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More students are interning than ever before, and more employers are recognizing that internships help develop their talent pipelines. The logic seems simple: if employers want to hire and students want to be hired, then aren’t students who complete internships more likely to land a job than those who don’t?

It’s actually quite a bit more complicated – with devastating results for some young people.

The reason: Not all internships are created equal. In addition to needing strong structure and supervision to achieve maximum learning and productivity, paid internships lead to better post-graduation results than unpaid internships. Why should getting paid matter? Isn’t it about the real-world experience?

Data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers student survey shows otherwise. While overall, students who intern are more likely to have a job after graduation than students who don’t, this difference is fully related to whether the internship is paid. …

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Indiana INTERNnet, the state’s leading work-based learning matching marketplace, was established in 2001. It was designed to connect Hoosier college students and employers at a time when many postsecondary graduates were leaving Indiana to start their careers. The goal? Stem the “brain drain” as more college students learned about and completed internships with Hoosier companies.

Fast forward 20 years. Over 11,000 students have secured internships via IndianaINTERN.net.  But the robust economy that grew for more than a decade – before COVID-19 pushed the pause button – revealed that keeping college graduates in Indiana wasn’t enough for employers’ insatiable demand for talent. Some are looking for students in earlier stages of their education to take on internships.

While a lot of high school students work while in school, they’re behind fast food counters, babysitting or folding clothes in a department store. Though I learned the importance of a strong work ethic …

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The IMPACT Awards is our biggest day of the year as we come together to recognize internship excellence among Hoosier students, employers and educators. But did you know that the IMPACT Awards is also Indiana INTERNnet’s single largest fundraiser of the year? In 2020, 400-plus attendees gathered for one of the state’s last face-to-face events before the term “social distancing” entered our collective vocabulary.

This year, with our virtual format and free admission, sponsorships are more important than ever to support our work in matching students and employers at IndianaINTERN.net. There are many ways to sponsor the IMPACT Awards, with investment levels starting as low as $950. All guarantee visibility prior to, during and after the event.

You also can individually recognize internship excellence by sending your favorite intern, employee or educator a gift box filled with goodies from Hoosier companies. Snag a bag of gummy bears, pretzels or fudge. …

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The last month has upended the way most of us live our daily lives. When this happens, most of us go back to the basics. We do what we need to do to make it through the day – and not much more. After a few weeks, however, we realize that we can establish new routines. We can do much of what we did previously, even if physically distant from one another during a stay-at-home order. We regain much of our productivity and, before we know it, we wonder why we weren’t using technology so much in the past.

As we set new routines, we can start thinking ahead again. Our first instincts may have been to put our summer internship plans on hold because there were too many questions. For students: Are employers still hosting interns? Will the employer be able to host me if I accept an offer? …

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