By Theresa Witham
Does your credit union work with interns? An internships program can be so beneficial to all involved: students, credit union employees and the CU as a whole.
Bringing in college (or even high school students) to do real work in the credit union can help train future employees. Plus when you are recruiting at school campuses, it gets your CU’s name in front of the coveted Gen Y demographic.
The intern gains valuable work experience while the CU gets extra help. (But be careful with unpaid vs. paid internship programs. Read more in this CUES Skybox post I wrote.)
Plus an internship program can help provide leadership training to high potential employees who could someday move up in your organization. Pairing interns with those employees is a great way for an employee without any supervisory experience to try out that role.
If you are interested in working with interns, check out the African-American Credit Union Coalition’s program. The goal of the program is to “promote awareness and opportunities for African American students attending colleges and universities of the benefits of working in a credit union environment.”
Students majoring in business, finance, accounting, marketing and computer science with a C+ average or better are encouraged to apply. Interns work eight to 10 weeks in a summer and are paid $9.50-$12 per hour, depending on the region of the hiring credit union .
The program, which typically places about 24 interns per year, is open to all credit unions. Contact Tracey Jackson, CCUFC, senior financial analyst at MECU of Baltimore Inc., if your credit union would like to participate.
Theresa Witham (a former CUES intern) is a CUES editor.
Read a blog post by the editorial intern who worked at CUES last summer.
