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Hire an Intern This Summer

Pensacola Young Professionals is once again sponsoring their summer internship program for upper level college students. Northwest Florida employers who want to hire the best and brightest talent should get involved in the Internship Pensacola program. The costs are low and the program is well organized to provide benefits to both interns and the employer. Deadline for submitting jobs is middle of February.

Please take a few minutes to read about Internship Pensacola and talk to your HR department about hiring local interns this summer. The positions can be paid, full-time or paid/unpaid part-time positions.

All your company has to do is approve the internships, write job descriptions, and submit the jobs to Internship Pensacola. PYP will advertise the posting to upper-level students at local colleges, collect resumes and do some preliminary interviewing. The employer makes the final decision on who they want to hire. The deadline for submitting a position is mid-February and the program runs from May through August.

Even if you already have an internship program in place, consider participation in PYP’s Internship Pensacola program. The cost is minimal (as low as $500 per intern) and your summer employee gets the benefit of the Professional Development Workshops and PYP-led networking opportunities.  

For more information, visit www.InternshipPensacola.com or contact Jonathan E. Thompson who is VP of Programs for Pensacola Young Professionals. He can be reached at 850.723.3284 and by email at jonathan@thompson-briggs.com.

About Internship Pensacola

Internship Pensacola is a PYP-led initiative that seeks to attract and retain young talent in the Pensacola Bay area. They accomplish this goal by partnering with local businesses who agree to create full- or part-time summer internships that are then offered to senior- or grad-level students at UWF and other regional universities.  Now entering its sixth year, Internship Pensacola (IP) has proven an immensely useful tool for local businesses who seek fresh young talent.

Internship Pensacola is a comprehensive program designed not only to provide valuable internships, but also to develop the interns personally and professionally.  In addition to the 13-week summer internship (scheduled to run from early May to early August), students who participate in IP will also take a once-weekly Professional Development Seminar offered through UWF.  This class will help the interns develop their professional skills and will also allow them to mingle with their fellow interns from other businesses, allowing for a healthy exchange of ideas and experiences.  Interns will also participate in several networking/social events organized by PYP; these events will help the interns make better connections within the community while also showcasing our area's fun educational and cultural offerings.

Of the more than 50 IP graduates, about 1/3 have retained full-time employment with their original internship companies, while many others have leveraged their newly-acquired knowledge and networking contacts to secure other employment in the Pensacola Bay area.  IP is successfully helping to stem the exodus of young talent from our area!

By linking local companies with talented and highly-qualified young persons, IP serves both the area's students and its businesses: students receive invaluable work experience and the chance for subsequent full-time employment, while businesses get a chance to evaluate young employees on a limited-time basis with the option of permanently hiring those interns if desired.  While participating employers will follow a basic program calendar, they will have full authority with the interviewing and hiring processes as well as the assigning of work-related projects; IP largely serves as a facilitator for matching employers and student candidates.

Submitted by Maria Weisnicht, CED Technical Services