Internships are a great way of getting appropriate, invaluable and best of all, paid work experience. But competition for places is very high, especially at larger, better-known companies. Internships can also be quite expensive for those who are having to move location in order to work in said role, and as you can expect to not be earning as much as a full-time employee, this can cause problems of its own.
But with the growth in remote working in recent years, and the further expansion of digital services even at more “traditional” businesses, the option of taking a virtual internship could solve a lot of potential problems for both wannabe interns and potential employers. Here are 7 reasons why you should consider either offering or apply for a virtual internship.
If it’s a virtual internship, it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere.
As previously mentioned, having to relocate for an internship can cost an intern a lot if they are having to move to avoid increased travel or living expenses. By offering a virtual internship, employers can reduce any cost of travel for their interns, which is also helpful for them as it avoids having unnecessary bodies in the office, which can help cut the cost of everything from utilities to catering. Providing that the intern has a solid internet connection they can easily work from anywhere, which also means you can expand your pool of candidates out even further.
A virtual internship grants more opportunities for more applicants.
The benefits for applicants are that they can make the most of having the experience of working at a company they might have found it hard or not possible to get any kind of work with before. If geographical limitations are removed, then the pool of applicants to companies can increase exponentially, allowing for potentially stronger candidates to emerge for internships, and provide greater results to companies looking for interns.
An efficient, but flexible work schedule can save both interns and businesses time, as well as money.
An internship is not the most profitable existence for an intern but also hiring one for a company may not necessarily guarantee a return of investment, depending on what the expectation for their performance is. Allowing a virtual intern the choice to either complete set workloads in a certain number of hours, or follow a daily work schedule that maximises their productivity in as few hours as possible is beneficial to both parties. The intern is able to manage their time to maximum effect, and can then potentially balance the internship with other work to support themselves financially, whilst business’s are able to ensure they are not paying for unnecessary labour and maximising on productivity.
It capitalises on societies greater online literacy.
Nowadays, younger generations are spending far more of their time living digitally. Their ability to learn and develop new skills quicker is a massive selling point to what can make them efficient workers from a younger age. With creating more online internships, businesses can create faster methods of training specific candidates to do certain roles quicker, and potential interns can capitalise on their computer literacy skills and take a big step towards full-time employment right away.
It reduces pressure on all parties.
It is no secret some people find office environments intimidating. A virtual internship reduces the pressure of adapting to a new environment for starting interns, as well as reducing the amount of oversight they require if they are working in a purely digital medium. Introducing a comfortable buffer via working online gives interns an idea of what real work is, but does not put them under the same amount of pressure from physically being there, creating a more positive and productive working environment.
Effective management of resources.
Having all your interns working in a virtual internship allows for less time to be spent having to allocate various workplace resources. You do not need to spend as much time investing in new hardware for more people. What you can do instead is invest more time into learning protocols and training programs, that can be accessed anywhere by an intern or new employee, allowing them to train in their own time and develop skills with supervision when required. This saves more time, and money, for everyone.
Encourages more open opportunities and less discrimination.
Whilst it isn’t the most pleasant of topics, discrimination in workplace environments or by recruiters is still not something that has been completely eradicated from working life. If you’re wanting an internship, then a virtual one should be able to ensure you don’t face any kind of discrimination or selection bias based on your background. For a business, this is a chance to potentially expand on workplace diversity, and also be seen as an equal opportunist, which will, in turn, increase the number of applicants you get for roles in the future.
Ready to find an internship? Check out our Internship search page on Careersaas.