Invest in Your Company with a Summer Internship

This is a challenging time for every business. Each day companies are forced to make critical decisions about how to spend their limited resources and to consider where they will get the greatest return. An investment in our region’s youth is a positive investment for your company.

For the third consecutive year, the Chamber and Mayor Michael Nutter are encouraging regional employers’ — from large corporations to small businesses — to provide a paid summer internship at their workplace or fund a position at a nonprofit organization.

The benefits of internships are two-fold. Interns help grow your business by boosting summer productivity and providing support to keep projects on-time and on-budget. They are a source of enthusiastic, temporary, inexpensive labor. Internships are also a long-term investment in our region’s success because they give young people the tools and experience necessary to become capable future employees.

Each position costs the employer about $1,600, which includes intern salary and program administration for the six-week program. Interns work at least 20 hours per week Monday through Thursday and attend professional development programs offsite on Fridays. The program begins July 6. Internships are open to Philadelphia students who will enter 11th grade or higher in the fall. All students are pre-screened and interviewed by the prospective employers.

Despite the troubled economy, the Chamber is encouraging the business community to replicate the 1,500 internships that employers provided last summer. So far, 543 positions have been committed for 2009.

The 1,500 positions provided last year represent nearly a 50 percent increase over 2007 when the Chamber helped to identify 1,049 positions. And this is a significant improvement over 2006, when 441 youth were placed.

The Chamber’s managing partner in identifying internships is WorkReady Philadelphia, which is managed by the Philadelphia Youth Network in collaboration with dozens of public and private organizations including Philadelphia Academies, Inc. and the United Way of Southeastern PA. The corporate partner is TD Bank.

For more information or to get involved, contact 215-790-3732 or visit greaterphilachamber.com.