College and specializes in leadership and management development. She may be reached at Claremont McKenna College,. Department of Psychology,.
Delivering Successful TLaining in a Summer Jobs TCIaining Program by Ellen A Ensher and Susan E. Murphy
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Ellen A. Ensher is a Training Consultant to The Los Angeles Times. She teaches courses in supervision, customer service and communication. She may be reached at 12 15 North Fairview St., Burbank, CA 91 505; by phone, (818) 845-9420; or by Fax, (818) 845-8014.
Susan E. Murphy is an Assistant Professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College and specializes in leadership and management development. She may be reached at Claremont McKenna College, Department of Psychology, 850 Columbia Ave., Claremont, CA 91 72 1-6420; by phone, (909) 607-2933; or by Fax, (909) 621-8419.
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nce upon a time in Los Angeles there were two brothers. Both were leaders: one of his senior class and the other of a street gang. The class president became a Los Angeles Times intern and gained a paid summer job, a mentor, and one-on-one career counseling. The tale of two brothers was published in the newspaper and together they appeared on “Good Morning America.” The class president is now a college student. With the help of many caring people, his brother has since quit the gang and recently he, too, became a Times intern.
The Rise of Intern Programs More companies are partnering with schools and community agencies than ever before, often through internships. The National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that in 1996 73 percent of high school students entering college have had internships. Moreover, 26 percent of college graduates hired by companies have had internships. If your company hasn’t gotten involved with youths in your community yet, then the chances are good that it will. There is a growing disparity between the skills high school graduates have and the skills organizations require. For example, in 1991 Boeing, the world’s largest commercial airplane manufacturer, found that the dearth of qualified entry level people cost the company approximately 75 percent more in training than in previous years (Caudron, 1993).
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A 1993 report by the U.S. Department of Labor states that among the 32 million people in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24, approximately one-third are at risk of facing a life of chronic unemployment, welfare dependency, and other social problems. In addition, the types of competency employers stress extend well beyond basic literacy skills. Certainly, reading, writing, and math skills are critical for all types of employment, but now there are greater demands for cognitive skills such as problemsolving, decisionmaking, reasoning, and critical analysis. The emphasis on the service and technical industries, rather than on manufacturing, has created a need for employees who also possess interpersonal skills in oral and written communication and the ability to work in teams. Companies can cut spiraling recruitment and training costs by working proactively with schools to develop a pipeline of qualified future employees. Corporations are teaming up with schools in many ways, including company-sponsored sabbaticals for teachers, employee involvement in curriculum design, and mentoring programs (Brightman, 1989; Caudron, 1993; Moss, 1986). One of the most effective ways an organization can develop qualified personnel is through an internship program for youths. Internship programs can extend the educational process by
providing youths with technical, strategic, and on-the-job skills training. Studies funded by the Jobs Training Partnership Act (Gambone, 1993) and the U.S. Department of Labor (1993) reveal that the programs have many positive effects, not only for organizations but for the participants as well. Participation in internship programs lowers dropout rates and absenteeism among high school students.
increase the knowledge, skills, and abilities of participating youths through paid jobs; provide youths with exposure to alternative career directions and opportunities; and build partnerships with members of the community. The program administrators are acutely aware that the Times is in the
Regardless of the job, the emphasis is on having the intern do “real work” as opposed to work created merely so that the intern will fill time in a department. Also, internships can introduce youths, particularly those from nonprivileged environments, t o alternatives, choices, and role models they might not otherwise encountered in their daily lives.
An Example The Times program described here is comprehensive and integrated in its approach to skill development. Interns are not only provided with jobs, but they receive technical and strategic skills training, mentors, career counseling, and scholarship opportunities as well. The Times sponsors an annual summer jobs training program for 50 to 100 youths between the ages of 16 and 22 who meet the criteria of being low opportunity and high potential. Low opportunity refers to financial need and high potential is based on the youth’s referral from a community service agency. This program was created in 1992 in response to several causes of the Los Angeles riots, including minority youth joblessness. Increasing departmental requests have contributed to the program’s growth and progressively greater number of interns. The program’s objectives are to:
newspaper business and that program administrators should not take supervisors and managers away from their daily responsibilities. Each year the Times hires three graduate students in psychology and social work as project coordinators to interview, hire, and manage the day-to-day details of the internship program. The Times established partnerships with volunteer agencies representing various racial or ethnic groups, including the Chinatown Service Center, the Korean Youth Center, the Mexican-American Opportunities Foundation, the Urban League, and the Stuart M. Ketchum YMCA. The agencies screen the candidates according to criteria such as community leadership, financial need, and limited previous opportunity. This comprehensive program consists of on-the-job training and includes program elements designed to enhance the interns’ work experience and future educational and career success. These elements include: a minimum of three hours per week at the Times’ learning center, where interns improve their technical skills in computers, math, and language;
attendance at weekly three-hour educational sessions designed to augment interpersonal skills, such as working with people of different cultures, and practical skills, such as how to open a checking account; participation in a two-hour individualized career-counseling session with a Times professional; opportunities to compete for a scholarship; and one-on-one involvement with a personal mentor (a Times employee volunteer). The interns’ jobs vary. Interns are placed in nearly all areas of the Times, including editorial, circulation, and operations, according to their interests and skills. Many of the jobs have clerical components such as filing, word processing, or data entry. Other jobs are manual, such as loading newspapers onto trucks. Regardless of the job, the emphasis is on having the intern do “real work” as opposed to work created merely so that the intern will fill time in a department. In addition, supervisors are encouraged to provide their interns with tasks that require progressively more skills throughout the course of the internship. The training is designed to enhance the interns’ skills and provide them with new ones for the future. For example, the first class focuses on workplace ethics and addresses basic but important information. Some of the basics include calling one’s supervisor if one is going to be late, what to wear and what not to wear to work, and the importance of asking questions when given a task that is not understood. Perhaps the class that students felt the most trepidation about taking, yet were most enthusiastic about afterward, was one covering workforce diversity skills. This course provides the interns with an opportunity to develop greater self-awareness regarding their own biases and assumptions. The interns discuss how to avoid stereotyping. They practice effective
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communication skills and are able to offer suggestions for development in this area.
Training and the Bottom Line The program’s training provides many financial benefits to the Times. Many employees take vacation in the summer, and the interns are able to perform tasks previously completed by temporary employees or those working overtime. Hiring the interns reduces personnel costs. In turn, the interns, who are paid nearly double the minimum wage, and thus earn significantly more than most of their peers, are pleased as well. Although there are no promises of permanent placement, approximately 20 percent of the interns have returned either as part-time or full-time employees in subsequent years. Program evaluations indicate that the training helps them adjust more rapidly and perform more effectively in the working world than entry level workers who did not hold internships. Another benefit to the Times is its enhanced reputation in the community. The program was selected as the model summer internship program by the Private Industry Council for the City of Los Angeles largely because of its integrated approach to training. Other organizations, including those partially funded by the Jobs Training Partnership Act, are provided with information and resources to help them emulate the Times’ program. As a result of this positive publicity, each year the Times has recruited from a larger and more qualified pool of potential interns. The Times has become known as a “diversity friendly” employer.
Five Tips for a Successful Summer Jobs Training Program The Times program is just one exam-
ing costs. The following five tips can help your organization integrate training into an internship program. Start the program with a bang. Interns attend two training sessions in the first week to get them excited and knowledgeable about the program and the Times. The first is a traditional day-long orientation program that
The main message is that to succeed in the workforce, one must be able to work as part of a team. includes tours of the various facilities and introductions to key personnel. The other is an exciting day at a coastal ranch where interns participate in learning games, a barbecue lunch, and plenty of opportunities to socialize with each other and Times employee volunteers. The interns participate in a series of exercises designed to help them shift their focus from competition to collaboration. The main message is that to succeed in the workforce, one must be able to work as part of a team. The exercises were designed so that the more participants helped others, the more points they gained. This helped them learn the concept of win-win. One of the most popular games is Collaborative Volleyball, created by Senior Human Resource Development Consultant Bill Bradley. This game enables interns to experience the importance of working collaboratively as a team. As in regular volleyball, two teams play for points, but instead of playing against each other, they must play with each other. The most important rules of the game are:
ple of how internship programs can develop a pipeline for future employees and reduce recruitment and train-
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each team member must play; each team member must hit the ball before it is sent over the net;
the team sending the ball only earns points if they send the ball over gently enough that the other team can easily return it. This experiential game is a simulation of cooperation among departments. usually takes the players at least 20 minutes to determine new volleyball techniques, such as standing in a circle and patting the ball to each other rather than slamming it. Team members on either side who fail to collaborate are usually brought into line by good-natured peer pressure. This is a powerful exercise that demonstrates to participants that they can win by collaborating, not competing. At the end of the day, the entire group is brought together as a team by an activity that requires all interns and counselors to link hands and cross a teeter beam, a feat made possible only by individuals helping and encouraging each other. Teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and more. Writing, typing, math, and computer skills are taught to enable interns to transition from the internship to other jobs. Interns learn these technical skills at the Times’ learning center. During the first week, each intern creates an individual learning action plan with specific learning goals and objectives. For example, one learning goal might be to increase proficiency in administrative skills. Specific objectives to help the intern meet this goal would include the intern using a self-paced tutorial on a word-processing program in the first week, followed by two hours of practice in subsequent weeks and completion of specific word-processing assignments. Interns also learn skills to improve their daily lives. These skills include the following: work ethics, effective communication, cultural diversity (twosessions), learning strategies, personal finance,
career development, and personal growth and transitions. Interns attend a three-hour training sessions each week. For example, the same class is offered four or five times a week to groups of approximately 20 to 25 interns. Interns are required to attend all training sessions at the same time and location each week and are released from work to attend. Each training group is carefully selected to maximize its diversity based on gender, age, ethnicity, cultural background, type of position, and department. Training is conducted by professionals who volunteer their services through the American Society of Training and Development. During their first week on the job, interns encounter one of the most successful exercises conducted in the first class, Work Ethics, to help them identify their expectations about the program, Clarifying interns’ expectations is important because having a realistic job preview significantly affects performance and subsequent satisfaction with the program. Interns are divided into four groups of approximately six members each and given four pieces of flip-chart paper that they tape together to form a large drawing area. They are asked to represent their specific expectations for the program, their future goals, and how they expect members of the Times to regard them at the end of eight weeks. Each group is required to create a common theme and each member of the group must contribute. At first, interns struggle with the ambiguity of the task but after about 10 minutes, creativity begins to simmer. For example, one group drew a newspaper complete with a section for each of them detailing their individual expectations and goals such as meeting new friends, obtaining a college education, and even purchasing a pair of Doc Martens shoes with the first paycheck! The instructor provides feedback regarding which goals are realistic and provides specific suggestions for how to achieve them.
The approach to classroom training should take into consideration that many of the interns are high school students or recent graduates. These students may have different expectations about how to behave in a classroom than do regular employees. For example, in one of the first intern training sessions on the a trainer invited her par-
Clarifying interns’ expectations is important because having a realistic job preview significantly affects performance and subsequent satisfaction with the program.
one time with their interns are encouraged to assign a “buddy” to the interns so that they can have someone to turn to for minor questions and daily support. Mentors are recruited through internal employee newsletters and word of mouth. All employees are invited to apply to be a mentor provided they: are willing to contact their interns, either in person or on the phone, at least once a week throughout the duration of the program; have not scheduled any vacations or trips that would limit their availability during the program, and can attend a mentor training session. Failure of a potential first-time mentor to attend a training session is an indication that the individual lacks the commitment to be an effective mentor and can disqualify him or her. The 90-minute mentor training session covers the following:
ticipants to help themselves to treats in the back of the classroom. She also told them to feel free to take breaks as needed, instructions that she routinely gave to her adult learners with no negative repercussions. Much to her surprise, a stampede ensued, causing the treats to be wiped out in a matter of minutes! The students in this session spent more time on break than in class.
an overview to the program, tasks and characteristics of an effective mentor, the mentor’s role in the intern’s career development, how to use open, closed, and probing questions with interns, and a sample agreement and checklist of topics to cover in the first meeting with the intern.
Team up and train supervisors and mentors. Interns aren’t the only ones in the program who receive training. Prospective supervisors and mentors attend training too. Each intern’s supervisor is invited to attend a 90minute training session prior to the intern’s arrival. The session is required for first-time supervisors. During this session, the supervisors are given an overview of the program and provided with recommendations for how to create a meaningful work experience for the interns and their department. Supervisors of large departments who are unable to spend a lot of one-on-
During this training, the instructor stresses the importance of building a relationship and partnership with the intern’s supervisor. For example, mentors are asked to contact the supervisors prior to meeting the interns and discuss ways they can support one another on the interns’ behalf. The mentor-supervisor team is important. Mentors and supervisors are expected to communicate with each other regularly concerning their interns’ progress. For example, one supervisor informed a mentor that an intern had been consistently late to
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work. The intern had confided to her mentor that the family car had been totaled two weeks earlier and that she had been forced to depend on friends and family for rides to work. Together, the mentor and the supervisor were able to work out a solution that involved providing the intern with a bus pass. This story had a happy ending as the intern came to work on time for the rest of the summer. The Times has developed some specific suggestions for partnering mentors and supervisors effectively. These suggestions include providing both mentors and supervisors with: information about how to contact each other prior to the intern’s arrival, an opportunity to meet together with their intern at the orientation, specific information in their respective training sessions with steps to negotiating roles and expectations for each other, and guidelines regarding deadlines and topics about which to contact each other. Furthermore, interactions between mentors and supervisors are monitored by an intern coordinator who contacts every mentor and supervisor each week.
Follow up, follow up, follow up! Throughout the program’s course, program administrators contact mentors, supervisors, and interns each week to head off problems that might arise. Though time-consuming, this continuous monitoring has proven invaluable in nipping potential problems in the bud. A rigorous program evaluation conducted in a partnership with the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College gathered the interns’, mentors’, and supervisors’ reactions. The evaluation assessed the overall effectiveness of the program’s various components through two main strategies: questionnaires administered to current interns and inter-
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views conducted with previous interns. Current interns completed questionnaires in the training sessions of the first and final weeks of employment. Supervisors and mentors receive questionnaires to gain their perspectives about the program as well. Overall, the previous summer’s interns were satisfied with the internship program and derived many positive benefits. A typical response was, “The most important thing to me was that
One way professionals can reduce the educational deficit is by taking an active role in the lives of youths and providing them with positive alternatives. the Times was a real ‘pick-me-up.’ It changed my life. I’m more responsible and know how to deal with the corporate world better.” Another stated, “It was a great program. I will always feel special for being chosen for the program-it made me feel important. The Times seems to care about the leaders of tomorrow and the community-it helps teenagers instead of viewing them as a burden. The program teaches about life.” Celebrate the success. It is important to end the program by recognizing interns in a fun and relaxed manner. All interns, mentors, and supervisors are invited to an end-of-the-summer program. A Times senior executive hosts the event, provides the interns with advice for the future, and congratulates them on their hard work. This event includes a slide show, set to contemporary music, that shows each
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intern at his or her worksite. The evening includes refreshments, music, and dancing, The integrated approach to training, coupled with these more lighthearted events, recognizes and celebrates the interns, sending a strong message of caring and leaving a longlasting, positive impression.
Lessons Learned Although the program works quite well overall, there is always room for improvement. Other organizations can use these recommendations when developing an internship program. Selection. Many interns left the program feeling more confident in their abilities to succeed in similar jobs. They reported that they had given more thought to the types of careers they might like to have. There was an indication that older students had benefited less from the program than younger students. This is probably because many of the older students had more job experience and education. Older interns, particularly those already in college, should be given more challenging work than younger ones. Supervision. For the most part, interns reported positive relationships with their supervisors. The analyses revealed that interns rated supervisors who did not hold supervisory positions as slightly better than supervisors in first-line supervisory or management positions. This is probably because nonsupervisory employees, who were responsible only for one intern, were able to spend more oneon-one time with the intern than regular supervisors. Encouraging more nonsupervisory employees to supervise interns will help increase the interns’ satisfaction level and provides the employees with valuable supervisory experience. Mentoring. One of the dilemmas program administrators confronted was how best to pair ethnically and racially diverse interns with mentors. The
community agencies that referred the interns made inconsistent recommendations, which raised the research question of whether race matters when pairing interns with mentors and, if so, to what extent? The evaluation suggests that although race does matter in initial impressions, over time perceived similarity becomes more salient for both interns and mentors (Ensher & Murphy, 1996). Research also suggests that individual differences between interns should be carefully assessed and considered. For example, some interns prefer emotional support, others need more career support, and some require a balance. This evaluation revealed several points to consider in future programs. First, it is important to assess interns’ emotional and career needs prior t o matching them with mentors. In turn, potential mentors should be evaluated on their ability t o fulfill their interns’ needs. Second, include training for
both interns and mentors that enables them to focus on enhancing the perceived similarities, not differences, among themselves. Whether you become involved in a youth jobs training program as a trainer, administrator, mentor, supervisor, or researcher, it can be a satisfying experience. One way professionals can reduce the educational deficit is by taking an active role in the lives of youths and providing them with positive alternatives. Private organizations that want to remain viable in a competitive and diverse environment need t o focus on developing future employees who can meet the challenges of the 21st century.
References Brightman, D. E., “How to Build an Internship Program,” Public Relations ]ournal, January 1989, pp. 29-30. Caudron, S., “New Curriculum Benefits Students and Helps Industry,” Personnel Journal, March 1993, pp. 83-91. Gambone, M., Strengthening Programs for Youth: Promoting Adolescent
Development in the JTPA System. PublidPrivate Ventures: Philadelphia, PA, 1993. Moss, C., “Interning: Profiles of Four
Internship Programs for Public Relations Students and an Educator,” Public Relations Journal, April 1986, pp. 20-32.
U.S. Department of Labor, Finding One’s Way: Career Guidance for Disadvantaged Youth. Employment and Training Administration: Research and Evaluation Report Series 93-D.
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