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What is the Internship Program?

The internship program is a recent addition to our office. Formulated in 2004, this program has helped several students gain experience in the field of engineering prior to entering the workforce.

Unlike the co-op program, the internship program does not require as much commitment from students or employers. Students only work one or two terms with a company, and they usually work during the same season, such as working two summer terms for two years.

Students work at a company for at least ten weeks during the summer or at least sixteen weeks in the spring and fall semesters. In order for their experience to be considered an internship, they cannot work more than two terms with the same company and still be affiliated with this office. If a student chooses to work more on his or her own, that is acceptable. However, only the first two terms will be noted on their academic transcript.

Benefits

Your organization will get:

  • The opportunity to prescreen our most ambitious and enthusiastic students—the kind who thrive on challenge
  • The opportunity to evaluate temporary employees while deciding whether to make a permanent offer
  • An infusion of new ideas and methods
  • An excellent source of short term employees
  • The opportunity to train an employee in your particular methods and processes
  • Greater visibility on the UT campus
  • Participation in the educational process
  • Increased opportunities for technology transfer

Students will:

  • Bridge the gap between theoretical study and the professional world
  • Find out exactly what engineers do in order to decide if they want to spend their lives as engineers
  • Discover why they’re studying math, physics, and theory
  • Become professionals who can take their learning in the classroom and adapt it to the workplace
  • Get a head start on classroom learning by working with engineering principles on the job
  • Have Internship Program participation noted on their transcripts
  • Gain self-confidence and motivation and develop expertise in interacting with people
  • Become more attractive to employers because they’re already trained and can be productive immediately
  • Improve significantly the level of job and salary offers they get upon graduation
  • Develop professional behavior and social skills

UT will benefit through:

  • Better use of classrooms, laboratories and other facilities
  • Better relations with industry, government, and business
  • Better prepared students who are more desirable to employers and are ready to meet today’s challenging work environment.
  • Better educated students with leading edge technology training in the workplace as well as insight into professionalism and proper social behavior
  • Technology transfer
  • Fiscally responsible students
  • Better education to all students by students returning to school and sharing their experiences with professors and classmates
  • Partnerships with students and sponsoring corporations and be able to establish the Engineering Professional Practice program as one that is nationally recognized among students, parents, employers, and peer institutions

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