Need some help at your business but don’t want to hire a full-time employee? Consider hiring an intern! April is National Internship Awareness Month and is a great time to start looking for interns to work at your business over the summer. No matter what type of business you own, you can provide a great opportunity for students looking to gain experience while gaining much in return.
There are a number of great benefits to hiring an intern. Interns are a great resource to help grow your business. They bring a fresh, new perspective to the business and have ideas that may not have occurred to you. Tech savvy interns can assist with your business’ social media and help you promote online. Not only can they help spread the word digitally, but interns can also double as brand advocates for your business. By discussing their experience with friends, parents, professors, and even future employers, news of your business will be spread throughout the area. Students are eager to learn and gain knowledge within their field and will be excited to assist you with the tasks you assign them, especially if it’s real, meaningful work. Internships are especially useful in that they give you the ability to test drive a worker without the commitment of a full-time hire, while still allowing you the opportunity to hire them permanently in the end if you enjoyed working with them. By putting in the initial effort to train them, interns will be extremely valuable in helping your business run smoother, accomplish more, and achieve more success.
Here at SBDC we’ve created the Small Business Internship Initiative, a collaborative program created to help small businesses learn about, attract, and host high-value internships, connecting small businesses in the area with college students. Internship opportunities are posted online and shared with Career Development partners at Clarks Summit University, Johnson College, Keystone College, Lackawanna College, Luzerne County Community College, Mansfield University, Marywood University, Misericordia University, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Penn State Worthington Scranton and The University of Scranton. For more information, visit https://www.scrantonsbdc.com/internships/.
Cassandra Wisdo
SBDC Intern
The University of Scranton Small Business Development Center
#sbdc #scranton
