ANALYSIS
Internships’ Potential
Photo by: Maja Janevska-Ilieva
full-time in manufacturing or logistics over a six-week period.
engineering studies are now participating in internships in companies that recover program-related
costs from the industry promotion
association that runs the program.
According to US News & World
Report, “the internship pairs students in high school engineering and
manufacturing programs with area
companies.”3 The students work
3 “High School Students Head to Factories
for Internships,” US News & World Report,
June 22, 2015. http://www.usnews.com/
news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/06/22/
high-school-students-head-to-factories-forinternships
While the U.S. public sector (on
local and national levels) has always
been a popular employer of liberal
arts students, the latest internship
trend caused by government policy
was in fact meant to address a perceived skills gap harming American
competiveness in the hard sciences
and skilled manufacturing. In 2011, President
Barack Obama announced
the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP),
a $500 million project
that brings government,
industry and universities
together to “support the
creation of good jobs by
helping U.S. manufacturers reduce costs, improve
quality, and accelerate
product development.”4
college semesters, and are offered
in fields related to surface engineering, manufacturing systems,
machining technologies, additive
manufacturing, welding and more.
Here in Macedonia, the ESA took
a step in the right direction with
their programs that cover many
intern-related costs for companies who engage the officially unem-
With the views and
preferences of foreign
companies already
influencing local labor
market practices, both
the number and quality of
internship opportunities
are increasing.
Since industry’s current
specialized job needs outpace qualified graduate
numbers, internships are
naturally a key component of the
AMP. One example of a partner
in the program is the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, which offers research
internships for undergraduate and
graduate students at its “worldclass” applied research facility in
Virginia.5 Internships overlap with
4 “President Obama Launches Advanced
Manufacturing Partnership,” White House
Press Release, June 24, 2011. https://www.
whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/24/
president-obama-launches-advancedmanufacturing-partnership
5 “Intern at CCAM,” Commonwealth
Center for Advanced Manufacturing, April 20,
2015. http://www.ccam-va.com/job/interns
ployed young people (non-students),
something not generally allowed by
current Labor Law.6 Unfortunately,
these programs have been rather
limited in scope and do not strategically target certain skill sets or
industries. They also do not help
place current high school or university students in internships, since
they do not appear on ESA roles.
6 For example, the ESARM Direct Grant
Contract “Support to the Employment of
Young People, Long-Term Unemployed and
Women (II)” project funded by the European
Union
Continued on page 34
Summer 2015
Issue 46 7