Internships: Not just for students anymore?
November 12, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Attracting talent, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Internships, Latest News & Views, Uncategorized
Here’s another source of labor employers could start tapping into:
More and more mid-career adults are taking on internships, according to a recent New York Times article.
Why? Mostly, it’s the economy. People are looking for ways to boost their skills and resumes to make themselves more marketable to potential employers.
Other employees cited learning experience as a benefit and accepted internships to help them change careers.
Companies benefit by getting affordable work from experienced professionals.
What do you think? Would your organization hire interns who are in the middle of their careers? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Tags: career change, interns
November 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Internships can be a great way to get new people into the company, and test them out, however you have to be careful to understand the requirements of the FLSA. The wine guy in the NYT article certainly sounds like he is performing productive work, and I seriously doubt that he would pass the tests to qualify as a trainee and not an employee and his unpaid status would be in violation of the minimum wage law.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I believe the State of Georgia has a program that is similar to this that is available to employers. They take people that are in their last few weeks of unemployment compensation and allow them to get “on the job training” at company with the state picking up 1/2 the cost of the employee’s pay. This allows the person to get some current training in a real business environment and also to make contacts in the organization, which could lead to job opportunities not previously available to them.