An internship can be defined as an opportunity given to new employees of a company who are referred to as interns to work at a firm or company for a given time period. This is to enable them to acquire the skills and expertise that are related to the job description. Most of the interns are normally undergraduates or students who need various expertise in their areas of study. The time period for such internship programs can be from one week to about 12 months depending on the employer.

An internship program equips the intern with the right experience to understand and perform effectively in their respective field of study or profession. There are a variety of reasons why companies offer internship programs. The good thing about internship programs that favor companies are that they easily get access to cheap and sometimes even free labor. This is because interns are rarely paid, and if they get payments, they are paid at a low rate thus helping the company to save money on paying staff. This is especially convenient for growing companies or small companies for that matter.

There are various factors to consider when creating an internship program. We can look at some of these factors below:

Learn the student point of view

Learning the student point of view in the internship program is very important as this will help you to determine how to carry out the process. Internship programs aim at merging the students’ learning experience with that of the real world which is the job market. This gives the student a clear picture of what the course he or she is studying entails and what to expect in the job market. This will also help you to know whether to pay the interns or not depending on their point of view.

Keep in mind legal issues

There are a lot of legal issues that surround the internship program that you should be aware of. Even though most internship programs are unpaid or few of them paid low amounts; there are a variety of factors to consider while hiring interns that should be respected as they are under the law. The internship program is usually for the benefit of the intern, and this is the first thing you should be aware of. The intern should also not work alone as they don’t have the right experience and thus should be in the company of qualified and experienced workers in the enterprise. The idea of hiring interns to work for the period given solely as the main employees of the company without supervision is therefore misplaced.

Identify your needs

Different companies have different needs and thus knowing what your company or business needs is essential. This will help you to forge the right plan and know how to hire the interns. If your need as a company is hiring more employees or simply need more labor force, then you can consider hiring interns. This is especially when you have limited funds but require more employment at the moment.

Design a hiring procedure

A hiring process that is well planned and organized will work to benefit both the company and the intern. You can do this by first defining the procedure to your interns as a way to introduce them to their respective profession. You can also plan out if you have funds to pay the interns or you will hire for free.