If we want to know the answer to the question,
“Do Internships Make A Difference
For Our Students?
The best answer is to discover what young people are saying about internships. Of course, there may be different answers depending upon where or what type of internship we are discussing, but if internships help just one student, we should consider adopting more internship programs. Our economy is in a state of change which is affecting all of us, our younger workers are especially hard hit at a very extremely vulerable time.
As I wrote about in another blog, our Millenials are creating new opportunities for their “work life“. Working at different gigs is creating a new system of job/employment approaches to our work. Creating more internships for our young students, offers more opportunities for “gigs” in their future.
I love these students and their enthusiasm, plus their appreciation for the opportunities their internship has provided. It gives us all food for thought, when considering ways to make future generations lives more successful.
There are many entrepreneurs and small businesses today. If we think about the needs a small business has, there are usually duties that take away from the business owner’s prouctivity, but must be done. What if small businesses in your network, began working with schools and other educational organizations to offer internship work, where students receive credit on their transcripts or report cards.
For the student, he or she learns various aspects of a business and how it operates. The business owner, not only receives help with daily tasks, but can share knowledge about how a business or organization operates in the “real world”. This gives the business owner, the intern and possibly the community opportunities for positive outcomes.
Our young people are very creative, and they are using their ingenuity to help create the change we want 
to see in the world. There is a lot we older generations can learn from the imagination of the spirit we see in our younger generations, but we also have knowledge from our own experiences. Through internships, mentoring programs, apprenticeship opportunities and volunteering, working together and connecting our different knowledge with each other, our world can be changed through each act of sharing ideas.
Not that long ago, when I was in the recruiting world, there appeared we were heading to having a struggle between younger and older workers for “the jobs available”. The talk just a few years ago was
“Who will get the jobs available, older or younger workers?”
As we see now, the differences between these different levels of experience, are our strengths. Joining together with what we offer each other is one way we can make a better world for ourselves. It is exciting when we see our world in this way, because we can make a difference for each other and ourselves at the same time.
This is what is being called: The New Culture of Sharing
Social Change becomes more of a solution when we understand changes such as these. It is how social change evolves from social chaos. Watch for changes, we are beginning to see social change in many aspects of our society today.
Thanks for reading.
dfoster
Best of Luck Always
L. Frank Baum
“No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Lost Princess of Oz
To provide information on the Sharing Culture, please see David Gurteen’s information regarding the Culture of Sharing first published in 1999 @ Gurteen.com
An important point that Mr.Gurteen made is his description of the old paradigm of “Knowledge is Power”. Today we are embracing a new paradign of “Sharing Knowledge is Power”. He has much more to say about the sharing culture, which as a human ready for solutions, is a solution that I find easy to embrace.
