Develop an Internship
Developing an Internship Program
Developing an internship program is a dedicated initiative and will deliver enormous value to employers and students. Determining internal readiness is crucial before creating an internship program to ensure that your organization can provide a meaningful and supportive experience for interns. Assessing your team's goals, capacity, resources, and commitment helps lay a strong foundation for a successful program that benefits both interns and your organization.
Employer services include:
- Preliminary needs assessment
- Internship description development support
- Access to our internship recruiting toolkit
- Routine support by our team
To support our employers in designing or improving an internship program, we offer specialized services including internship development and program support, tailored resources, and recruitment tools. Get Started with a Quick Consult!
Internship Recruiting ToolkitInternship Guidelines and Tips
- Consider resources and logistics (compensation, workspace, equipment/technology, onboarding, management)
- Create project-based tasks with learning objectives
- Write a clear job description
- Create community building and professional development opportunities
- Develop methods to track progress and provide feedback
- Set clear expectations, learning objectives and goals through an internship learning plan
- Host onboarding meetings/trainings and weekly check-ins to ensure progress
- Share communication preferences and office culture and attire guidance
- Be a resource and available for questions via preferred communication method
- Provide mentorship and professional development opportunities
- Local part-time semester interns: minimum of 10 hours, up to 20 hours, 12-15 weeks
- Full-time summer interns: 40 hours per week, 8 to 12 weeks per college
- Engineering Co-ops: Students complete at least one summer and one long semester of full-time work with the same employer
- Unpaid internships must meet the Department of Labor Unpaid Internship Test
Per our Recruiting Guidelines and Procedures, we want to make sure the student intern is in a professional atmosphere, gaining experience relevant to their field of study or career interest, and being supervised by an expert in the field in which they are interning. We evaluate each internship according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Internship Guidelines. Learn more about NACE Internship Best Practices.
Determinations about whether an internship qualifies for academic credit are made by the student’s academic department rather than at the university level. Students are responsible for initiating the academic credit request with their respective department. Employers, in turn, are responsible for supporting credit eligibility by adhering to the guidelines outlined above.
UTRGV students come in hungry, and the Career Center connects us with the right people at the right time. It's a partnership that genuinely works.