This is the second in my series of columns on the value of internships. In my last column, I highlighted the outstanding summer internship programs in Augusta-Richmond County (Students2Work) and Columbia County for high school students to be introduced to potential future careers and the “work world” at local businesses. In addition, I indicated the benefits not only to the young people and companies participating in those programs, but also to the workforce development of the CSRA. In today’s column, I will discuss the vital role that Augusta University’s Hull College of Business’ internship program plays in taking the next step in workforce development and the benefits both students and businesses reap from these internships.
When I was interviewing for the position of dean of the James M. Hull College of Business at Augusta University (AU) during the Fall of 2016, I quickly came to the conclusion we needed to become more competitive in attracting students to AU/Hull. After I was offered and accepted the position, my first order of business was to work with our faculty and staff on that competitiveness. While AU/Hull provides extremely high-quality business degrees very cost-effectively, so do many other business schools within the University System of Georgia (USG). A number of those other schools (e.g., UGA, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Kennesaw State, Georgia Southern) also have stronger brands than AU/Hull. So, we had to develop ways to distinguish AU/Hull from those other fine institutions.
One thing we discovered early on was that as a business school, our primary customers are the businesses who will hire our students, while our students can better be described as our “products.” We have found that if we have a good track record of businesses hiring our students, then it is more likely that prospective students and their parents will find us more attractive. So, we spoke to a large number of businesses to determine what our students needed to improve upon to be more competitive for jobs and careers in their companies. After these discussions, we added two new required courses to our core curriculum – one in Professional Selling and one in Project Management. These courses would add to the needed knowledge and skill sets that businesses said new hires are lacking. However, the most important change we made was to require that all Hull students have an internship for course credit in order to graduate. This has turned out to be a benefit for our students/graduates, the local business community, and our current and future workforce.
I believe our students/graduates benefit most from AU/Hull having an internship requirement in place. Because of our “brand deficit” relative to the other USG schools I mentioned above, our students often lost out when competing for jobs with students from those schools based solely on academics. However, now that our students compete for those jobs with an internship on their record, they are much more likely to be successful. The internship our students complete demonstrates their ability to succeed in the workplace. By showing they can successfully navigate the workplace environment, they are more likely to “hit the ground running” at their first full-time job. This makes them more attractive to the hiring company, who would rather hire somebody with relevant experience than just based on their academic experience and degree attained.
While gaining a leg up in the competition for jobs is clearly the top benefit for students/graduates from internships, there are many others. As students get their first taste of the work world, they get a better sense of the type of work they prefer. They also get some insight into the type of company or industry that might fit them best. They also start building a network within their internship company and will likely receive some mentoring during their internship experience. Finally, they get to apply what they learned in the classroom and learn what is different between “the real world” and the theory they learned in their courses.
Internships not only benefit the Hull students, but also provide significant benefits to the hiring companies. Companies are able to hire outstanding, albeit inexperienced, talent at a very low cost. Although they only have the students for a short time (approximately 15 weeks in the fall and spring semesters and approximately 10 weeks in the summer semester), most companies are extremely happy with the productivity they get from those interns in that time period. Another benefit is that an internship often turns out to be an “extended interview” of the student, which reduces the risk of making a hiring mistake. How the student performs in the internship is often a good indicator of how he/she will perform in a full-time job, so the company has much information with which to make a hiring decision. Internships also provide a good recruiting tool for the company, both for recruiting the interns they hire, but also friends and classmates of the interns who learn about the company.
Finally, let us not forget that workforce development benefits the Hull internship program provides the local area. By preparing our future college graduates for their work life, we are strengthening the workforce of the CSRA. While some of our graduates will use their intern experience to propel themselves to careers outside of the local area, most will be attracted to the local companies and stay in the area to work. This will provide our area with a stronger, more attractive workforce that will help convince more companies to move to the area.
Between our local high school student internship programs and the AU/Hull required internship, we are making significant progress on the road to workforce development, and ultimately economic development in the area. I will wrap up this series on internships with my next column, which will be less about economic development and more about how internships have made a difference in the careers of my daughters, their friends, and some of my students.
