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Bridging The Gap Between Colleges And Corporations

Shared Justice
Corporations are getting more involved with colleges to better prepare students to enter the career world.

A 2014 study performed by InternMatch said students who have paid internship experience are more likely to get a full-time job offer than those who haven’t.

Jaime Fall is the vice president of Workforce and Talent and Sustainability for the HR Policy Foundation in Washington, D.C. He said internships are a key part of a student’s education.

“Internships are incredibly important for someone to get into the workplace and really have success," Fall said. "It’s a test-drive for both the company and for the intern to find out if that is a really good fit for them so those are critically important.”

He said the dynamics between colleges and corporations are changing.

“What we’re finding is that employers are beginning to offer those internships to a smaller number of schools," Fall said. "And just offering those to schools who are really interested in working with them and helping design their programs so students can be successful when they enter the workplace.”

Ryan Yonk is the Executive Director at Strata. He said unpaid internships are becoming a thing of the past and being replaced with something better for both the employer and the intern.

“Internships are moving from what used to be unpaid," Yonk said. "Primarily viewed as an academic experience to something that is much more like on-the-job training. For employers it gives them first cut at the talent market where you’re seeing students.”

Utah State University student, Ashley Waddoups, is an intern at Strata. She wants to go into law and said working as an intern has made her consider double majoring in economics to help her become more competitive in the job market.

“A lot of what I do is collaborating with a mentor who is my project manager," Waddoups said. "Who’s an experienced professional so that’s a great opportunity to learn from them as far as improving my writing skills, my political analysis, learning about issues.”

She said interning at Strata has offered her a unique opportunity that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Strata co-founder and board member, Chris Fawson, said investing in their interns helps them put out a better product.

“Our model is really to provide a strong mentoring relationship to students," Fawson said. "So we do spend a lot of time training students, cultivating their sense of skill sets and abilities to make contributions to the research that we do, and the academic programs that we work on.”

Jon Johnson is the chairman of the board at Overstock.com and said there are three qualities they look for when interviewing potential employees.

“One of the things that we look for in employees are what the Army tries to instill in its service members," Johnson said. "And that’s Be, Know and Do. Be is people of character. Folks that are going to do the right things, that are going to be honest in their opinions, not brown-nose their way to the top. Know is knowledge and I think that’s what Strata’s helping these students gain. They’re getting work experience, while in school, in a real work environment which is a hard thing to do. And Do is work ethic. Anyone who is going to school and working at the same time, they’ve got a pretty good work ethic.”

According to the InternMatch study, 96.7 percent of interns highly recommend the experience to their peers. And while only 48.3 percent of internships were paid – that number is expected to go up.