In past articles, I have spoken of the value of internships and how to manage an internship program.
This past January, I started a Virtual Internship Program. I currently have 6 students working on a variety of projects from marketing to research and from finance to graphic design. Each student was given a series of projects to work on to assist in my business that also were focused on an area of their interest. Each works 3-5 hours a week for 3 months.
This summer, I’ve expanded the program to 4 months and 5-10 hours per week. I have already lined up six students from community colleges, four year SUNY schools, and one from Villanova. Each brings a unique set of skills to the team.
In addition to the work, each gets at least one one on one call per week from me going over what they want to learn, showing them new ways of doing things or teaching them business topics or software programs they want to learn more about.
I encourage any of you running a small business to contact me to see how I got this set up. Alternatively, try it out for yourself and get some great free assistance from students who have passion for what they do. You will create opportunities that students may not be able to get from a classroom, as well as give them work experience that they may not be able to get because of their lack of previous past experience.
