Handshake is the most trusted student and recent-graduate virtual recruiting platform. It has been implemented by almost all University of Wisconsin System campuses, the Wisconsin Technical College System, and most of Wisconsin’s private colleges and universities, including Northland. This means posting your jobs and internships on the platform can reach almost all Wisconsin college students and recent alumni (and those at many schools across the country) in a few clicks. It’s also simple to limit postings so they’re only seen by students at specific schools, or who are in identified majors, academic years, etc.

Signing up is easy (and free). Begin by creating an employer account in just a few minutes. Then request approval from any schools you are looking to recruit at—including Northland—and after that, post your jobs/internships so they will be seen by students at the schools you’ve been approved by. If you need help along the way, check out these step-by-step tutorials, or reach out to Northland’s Office of Career Services.

A field experience or internship course allows students to earn academic credit in the workplace. Positions may be paid or unpaid but must have learning opportunities appropriate to the student’s major and professional goals. While gaining practical, hands-on work experience in a professional setting, interns contribute to the mission and work of the organization. Our goal is to have a mutually beneficial arrangement for students and employers.

Student Eligibility

Students may do an internship or field experience at any class standing. Northland does not have a minimum GPA requirement, but employers are welcome to set their own criteria for interns, such as minimum class standing or GPA, and required skill/experience qualifications.

Recruiting and Hiring Timelines

Most students complete an internship over the course of one semester, but some internships span the duration of the school year or over multiple semesters. Review the academic calendar for the term you are seeking a student.

Hiring an Intern

We do not place interns with organizations. We ask that employers take primary responsibility for recruiting and selecting an intern as this has led to better experiences for both students and employers. Northland College allows students to intern on-site or virtually.

We utilize Handshake for student recruiting. To get started, sign up for a (free) employer account. Through this site, you can search, view, recruit, and message students who share their public profiles and resumes or follow you as a favorite employer. We will help promote posted positions by sharing them in targeted communications to students and faculty. Employers may choose to make posters and/or recruit on campus as well. We’re happy to help you with these efforts.

Articles

• Create an Employer Account, Join a Company and Connect with Schools
• How to Post a Job
• Step-by-step guide to internship supervisor approval 

Videos

• Virtual Career Fairs Demo for Employers
• Internship Supervisor Approval Process How-To

The Office of Career Services offered a virtual training for employers interested in offering internships to Northland students. You can see the presentation recording or download the slides.

How do I recruit an intern?

Northland utilizes Handshake for student recruiting. To get started, sign up for a (free) employer account. Through this site, you can search, view, recruit and message students who share their public profiles and resumes or follow you as a ‘favorite employer’. If a student follows your organization, it will trigger notifications to be sent when you post positions. We will help promote posted positions by sharing them in targeted communications to students and faculty. Employers may choose to make posters and/or recruit on campus as well. We’re happy to help you with these efforts.

Can I offer an unpaid internship?

It depends. The Federal Department of Labor published a fact sheet which lists the qualifying points to determine if an unpaid experience can be deemed an internship, and not violate labor laws. As outlined in this document, courts have identified seven factors needed to pass this test. The overall idea, is that the primary benefit from the experience must be for the student, rather than the organization. Generally, public sector and non-profit charitable organizations where the intern volunteers without expectation of compensation, are permissible. With that in mind, Northland encourages all partners to examine this point closely. Paid internships (even if by stipend) or those that offer other benefits will almost always be more attractive and elicit a larger pool of qualified student applicants.

What application materials should I request?

Organizations request any combination of the following from students: resume, letter of interest, cover letter, references, application. Most organizations require an interview, either by phone or in-person. These requirements help students learn job application skills and ensure the student has the skills or experience employers are seeking. Contact the Office of Career Services once you have offered a position to an intern.

Can a student receive internship credit for a job they currently have?

Yes, but only if the student’s job duties can be aligned with their academic programming and goals and they receive new training while also developing new, relevant skills during the internship timeframe.

How many hours will the intern be at my workplace?

Credit is awarded based on the number of hours that are spent at the position. Some organizations specify the amount of hours/week and others leave this flexible and work with the student’s interests and schedule. Please note, the estimated breakdowns for credit are:

What paperwork will I need to complete?

We require a signed internship agreement with for-profit organizations who host unpaid, for-credit internships. For all organizations, supervisors need to complete an agreement between an employer, the student, and a Northland College faculty instructor. This agreement, which is completed through Handshake, includes the number of hours the intern will work, the number of credits they will earn, a description of the work, and the learning goals the intern has for the experience. At the end of the semester, the faculty instructor will contact the intern’s supervisor to confirm that the internship was completed. The faculty instructor will determine whether adequate learning occurred, which will govern if credit is earned. Often this will overlap with work or projects completed, but not always.

What additional considerations should I be aware of?

We want all involved in an opportunity to find it rewarding. To do that, it’s important you have carefully reflected on whether your organization can truly support a student intern. This internal audit list of questions may help. We also work to ensure all internships align with the Federal Department of Labor (DOL) guidelines. In 2018, the DOL published a fact sheet which lists the qualifying points to determine if an experience can be deemed an internship. Though it is geared toward unpaid experiences, the points are still widely regarded as best-practice considerations for all prospective internship partner organizations.

What legal expectations and Northland-specific responsibilities must be followed?

Internships and field experiences involve four people; the student, internship supervisor, faculty supervisor, and student career advisor. This Internship/Field Experience Responsibilities Agreement explains the requirements and expectations for each person involved. Additional information about legal responsibilities was covered in this employer internship training video.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Office of Career Services.

After a student accepts an internship position, they have the option of choosing to register it for credit within the aligning academic term. To do this, they must submit the required information through their student Handshake account in a tool called “experiences”. They would have gathered some of that information from you, such as details about the position, duties and projects they’ll complete, the estimated hours per week, and your contact information.

Their submission will trigger a chain of approvals from all involved. As the internship supervisor, you will be the first to approve that the information the student submitted about the experience at your organization is accurate. Watch a short video about how to do this Internship Supervisor Approval Process How-To. If you have any questions, please direct them toward the student career advisor.

Registered experiences are preferable for internship supervisors, because it means there will be additional support and supervision available through the College for the experience.

A faculty supervisor (professor teaching in the department the credit is being registered under) and the student career advisor (who vets all experiences and ensures they align with federal, state, and College-specific requirements) will act as resources for you and the student throughout the duration of the internship. You can read more about each person’s responsibilities in the Internship/Field Experiences Responsibilities Agreement.

Northland College provides equal employment and educational opportunity on the basis of merit without discrimination due to age, race, ethnicity, color, sex, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, veterans’ status, or disability.

This policy applies to all Northland employees, students, volunteers, contractors, and agents; all educational programs, activities, opportunities; all persons participating in or accessing Northland sponsored programs or activities.

Northland College is obligated to provide a safe environment for students and comply with Title IX, which protects individuals from discrimination based on sex in any educational program or activity operated by recipients of federal financial assistance. Sexual harassment is one form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX. Northland takes its Title IX obligations seriously and works to foster an environment for students free of sexual harassment.

Although the Northland student is off-site during their internship, research or service experience, the requirement to maintain a discrimination-free environment is still applicable. As such, we count on our off-campus host sites to ensure all employees treat our students professionally and respectfully.

Examples of these unprofessional behaviors include:

• Using sexual innuendos, making jokes of a sexual nature, making comments about physical appearance or asking inappropriately personal questions
• Physical touching without expressed verbal consent, including repeatedly standing too close to or brushing up against a person
• Assigning work duties based on gender and not based on merit

Care should also be taken to ensure that the real or perceived authority of your employees is not used in a way that would make a student feel the need to engage in unwanted activity in order to receive future academic benefits. Examples include:

• Asking a student (who may be counting on you for work, a special project, a recommendation, a reference, etc.) for a date, a personal phone number, or to engage in off-duty activities one-on-one
• Emailing, texting, posting on social media messages of a personal affection, requests to socialize, date, or inappropriate pictures

Care must be taken to ensure that all individuals comply with Northland’s expectation that the environment remain focused on respect and free of sexual harassment. If you see or hear of behavior that violates this expectation, you are encouraged to intervene, speak up, or contact Northland College’s Title IX coordinator at 715-682-1841.

Thank you for joining us in supporting our students’ academic endeavors and professional goals by building and maintaining respectful relationships. Read more about the Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy.

Title IX Campus Contacts

The Organizational Audit was originally printed in The Internship as Partnership by Bob Inkster and Roseanna Ross (published by the National Society for Experiential Education in 1998.) In consultation with the authors, Intern Bridge offers the follow­ing revised list.

How serious is my organization about hosting an internship program?

• Is my organization committed co working with universities?
• Will my organizational culture be supportive of an internship program?

What can interns do for us? What are our goals?

• Does my organization have meaningful work for interns to complete? Are there special technical skills we need in interns?
• Do we want to use the internship program to identify, test, and recruit interns as potential new employees?
• Would an intern’s naïveté and inexperience actually be an asset for our organization, providing a fresh perspective on our produces or services? Or would a naïve intern actually be dangerous to self and to others in certain positions?

What human resources do we have to support an intern?

• Can my organization provide an individual with efficient supervisory skills co work with interns?
• Can my organization provide an individual with sufficient time to organize the program?
• In which departments might interns work?

Does my organization have the time to support an intern?

• What is the best time of year for my organization to hose interns?
• What should the duration of individual internships be?

What physical resources do we have to support an intern? For example,

• A safe, adequate workspace
• Access co computers
• Internet access
• Telephone and fax
• Other communication resources
• Adequate reference resources
• Parking
• Access to people who would be colleagues, resources, or internal clients

What financial resources do we have?

• Will my organization be able to afford to pay a salary to interns? If so, how much?
• What remuneration, instead of salary, can we provide? (Parking, stipend, etc.)

This fact sheet provides general information to help determine whether interns and students working for “for-profit” employers are entitled to minimum wages and overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act