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Internships In Industry

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A School-to-Industry Talent Bridging Partnership

We are pleased to introduce our newest initiative, Internships In Industry (I3), an ETEC-led partnership with schools, students, and companies to bridge the gap between the classroom and experience through internships. Click here to download the flyer.

East Tennessee Economic Council member companies are invited to participate in this innovative new program. This program connects high school junior and senior students from Oak Ridge, Anderson County, and Clinton High Schools with businesses and manufacturers in short, easy-to-manage internships.

Please help us spread the word to suppliers and partner companies in your industry. Let’s give our future workforce a reason to stay in the area and a chance to become exemplary employees. Thank you for helping ETEC to grow and sustain our future workforce.

Details & Sign Up

To participate in the program click here to fill out the registration/interest form. Or, keep reading to check out all the details:

What you get – A junior or senior high school student who is interested in your industry where you get to set the type of experience you want to provide, and the time spent at your place of business. It can be as simple as a job shadow experience, or they can complete a project.

The schools are intentional to place students in a work-based learning experience that is aligned with their program of study. The student will already taken coursework related to your field. There will be a teacher who will be the point of contact for you as the employer. This teacher will supervise and oversee the student’s program of learning and will visit the site at least once during the internship.

What the student gets – Career and technical education credit at the high school level, valuable experience in your industry that can influence future college and career paths. This will also count toward the new State of Tennessee Industry 4.0 diploma distinction.

Timing Details –

  • Applications will be taken until July 1, 2023, which is a couple of weeks before the semester begins.
  • Students would be at your facility to start working during the 1st week of August and be there until mid-December.
  • After July 1, please sign up to be considered for future entry or for other semesters.
  • The recommendation is 18 weeks, which is one semester, but there is flexibility. Internships are also available in 6-week or 9-week blocks.
  • Students are available daily between 12:00-4:00 p.m. and can work 15-20 hours per week depending on the student’s schedule and employer’s needs.
  • Students generally start their jobs on site the second week of each semester. Students are not expected by the school to work over school breaks and are not allowed to work on snow days.
  • Additional hours the student and employer wish to arrange during official school breaks (such as summer internships) will be determined by the employer and employee and will not be considered part of the Work Based Learning (WBL) course expectations.

Cost – Student Work Based Learning internships should have reasonable and customary hourly wages, with a recommendation of $12.00-15.00 per hour (or what your company is prepared to offer).

What happens at school: Teachers of WBL students will begin the semester with students inside the classroom, going over worker expectations, course standards, and required paperwork to be signed by school employees and employer partners.

What the school would like: The school would like this experience give students exposure to what they call “All Aspects of an Industry.” This includes Business Planning, Management, Health, Safety and Environment, Finance, Community Issues, Principles of Technology, Personal Work Habits, Labor, and Technical and Production Skills.

How to sign up – Fill out and submit the simple form below.

What happens next – A representative from the schools will contact you to find out more information and will match you with a student(s).

Not sure what you would do with a student?

  • Try sending a survey to your employees and ask them for ideas. One of our companies did that and they expanded their preference for an intern from 6 weeks to the full 18 weeks.
  • Contact Holly or Kelly (see contact information above) to see what tasks other companies are having interns do.
  • You may be surprised how a student can also find more things that need to be done while working on a particular project. These are bright young minds that can fill in gaps that you might not know exist.
For more detailed questions contact representatives from the Oak Ridge and Anderson County Schools:

Dr. Holly Cross
Supervisor of Career and Technical Education
Oak Ridge Schools
1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike | Oak Ridge, TN 37830
EMAIL | (865) 425-9557
www.ortn.edu
Click here for the School Calendar for 2023-2024

Kelly Myers
Director of Career and Technical Education
Anderson County Schools
101 S. Main Street | Clinton, TN 37716
EMAIL | (865) 463-2800 ext.2812
https://acs.ac/  | https://acctc.acs.ac/
Click here for the School Calendar for 2023-2024

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