Internships for high school students

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Many industries are looking for the next generation of workers. This has made internships for high school students increasingly popular.

As a high school student these opportunities can help you with your future. They can provide insight about deciding on a future career, support you in getting into college, and build your skills. Keep reading to explore how high school internships can impact your future.

Why are internships for high school students important?

The way in which high school students enter the workforce is changing. Employers need more workers and there is a labor shortage making employers look for talent much sooner then in the past.

High schools are looking to offer more work based experiences such as internships for their students to align with the needs of employers and the overall economy. This has also created more opportunities.

Further, colleges now like to see more than just academics on applications. One of the items that are becoming more important during the application process is real world work experience.

Internships for high school students offer a great opportunity for students to take advantage of all of these things.

Which industries offer internships for high school students?

While there is a growing labor shortage across all industries, some need workers the most. These ones are good to look at as students for high school internships. Further, those associated with technology as well are good candidates. Finally, ones that take longer to develop talent are also prime candidates for high school internships. Below are some of these industries.

Medical Industry

There is a lot of growth and innovation in the medical industry. Popular job roles include nurses and doctors. Check out this medical internship for high school students at Stanford.

Cyber security internships for high school students

Protecting data has made cyber security a growing field. Popular job roles include an analyst, engineer, project manager and consultant. At CyberForward Academy, we offer a high school cyber security internship program.

3d printing and marketing

Marketing has rapidly grown as organizations have more ways to do it. From in person to on-line this is a growing field and could make a good place for internships for high school students. Roles include print workers, graphic analysts, and sales professionals. Spyder Labs offers high school 3d printing and marketing internships.

IT internships for high school students

No matter the industry technology is a part of all businesses. This makes this a growing field. Information technology roles include IT analysts, software developers and administrators. Here is an IT program at Microsoft for high school students.

Benefits from internships for high school students

There are many benefits to a high school internship. Below are some of the specifics for high school students.

Internships for high school students are free!

While you may or may not get paid for high school internships as a student, they will never cost you anything. So this is training, experience and development that will not cost you anything. Something that builds your value and does not cost anything except time is a great deal.

See what you like and don’t like

When you take high school internships for students it let’s you see a job or career field first hand. This can let you see if the work or environment is something that you like and are interested in. As important, perhaps you learn that you don’t like a particular career area. This information is really helpful when making future career decisions.

Work experience

Work experience is what gets people future jobs. It is something you can put on your future resume and is your history of jobs and work related experience. When you are in high school, it is normal to not have much work experience, if any. Internships let you begin to get this crucial experience and skills.

Get high school credit

Some high school internship opportunities will give students high school credit for taking the internship. This is great as it can support you towards graduating high school in this instance. Make sure to check with your guidance counselor or a program administrator what credit an internship offers.

Improve your college application

Internships you have performed while in high school can be added to your college applications. There has been a recent trend for this experience to be considered during the application process.

Makes you job ready earlier

Many popular industries that need workers have jobs that take years of training to be ready for. An example would be jobs in technology. When you start the development process in high school you become ready for these harder positions much sooner.

Introduction to interviews

Interviews are meetings with potential employers where they ask you questions to see if you are right for a job. internships commonly have interviews just like any other job. As a result, internships present a great opportunity to practice interviews. Even better, you get the practice whether you get the job or even if you don’t.

Meet experts

When you get an internship you get to meet workers in an industry or career area you are interested in. This is a great opportunity to network and build connections with these people. It also lets you learn from them as you develop in a career area.

Build confidence

Career development is new for those in high school. There are a lot of unknowns which can make it scary. Preparing and interviewing for internships can start to remove some of these unknowns. This generally leads to confidence for high school students.

Getting internships for high school students

Below are some simple steps to find an internship.

1. Talk to your teacher, career counselor or ROP

The first step is to talk with others that can help you set goals, insight and help with opportunities. A great place to start is with your family and teachers. They know you and can recommend options that make sense.

You can also ask your guidance or career counselor at school. They are aware of what opportunities exist and can guide you. They can also help with answering what school credit you might get from an opportunity.

Finally, your local Regional Occupational Program, or ROP is another great resource. These programs partner with schools to offer career centric courses and opportunities.

2. Are summer or semester internships better?

Before you move on to finding specific internships, you will want to determine when to do it. The most common times to take a high school internship is during the summer or during a semester. Summer internships are generally shorter at 6-8 weeks, but longer during each day. Semester internships are generally 13 weeks but are shorter per day.

The advantage to summer internships are they allow an intern to be more focused on the internship. The downside is this may consume your summer break. The advantage to semester programs is they allow you to do other things while you do the internship. The downside is this is one more thing to manage schedule wise amongst other coursework and commitments.

3. Find available internships for high school students

By the end of your conversations from step 1 you should have good insight to move forward. This should include determining your internship goals and then finding opportunities that can meet those goals.

Once you identify an internship, you will want to first prepare to apply for it. Preparation includes developing a resume and cover letter. With these developed you will want to apply for the position.

4. Interview

Before the interview, it is important to research and adequately prepare yourself regarding the opportunity. Learn about the company as well as those that will be interviewing. Ready questions that you can ask during the interview.

If you can practice with mock interviews. This will let you get more comfortable with the interview process. Finally, after the interview make sure to send a thank you.

Next Steps

A great next step would be to take a look at the high school development pathway or assess your current tech skills to see which internships might be right for you.