This May, Staff One was excited to welcome Naomi Lewis to our Marketing team. Naomi is currently studying Marketing and Media at Leeds Trinity University and is looking forward to pursuing a career in the sector after graduation.

This year, more companies than ever before will enjoy the benefits of an internship program.

More and more companies are seeking graduate calibre candidates “with experience”. This is often considered impossible for many graduates as they find themselves stuck in the catch 22 situation of not being able to find work because they don’t have experience and not being able to find experience because they can’t find work. We believe that the route to fixing this impasse is by more and more companies opening their doors to internships and work placements.

In industries such as investment banking, as many as 80 per cent of positions are filled by those who have undertaken an internship or placement with the company.

When it comes to our growth strategy, we, like many other fast-growth companies are embracing the value and advantages of running a work-based training programme. We actively encourage our clients and community to adopt their own, similar, training strategy.

Classroom based education is one part of the learning process but I’ve found the practical, real world application of the things I’ve learned to be invaluable. I tend to learn by doing, so gaining new skills in a live environment has been a great learning experience so far – Naomi

 

The why:

Fresh Perspective

Anytime you talk business with someone outside of your industry, team, or day-to-day operations, you’re often surprisingly inspired by what you learn. The same goes for an internship program. By bringing in students who aren’t inside your company every day, they can offer a fresh perspective on your business, strategies, and plans.

Enhancing Your Social Strategy

It’s no secret that this generation is more tech-savvy than any before. Take the opportunity to explain your social strategy to your interns and get their feedback. It provides young people the opportunity to incorporate what they’ve taught themselves about social media into the real world and their internship.

Why hire people who’ve never worked at your company before? Why not hire young people as interns, teach them your business and how your company runs, and hire them when they graduate University? An internship can feel like a test period. It’s a great opportunity for you to test out this new working relationship and vice versa. Many Fortune-500 companies retain over 80% of their interns as entry-level hires.

Extra Set of Hands

An intern provides an extra set of hands that can often help accomplish goals or finish projects. As long as the project will indeed help a young person learn a new skill, learn more about the industry, and give them a great learning experience – interns can work with other employees in the office on specific projects. Just make sure they are supervised and always given feedback on their work.

Mentorship Opportunities

Many employees look to mentor young people. An internship program provides an opportunity for your current employees to connect with these students, meet with them, speak with them, and ultimately – mentor them. This mentorship program will be helpful for your business’s culture as well as the student’s well-being and continued learning.

When employees have to carefully teach a crop of young people how to do tasks and accomplish goals, it can often personally motivate them to act as stronger leaders. Encouraging employees to educate and teach others can build strong moral and create more leaders within a business.