What is the Internship Program?
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY AND OBJECTIVES
PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY: “Educating the Whole Person.”
Our commitment to Radford University students is to provide each with experiential learning activities throughout their academic career that will assist in their professional development and link them to employment opportunities after graduation. Our goal is to develop internship and co-op partnerships with organizations and industries that offer quality, employment opportunities and future expansion in a dynamic workplace.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES:
The Experiential Learning/Internship Programs provide opportunities for students to: · Experience first-hand the world of work and link classroom theory to the job
· Learn specific competencies and increase understanding of the particular field
· Develop professional attitudes and behaviors in the workplace
· Learn from an employer’s assessment of their capabilities and talents
· Develop self-reliance, personal style, values, and beliefs in a manner consistent with
becoming responsible and productive individuals.
Why Consider an Intern?
It’s an opportunity for you to…
· Train your future workforce
· Enable your organization to delegate professional level projects to qualified students
· Provide a means to prescreen potential full-time employees
· Reduce recruiting costs and turnover costs
· Lower the cost of expensive outsourcing
· Connect your current employees with creative faculty and the most current thinking in the field.
Did You Know...
Internships are increasingly popular - In an annual survey of over 1,000 college seniors at 105 colleges and universities across the country. Reports found that 77% of all college seniors had at least one internship by graduation and 55% had participated in two or more internship programs before they graduated. This represents a 6% increase over the 73%
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Internship Experience Leads to Employment - Upon graduation, students with pre-professional intern experience secure jobs at roughly twice the rate of those without internship experience.
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Internships are used as Screening Devices - Reports found that the percentage of college graduates with internship experience, at the companies hiring them, more than doubled between 1993 and 1997, from 17% to 37%.
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Internships are helpful for graduate school - Graduate school admissions committees look for evidence of practical experience before admitting students. According to a recent survey, 91% of those admitted to law school and 94% of those admitted to graduate business (MBA) programs, had an internship experience.
Advantages of a credit bearing internship.....
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It's on your transcript as a permanent record of the experience for future employers.
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You get academic credit for the internship that will apply toward graduation and requirements for professional credentials.
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The quality of the experience is guaranteed by having faculty members involved to make sure you are doing "meaningful" work related to your discipline.
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You have both a faculty mentor and a site supervisor to help you process the experiences and put them into a future work context for someone in you major.
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You will have a strong project sample to show future employers the quality of your work