthand the types of experiences that their students are getting. By inviting them to your site, you will build a better working relationship with these groups, which can lead to more student referrals, enhanced campus visibility, and increased flexibility on their parts when your business needs dictate it. Hold new-hire panels. New-hire panels are one of the best ways I have found to showcase an organization to interns as a great place to work. These are panels of five or six people who were hired as new grads within the last three years. They act as panelists in a meeting of interns, giving a brief summary of their background and then answering questions from the intern audience. Your interns get insight about your organization from your new hires people who they perceive are like themselves and who they consequently view as credible sources of information. In these meetings, I ve found that the interns consistently bring up the same topics: Why did you choose this employer over others? How is being a full-time employee here different from being an intern? Do you recommend getting a graduate degree? Is it better to go straight to graduate school after the Bachelor s or better to work a while? Bring in speakers from your company s executive ranks. One of the greatest advantages to students in having internships is the access they get to accomplished professionals in their field. Consequently, speakers from the executive ranks are very popular with students it s a great career development and role modeling experience for interns. Offer training/encourage outside classes. Providing students with access to in-house training both in work-skills-related areas, such as a computer language, and in general skills areas, such as time management is a tangible way to show students you are interested in their development. Conduct focus groups/surveys. Conducting focus groups and feedback surveys with these representatives of your target group is a great way to see your organization as the students see it. Focus groups in particular can yield information about what your competitors are doing that students find appealing. Showcase intern work through presentations/expo. Students work very hard at completing their work and are generally proud of their accomplishments. Setting up a venue for them to do presentations (formal presentations or in a fair-type setting such as an Expo) not only allows them to demonstrate their achievements, but also showcases the internship program to all employees. Conduct exit interviews. Whether face-to-face or over the telephone, a real-time exit interview done by a member of the college relations team is an excellent way to gather feedback on the student s experience and to assess their interest in coming back. Having the students fill out an exit survey and bring it to the interview gives some structure to the conversation. 6

7 Online Job Database Navigation for New Employers or We appreciate your interest in employing University of Alaska Anchorage students and alumni. Our recruitment services involve a cooperative effort with College Central Network, Inc. Follow the instructions below to access our FREE online job posting and resume search system. Step 1. You must register and be approved in order to post jobs and conduct resume searches. An address is required to register. Contact our office if you do not have access to . Go to the URL listed at the top of this page ( Select the Employers icon. Read the information on the second screen. Choose the link for Register Now. Enter registration info and create an Access ID. If the ID you choose is already in our database, add a letter(s) or number(s) or an underscore. All IDs must be unique. Once approved by our office, you will receive an notification confirming your Access ID and informing you of your Password, which is automatically chosen by our office. **Note: The Help Page link will give you detailed directions and other useful information** Step 2. Using the CCN Recruitment Services for Employers once approved: Go to UAA College Central site as above and choose the Employers icon. Click the link for Log in to your Account. Enter your Access ID and assigned Password. From your account page, you may: Update or Review Registration Information Please keep your information up-to-date for the accuracy of our records. Post a New Job Give plenty of detail to make your postings attractive to students/alumni. You may cut and paste job descriptions. If posting part-time jobs, please list hours required. Please list the city or area where the job is located to aid jobseekers. You can edit the resume submission deadline date to best fit the job. Be sure to list an address in the contact information to receive resumes via the system. This also helps us track student resume submissions. Once you have posted a job, you can Post, Edit, Repost or Expire Job Postings Post new job opportunities - it s unlimited and free. Edit job postings as needed. Repost expired jobs if they are still open or become open again. Expire jobs when they have been filled so they come off view. If approved for this feature, you can easily Search Student and Alumni Resumes The more criteria you chose, the more limited your results will be. Use the toolbar Back button to exit out of resumes opened in Internet Explorer. Note: Please make sure that your is set up to read HTML otherwise messages may be jumbled. For more information, please contact the Career Services Center at (907)