"Ehh, we'll do an internship if someone happens to call or an employee's kid needs school credit, but we don't offer a yearly one."

I heard a variation of that phrase from a number of businesses I met with over the last few months. And I get it. Interns can be hard to manage. You're not sure what work to give them that they can actually complete due to time or skill constraints. With minimum wage requirements, it's often easier to pay just a little bit more and hire someone full time. Plus, you have to be willing to coach someone who has little to no professional work experience and may not understand what is expected of them in an office or on a job site. So yes, they are a lot of work but when done well, they create a pipeline of dedicated employees for your business. 

Consider how much time, effort and money you're putting into recruiting new employees. How much success are you having when it comes to retention? For companies that invest in an intern pipeline, they're seeing it pay off. According to the National Association of College and Employers, the conversion rate for interns hit a 5 year high in 2025 -  75% of new hires who were previously interns are retained after one year and more than half remain with the organization after 5 years. 

This means those with an intern program that hire from that program are spending less time and money finding, onboarding, and training new hires. These students are prepared to walk into the workplace and get right to work and they stay at those workplaces longer.

While I did hear some intern hesitation in my conversations with members, there are also a number of members who are doing well and view their intern pipeline as critical to their future success. We'll be sharing some of those successful intern-to-employees stories in future posts. 

I hope this has started to get your wheels turning about the impact an intern could have in your business. If so, a few things to keep in mind: 

• Most UIS students are required to have an internship experience to graduate.
• 70-75% of UIS & LLCC internships happen in the fall and spring so students can use their financial aid to pay for the credit hours of the corresponding class they take.  
• Most students are applying for internships 6 months in advance of when they want to work. That means employers should be posted in the fall for spring/summer internships (and the spring for fall internships) and posting opportunities outside of these times could be employers see a decrease in demand or quality of students applying.
• In 2023, 8.2 million US students were seeking internships. There were only 3.6 million available. That's over 4 million students who want to work in their area of interest but didn't have the opportunity. The demand is there. Can you be part of the solution?

In a world where AI is taking on the more basic aspects of work, we need to ensure that we're still creating access points for entry level workers to gain the skills employers are looking for. When every dollar counts, internships are a great way to build the future employees you want to see in your business.

If you have an internships, I'd love to learn more about it! Do you want to create an internship? I've got materials to make that process smoother and can put you in touch with LLCC and UIS staff to make sure you can connect with local students.