Internship Information

Build a High-Impact Internship Program

When you provide students with meaningful experiential learning and work experiences, they become your greatest ambassadors on campus. Providing internships allows your organization to involve students in your company culture, exposing them to meaningful and productive work, while energizing your organization with fresh, creative ideas and unique perspectives. 

Student interns are often first on the scene with the latest industry trends, theories and patterns and can help bring exciting change to your company. Internship programs are also a cost-effective way for employers to recruit and evaluate potential new full-time employees from their pool of interns. 

The Link Center serves as a liaison between our community and our university by supporting collaborative partnerships between employers, students, and instructors and staff. We can help employers develop a successful internship program for their organization, post their internship opportunities in Handshake and connect with UW-Superior internship coordinators in academic departments/majors.

Internship Best Practices

Definition of a High Quality Internship at UW-Superior:

An internship is a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional workplace setting(s) (across in-person, remote, or hybrid modalities). Internships provide students the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience, develop social capital, explore career fields, and make connections in professional fields.

Internships are short-term, hands-on, supervised work experience with a professional organization that is designed to increase a student’s knowledge of a professional career field. More than a part-time job or volunteer experience, an internship includes intentional learning objectives related to increasing student knowledge, training to develop additional skills, and quality supervision to guide and mentor the intern.

Internship Standards and Best Practices

1. The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.

2. The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.

3. The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications.

4. There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework.

5. There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.

6. There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor.

7. There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

8. Additionally, reflection is a key component of an effective internship experience.

We encourage your exploration and adherence to the professional standards found at National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) which provides career readiness best practices, trends, research, and professional development. NACE Internships: https://www.naceweb.org/internships

Employer Benefits for Hosting Interns

– Identify potential new talent
– Meet short-term and special project needs
– Support the university community and increase your company’s visibility on campus
– Reduce your recruitment and training costs through potential retention of interns

Intern Compensation

Internships are coordinated with employers who offer both paid and unpaid internships. We strongly encourage paid internship whenever possible as an important part of an organization’s successful recruitment strategy. In some high-demand fields, employers will find it necessary to offer paid positions in order to attract candidates. Additionally, employers should ensure their internship compensation complies with the U.S. Department of Labor’s guidelines for internships.

Academic Internships (For-Credit)

Currently, several UW-Superior majors require students to complete structured for-credit academic internships. These include Social Work, Business, Health and Human Performance, Legal Studies, Criminal Justice and Education.

It is each student’s responsibility to work with their department and/or academic advisor (or the internship coordinator within their major) to determine whether they can receive credit for their internship. As an employer, you can support the student in pursuing an internship for credit at your organization, but you cannot offer or guarantee that credit. Typically, if a student is able to pursue an internship for credit, the department will outline and coordinate any required forms and processes, including learning goals and intended outcomes of the internship. There may be requests for documented supervision of the student and evaluations during and at the completion of the internship.