Internships offer students unique opportunities to learn the skills they need to thrive in a global knowledge economy. Every high school and college in America needs an internship program, and this important book is a unique and vital resource for accomplishing this goal.
What better way to prepare our young people for the future than to give them authentic access to real world experiences? As a 30-year high school principal, I will view my most fulfilling legacy as having established internships for ALL students in my schools. To this day, former students describe these dynamic opportunities as among the most powerful in their educational careers. This book provides a road map for secondary schools and community colleges to build internships that are authentic, engaging, and result in our young people making highly personal and informed career decisions.
Internships for Today’s World offers something for any educator or business contemplating real-life work experiences for students. The book provides solid rationales for incorporating internships into schooling, examples of validations and feedback from students, business leaders, and educators, as well as details that could only be provided by authors who spent time in corporate management and more than a decade providing “matches” among students and intern sites at the nation’s premier and longest-standing external learning school, City-as-School, New York City. What to look for in prospective sites, how to make matches, pitfalls to avoid, linking assessment to practice — all are covered. The book can offer much to the field and to individuals at any stage of creating and maintaining quality external learning experiences.
The authors bring the world of student internships, externships, practicums and projects into an exciting and yet utilitarian book that will aid the imaginative educator in creating 'real world' experiences for learners.
Joan McLachlan has understood and practiced learner-centered, experiential education for decades. I first met her when she was doing that at City-as-School, one of the oldest and best public alternatives. She has co-authored a book about the core of that program — internships. In using this book the reader will understand what internships are and how to help students do them effectively. As we continue in the new millennium this approach will greatly increase in significance, as more and more new jobs are created that didn’t exist just a few years ago.
As founder and CEO of a regional airline, and a Massachusetts State Senator, I’ve experienced the great strength of well-conceived intern programs to bring a new generation into the workplace, enhancing both private and public sectors. Internships develop experience and relationships, keys to landing that all-important first job. But this is a two-way street: Some of my most satisfying moments have come as a manager and mentor to interns who have brought wonderful skills and insights to the teams they’ve joined. This book is a great primer for how to get to that win-win result.
Joan McLachlan and Patricia Hess have written a book that offers real hope for providing meaningful learning experiences for students that complement and fortify in-school learning. A recent national study demonstrated that only 28% of students are intellectually engaged in our schools, but internships offer opportunities for 100 % engagement. Realistically, school is not an ideal environment for providing all the necessary opportunities for becoming an adult. Instead, school is a particular kind of environment, honoring individualism and cognitive development. It imposes dependence on, and withholds responsibility from, students. We have lost sight of young people's potential for responsibility. Internships, as outlined in Internships for Today's World: A Practical Guide for High Schools and Community Colleges, provides opportunities for accepting responsibility and offering real opportunities for students to feel and to be useful. It offers a practical guide for establishing a quality, sustainable internship program. This book provides conclusive evidence of the power of internships for student engagement and learning.
Internships are extremely valuable in helping young people find the right competences and the right life skills to begin their career. These guided career engagements offer students real-world experiences desired by all employers and will also leave lasting career and personal values with the students. This unique publication, Internships for Today’s World does provide practical guides and suggestions for creating and maintaining quality research-based internship programs. It is a must-read for all high school and community college leaders desiring a successful internship program.
Internships for Today's World is a superb primer on the whys and hows of an effective internship program. Its clear language and comprehensive scope will enable any school to set up such a program and extract maximum benefit for its students. I cannot praise the book highly enough.
Internships for Today’s World by Joan E. McLachlan and Patricia Hess is that rare occurrence — a practical handbook and blueprint for setting-up internships as well as the philosophical rationale for doing so. Field-tested practices and implementation guidelines developed through research and best practices are yours to research, to assess, and to apply to your individual learning community — be it high school, university, or organization in the private or public sector. This book — a thoughtful, pragmatic offering — underscores the need for true development of a work-based partnership which serves the intern as a career exploration experience and the learning resource (the organization offering the internship), a rationale for the internship, most welcome staff assistance, and possible staff recruitment. This book will provide a welcome resource, saving hours of false starts, conceptual cul-de-sacs, and conserve energy used to design, to create, and to implement effective internships.
Internships are one of the most powerful transformative experiences that a high school or community college student can have. They literally become a reality-based journey that opens the student’s mind to the world beyond the school’s walls. They are unquestionably a superior preparation for college and careers. Internships for Today’s World is a must read for high school and community college educators. It offers a practical guide to developing meaningful internship programs. The authors’ in-depth insights and recommendations equip all educators with the tools to bring a high quality internship program to their schools.
