What Is An Internship?

An internship is a carefully monitored work or service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience.

The experience should require skills and knowledge obtained from College of Business courses. These experiences can be obtained through employment, volunteer activities, or project-based opportunities.

The position should be similar to an entry-level position for a College of Business graduate and should be tied to a student’s career goal and/or major.

Benefits of Hiring An Intern

• Creates a proven, cost-effective way to recruit and evaluate potential employees
• Builds a flexible, cost-effective work force not requiring a long-term commitment
• Establishes a year-round source of highly established pre-professionals
• Brings students with new perspectives to your organization
• Allows freedom for permanent staff to pursue more creative projects
• Provides quality candidates for temporary projects and positions
• Increases visibility of your organization on the UW Oshkosh campus
• Offers the ability for you to be an essential part of a student’s academic experience as he or she prepares to become a business professional

Why Hire An UW Oshkosh Intern?

• We have over 1,900 students pursuing a business degree in Accounting, Economics, Finance, HR Management, Marketing, MIS, or Supply Chain/ Operations Management.
• UWO College of Business students scored in the top 5% of students taking the national Educational Testing Service (ETS) Major Field Test for Business Exam.
• UWO College of Business is the only nationally accredited business school in the New North.
• Our students are prepared both academically and professionally for the business environment. Starting in Fall 2008, all of our students take a Professional Skills in Business class, attend the annual Networking Night event, and complete an internship before graduating from the UW Oshkosh College of Business

“Thrivent Financial for Lutherans offers students an active learning experience through projects that provide tangible benefit to the organization. While it takes time and effort to bring an intern on board, the benefits outweigh the investment. When given challenging assignments, our interns have achieved excellent results. They also share fresh ways of thinking about the ways we serve our members, their families, and their communities.”

— Suzanne Maas, Director of Claims Operations, Thrivent Financial

“As a former HR Intern and now the Human Resources Consultant at SECURA Insurance, I have seen the benefits of both sides. I enjoy having interns because I know that what they are learning here will benefit them a great deal when they graduate. Out interns have essentially the same responsibilities as someone in a professional position. They offer so many great ideas and can look at things with a different perspective. This is definitely a great learning experience for both of us.”

— Sam Benjamin, Human Resources Consultant, SECURA Insurance

College of Business Highlights

• We are the only College of Business in Wisconsin that requires every student to complete a professional internship before graduation.
• Join us for our annual College to Career Conference. Watch your e-mail, contact the College of Business or go to our C2C Webpage.
• The College of Business ranked in the top 10 of schools with highest first-time CPA exam pass rate six times since 1996.

Overview of the College of Business undergraduate curriculum.

Hiring Process

Employers interested in hiring an intern should follow these steps to build a quality experience and acquire an intern to meet your needs:

1. Get to know the Professional Development Office — For any assistance or further information, contact Ashley Petr at (920) 424-0297 or petra@uwosh.edu. Ashley can answer any questions you might have and assist you in developing a successful experience for both you and the student.
2. Create Your Position — Take a look at the needs of your organization and the skills an intern could bring to the table. You may choose to hire interns on an as-needed basis or have consistent internship rotation. The COB Internship Office will be more than happy to discuss these options and help determine what might be best for your organization.
3. Announce Your Internship — All COB internships are advertised using Handshake, an online database. To create your account or log on to your existing account, please go to the Handshake employer page. Once your position has been posted, further steps will be taken by the Professional Development Office to make sure students are aware of the opportunity.

Organization and Supervisor Responsibilities

Here are a few guidelines that are necessary in order to secure a mutually beneficial internship experience.

• Ensure the internship is a meaningful learning experience for the student
• Effectively train your intern and provide all necessary resources for the position
• Develop learning objectives and goals with the student
• Monitor your intern to ensure they are completing assigned duties and are staying busy
• Evaluate your intern’s progress and provide feedback often
• Provide opportunities for increased responsibility
• Communicate any changes or issues regarding the internship to the UW Oshkosh College of Business Internship Director
• Additionally, find out how the student is applying the internship at the University. The student has three options with different requirements for completion

What Is a Mentor?

A mentor helps someone reach his or her goals through coaching, counseling, and guidance. They provide institutional knowledge to expand the mentee’s skills and information to be able to react to situations from a more informed vantage point. Mentors are available to help mentees feel overall more comfortable, which sometimes lowers the turnover rate.

Strategies For Creating An Internship

• Intern takes on permanent role in your organization
  For many organizations, the best win/win option is to find a role for the student intern that is necessary for the organization to function. Some examples include the student intern:

   

  • -filling the role of buyer and is assigned specific accounts to manage
  • -completing tax returns for clients during tax season
• Intern is a student at the organization learning from employees
  The organization might create a rotational program where the student shadows and works on small projects with different professionals in the organization.
• Intern is given a specific project to take from start to finish
  Most organizations have some “back burner” projects that their professionals would love to delve into, but just don’t have the time to take on.

Paid or Unpaid?

The stereotype of interns making copies and running for coffee is a thing of the past.

The majority of interns are making a true impact at their internship site and are taking on meaningful roles and working on projects that in most cases would have been done by permanent, paid employees.

What sets apart a paid and an unpaid internship? The U.S. Department of Labor has outlined six criteria for determining trainee status:

1. Interns cannot displace regular employees
2. Interns are not guaranteed a job at the end of the internship (though you may decide to hire them at the conclusion of the experience)
3. Interns are not entitled to wages during the internship
4. Interns must get hands-on experience with equipment and processes used in your industry
5. Interns must receive training from your organization, even if it somewhat impedes the work
6. Interns’ training must primarily benefit them, not the organization

In summary, the Department of Labor is telling us that if you don’t pay your intern, the organization should not be directly benefiting from the intern. Instead, the intern should be seen as a student who is there to learn, not to work.

Top reasons to pay your intern:

1. You will attract a higher quality applicant pool to begin with
2. You will retain the intern longer. The University only requires the intern to be with the organization for one semester or summer (100 hours minimum). If an intern is paid, he/she will likely decide to stay longer as a part-time employee. Some interns stay at their internship site for two years, which is a huge return on investment and cuts down on training time.
3. It is easier to hold the intern accountable for their work, actions and attendance if he or she is being paid. In addition, they will fall under your employment guidelines and liabilities.
4. By paying your intern, you have the opportunity to get the most out of him/her.

This does not mean that students will not work with a company offering an unpaid internship, but it will severely limit the type of work and opportunities you can offer your intern.

We hope that you will strongly consider entering into this opportunity with the UW Oshkosh College of Business. Please contact Ashley Petr or (920) 424-0297 with any questions or to start the process. We look forward to working with you and your organization!