How Internships, Externships, and Work-Study Programs Help You Get Ahead
The classroom is not the only setting that will prepare students for the world beyond school--a world that lacks dining halls, academic support, free extracurricular activities, and the other comforts of student life. Externships, internships, and work-study programs are meant to supplement the book knowledge that students gain in the classroom, therefore allowing students to apply knowledge to real-world situations. If you choose to participate in an internship, externship, and/or work-study program, you will gain valuable experience that will ensure your preparedness to enter the workforce the minute you graduate.
Many employers of healthcare jobs complain about having to train new workers extensively when workers should already be capable of performing the tasks outlined in the job descriptions. However, gaining externship, internship, or work-study experience will lesson the preparedness gap. If you apply for a healthcare job, a potential employer will consider you an incredibly solid candidate if have completed a healthcare-related internship, externship, or work-study program in addition to your training program or degree. Healthcare employers highly regard your previous work experience because it means they will have to provide less on-the-job training if they should hire you. Read on about how externships, internships, and work-study programs can function as resume-builders that help you to become a qualified and successful employee upon graduation.
Internships - Externships - Work-Study Programs
Internships
Internships are jobs, often lasting a semester or two, meant to give students some real-world experience in their particular field of interest. Many internships are advertised to undergraduate or graduate students who may just be starting to embark on their career pathways. In most cases, employers do not expect interns to take on all the responsibilities of a full-time, permanent employee, but this gives no excuse for interns to slack off. Oftentimes, the work of interns is essential to the successful functioning of an organization, so it is important that interns take their jobs very seriously. In addition, your internship supervisors will serve as references for any jobs you apply for in the future. If you would like them to provide good feedback to your future employers, you should try your hardest to make a good impression as an intern. Despite its reputation in the media, an internship experience should not solely involve making copies and fetching coffee and donuts for the boss. On the contrary, internships are meant to expand your skills set. For instance, if you have the career goal of working in the public health sector to prevent chronic diseases, an ideal internship experience would build your research and literacy review skills so that you know how to find the most effective interventions.
Internships can vary in the amount they pay, if anything at all. Some students foolishly dismiss internships immediately after reading in the description that they provide little or no compensation. If expenses become too much to handle, this decision is respectable because, after all, the money for books, tuition, and living expenses must come from somewhere. However, it is also important to keep in mind that an unpaid internship experience now may lead to a higher paying job in the future. So, if you have some way of getting by financially, and you have found the perfect internship (except for the fact that it is unpaid), it will probably be in your best interest to at least apply. Generally, internships in the non-profit or government sector are unpaid, although you may receive a stipend, travel compensation, or even academic credit for your participation.
Externships
Like internships, externships provide an opportunity for students or those planning to enter the workforce in the near future to gain worthy experiences in a field they hope to pursue. However, externships may last for a shorter period of time than internships, and they may not grant hands-on experiences. For example, as a nursing student, you may participate in an externship that includes observation in different wards of the hospital and computer training for clinical practice, but you might not get to perform any procedures on patients. In direct contrast to internships, externships can function as an opportunity for career shadowing, but of course, more involved than the shadowing you might have done in junior high.
Similar to interns, externs can be paid or unpaid. Additionally, depending on your program, participation in an externship may be required for graduation. If an externship is required, you might face extreme competition for the available spots. However, you can improve your chances of being accepted into an externship program by demonstrating your commitment to your studies and maintaining good grades. Also, you should check to see if you meet all the eligibility requirements of an externship far in advance of the application due date. Many nursing externships, for example, require that applicants have already completed CPR certification. Externships are beneficial because they can expose you to many different sub-areas within your main area of interest. Rather than wasting your time in a field of work that you find you cannot stand, you may be exposed to many career specialties in an externship program, by means of clinical rotation, for example. This exposure may help you make easier career choices.
Work-Study Programs
Before even having stepped into the classroom at a postsecondary institution, a student will have already learned one thing: education is incredibly expensive. Luckily, there are federal work-study programs to help finance the great expense of a postsecondary education. Students who participate in work-study programs go to school and work at least part-time. However, instead of their wages being spent on ramen noodles, any money they earn from a work-study program will go toward school-related expenses. Across the United States, there are approximately 3,400 postsecondary institutions participating in federal work-study. But in order to receive work-study, students must apply by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and by notifying their schools that they would like to be considered for work-study. Information that you provide concerning your income, your parents' income, the size of your household, and the number of family members attending postsecondary schools will determine the amount of federal work-study money that you are eligible to earn (ED.gov).
Participating in a federal work-study program will help you get ahead, because not only will it give you experience working outside of the library for once, it will help you pay for your education now so that you will have fewer loans later. Potential employers like to see that you are planning for the future, which will become evident by your participation in a work-study program.
