Intern Bridge 2012 National Internship Salary Survey Results to Be Released
51.3% of students are not paid for their internship experience
50.4% of students did an internship with a for-profit company
51.4% of interns did not receive academic credit for their internship
Increasing Business Case that Paid Positions Help With Recruitment and Meet Emerging Legal Requirements
Intern Bridge, the nation’s leading college recruiting research and consulting firm, began releasing data today from its national internship survey completed by over 11,000 students from 150 universities. In the 2012 Internship Salary Report, the firm details the business case for offering paid internships based on this firsthand data. The full report will be released on Feb. 22 during a Webinar to discuss the results in depth with college internship administrators and recruitment professionals.
The report shows that the number of students involved in their first internship experience or had recently completed an internship, rose 4.2% (37.1%) from the 2011 study (32.9%), the 5th year of increase in college students engaging in internships and cooperative education. The report also shows that the number of students being compensated financially for their internship dropped by 3.6% from the previous year. However, the average hourly wage reported by interns rose just 2%, bringing the national average intern wage to $13.50 an hour.
The data trends show that the real-world job experience internships provide continue to be important for college students to have when searching for their first full-time job. The continued decline in paid opportunities are working against companies long-term recruitment efforts and branding efforts. Legal challenges to unpaid internships have also continued to increase, creating potential liabilities for companies who employ unpaid interns.
“College students need internship experience to be competitive in the job market when they graduate and they provide a rich source of potential talent for the companies with internship programs,” said Robert Shindell, Vice President & Chief Learning Officer for Intern Bridge. “Yet companies that don’t pay interns are creating a host of recruitment and potential legal challenges that in the long run could cost much more than the relatively small price of paying interns.”
It is no secret that internships can be beneficial to students in more ways than one, but one of the top transferrable skills that interns learned was how to work in groups. 81.8% of all the student respondents claimed that they felt more comfortable working in group settings as a direct result of their involvement with an organization through an internship or co-op program.
The report also details that 64.1% of students need to work second jobs when working an unpaid internship experience, and only 45% of students were able to work more than 30 hours per week in their internships, due in part to the fact that many of them had to work separate jobs just to keep them financially stable. The report also showed that only 7.7% of colleges and universities offer financial assistance to students participating in unpaid internship experiences. This leaves less time available for interns to focus on working for their employers, or requires students to miss out on important academic activities.
"Students are participating in internships for the invaluable work experience provided, not the wages they pay,” Shindell adds. In fact, the top reasons student pursue internships have to do with building their network and learning about an industry. And, nearly 70% of survey respondents’ say they would accept less pay in exchange for greater work experience.
The results of this study clearly indicate that internships lead students to want to join the company full-time upon graduation. Of the students who participated in internships, over 82% say that they would at least consider a full-time position with the organization that they interned with, and 37% say they would accept the offer definitely.
The report and full results will be released in a Webinar on Feb. 22 at 1:00pm ET p.m. Robert Shindell will review the results in detail and participants will receive a copy of the report. To register, visit
http://internbridge.com/2012-results .
About Intern Bridge
Intern Bridge is the nation's premier college recruiting consulting and research firm. Through the National Internship & Co-op study, We survey students annually to capture trends of internship and recruiting experiences. The critical survey data is the basis for our work: helping organizations build meaningful entry-level talent programs, and assisting career centers to more effectively serve their student populations. For more information, visit
http://www.internbridge.com
علاقه مندی ها (Bookmarks)