Gearing Up for Summer with Redmond Internships
Even during a pandemic, Redmond’s Youth CareerConnect Internship Program is still going strong.
This emerging workforce program helps connect students from high school through university levels to real world experience with local companies and has been a great resource in our area for the past few years.
As you might imagine, due to restrictions related to COVID-19 the program has been impacted jointly and uniquely. Despite that Youth CareerConnect (YCC) staff have been busy working behind-the-scenes to advance the program. One way YCC staff have adapted is by changing their interactions with businesses, students, and school administrations and by adding virtual meetings and PowerPoint presentations to the website.
Staff also created a virtual internship platform that allows students and businesses to interact remotely. To give you an idea of what this looks like and how it works, I’d like to tell you about one student’s experience. A Redmond High School grad, now a sophomore at Boise State University, wanted to do an internship in Redmond. The student used many features of the YCC website, things like scheduling virtual meetings, updating his resume after using the various resources, reviewing the available internship opportunities, and preparing for the interview. This virtual platform helped the student land a great internship at Stratos. He is currently interning as a Draftsman and learning different manufacturing processes while also being assigned a variety of tasks using SolidWorks, CAD, and Enterprise product data management software.
While businesses each have their own specific comfort level during the pandemic, outreach continues in order to share the Youth CareerConnect Internship program and the benefits of hosting an intern.
Within the Redmond School district, over 400 students are taking on-line classes versus attending school in-person. Despite this challenge, counselors continue to be very helpful in promoting the program and guiding students to Youth CareerConnect internship opportunities.
This is usually the time of year where students and businesses alike are looking to find solutions to employment and hiring challenges. If you are business interested in hosting a student for an internship, or if you know of a student interested in an internship placement, please contact John Charles, Redmond Internship Coordinator at: Jcharles@edcoinfo.com, or check out internship opportunities at: www.youthcareerconnect.org
