Internship Program

Benefits to Employers:

• Internships provide a continual pool of pre-screened, highly motivated employees.
• Internships allow you to handle staffing needs with creativity and flexibility-freeing permanent employees to do more advanced or higher priority work.
• Internships provide completion of special projects and fill the gap during peak work loads.
• Internships reduce recruitment costs and lower training costs.
• New ideas and fresh insights are brought to the company.
• Internship students returning to campus are great public relations agents-they have a very positive effect for future recruiting and hiring efforts.
• Internships help maintain an on-going positive relationship with the university that complements the organizational or corporate goals that focus on community involvement.

NACE Internship Standards

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has set the following standards to ensure that an experience is education and thus eligible to be considered a legitimate internship, all of the following criteria must be met:

• The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.
• The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.
• The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications.
• There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student's academic coursework.
• There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.
• There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor.
• There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

To become an Internship Employer:

• Determine which functional area would be best served by using students from the program and develop written position descriptions.
• Determine who will select, supervise, mentor and evaluate students.
• Develop an orientation or training plan for students.
• Review Internship Program Guidelines according to the CSULB Employer Services Guidelines for approval guidelines.
• Third Party Recruiters please refer to Services for Third Party Recruiter Guidelines according to the CSULB Employer Services Guidelines.
• To post an internship opportunity use BeachLINK- Online Job & Internship Posting Service

Unpaid Internships:

The U.S. Department of Labor established the following 6 criteria in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to determine if an internship or training program can be excluded from the minimum wage requirement.

• The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
• The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
• The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
• The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
• The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
• The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

(Note: The FLSA makes a special exemption for individuals who volunteer for a state or local government agency and for individuals who volunteer for humanitarian, religious, charitable, civic purposes to non-profit organizations.)

If you have any questions, please contact the Internship Program Coordinator at 562-985-5552.