ChiefConcerns How to set up an internship program
Hiring an intern can help provide a student with experience, the company with a potential employee
interns work their way through the engineering offices
and shop floors of other companies, they might emerge
into positions that can be a positive for the company that
formerly hired them as an intern or maybe actually send
over the occasional purchase order. Also, the company
that is able to develop young leaders for itself or for others emerges as an organization to be admired by peers.
Figure 1 Interns at the Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) of Kansas State University are involved in actual engineering
projects for paying clients. Photo courtesy of AMI.
By Dan Davis, Editor-in-Chief
ention the word “intern” to most any business
owner, and the first phrase that may jump into
his or her head is “free labor.” That’s unfortunate thinking, however, because interns can mean so
much more to a company.
In the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 2008 Experiential Education Survey, employers
reported that nearly 36 percent of new college graduates
hired in 2007 came from their own internship programs.
That number was an increase over the 30 percent hired in
2005. Manufacturers should take note, because of the 311
NACE company members that responded to the survey,
almost half were from manufacturing organizations.
The survey also showed that 90 percent of employers
who use their internship programs to hire say they are
very or extremely satisfied with their young hires. Those
former interns also have a much higher chance of sticking
around after a year than those new hires that weren’t part
of the internship program.
The Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) of
Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan., has had great
success with its internship program. The organization,
which was started in the mid-1990s with the intent of creating an environment where engineering students could
work with mentors on projects that benefited small and
medium-sized manufacturers, has had about 450 interns
come through the program since 1995, according to Brad
Kramer, AMI’s director.
Today the program is not just for engineering students. AMI is also including students who are looking for
experience in marketing, communications, and business.
Kramer said that no matter what their educational back-
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ground, however, the interns are getting a great experience in terms of professionalism and problem-solving as
they work on manufacturing clients’ product or process
development projects.
“It’s that mentored experience where you get to work
alongside somebody that knows what they are doing, and
that really takes the edge off, polishes them up, and
makes them well-prepared to start working a lot sooner
than somebody that just graduated from college with little experience,” Kramer said.
Teresa Beach-Shelow, owner of Superior Joining Technologies Inc., Machesney Park, Ill., told the story of one
former intern who worked for her while he studied at
Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. He had shown
some interest in manufacturing engineering while working for Superior Joining Technologies, but later decided
to study electrical engineering. Upon graduation, he got
a job with an aerospace components manufacturer in
Rockford, Ill.
“Everyone at [the company] couldn’t believe that he
had just graduated from college,” Beach-Shelow said
proudly. “He knew how to handle a meeting, negotiate
with other engineers, and he was confident enough to
bring forth ideas.”
Superior Joining Technologies is another firm that has
found success finding employees in its part-time work
force. Of the company’s 17 full-time employees, five of
them started working part-time or as an intern.
The benefits of an internship program, such as low-cost labor and grooming possible future employees, are
pretty obvious. So what’s the benefit for these companies
that have internship programs, but produce interns that
don’t come to work for them? The answers might be contacts, image enhancement, or even new business. As the
Setting up the Internship
It’s one thing to talk about inviting interns to work in your
manufacturing setting; it’s another to actually set up a
program. The following tips will help to remove any unanticipated hurdles should you decide to implement such a
program.
Plan to Compensate the Intern. With payment comes
higher expectations. If the intern is paid, he or she will be
more likely to show up every day, take every task more seriously, and produce better work. Sometimes you simply
get what you pay for.
Paying the intern also could keep your company out
of potentially dangerous legal situations. U.S. courts have
ruled that the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 does not
excuse a business from using unpaid interns just because
they are getting college credit, and as a result, many companies don’t even risk not paying interns.
Define the Job Before You Identify the Intern. The
worst thing you can do is have an intern show up for work
without having clearly identified work for them to do.
At Superior Joining Technologies, interns may work
as a cleanup crew member or count parts before they are
shipped. Later on they might run a spot welder or sandblasting equipment. For AMI, the interns work on clients’
projects that match their skill set (see Figure 1).
“It’s sort of like a job interview in the fact that the project managers know the kind of projects that they have
coming down the line,” Kramer said. “They are looking for
skill sets, but they are also looking for personality traits
and for people that will help them deliver results. Our
clients pay for the projects that we do. They expect the
projects to provide real value and be delivered on time.”
The person creating the program also should consider
setting up the basic criteria for the internship. Does the
student have to maintain a minimum grade point average? Does the student have to be a particular age? Approximately how many hours will the internship involve?
How long will the internship last?
Be Honest With the Intern. Sometimes an intern may
think he or she should be doing something that just isn’t
possible.
“I have highly skilled welders. So very rarely are [the
students] able to do welding. I think that disappoints
somebody that’s interested in welding that works here,”
Beach-Shelow said.
If the employer is open and honest about what is possible during the internship, the chance for miscommuni-cation and subsequent hard feelings can be averted.
Assign a Mentor to Lead the Intern. If students are to
learn professional workplace behavior, they need to interact with professionals (see Figure 2).
At AMI project managers are involved in the interviewing process, so they are paired up with interns right
from the beginning. More often than not, these project
managers will act as the students’ mentors for their entire
tenure at AMI.
