Top Companies Continue to Hire Interns from DePaul

With the economy struggling and the job market continuing to tighten, employers are looking to hire college graduates who have workplace experience. One of the most valuable ways students can gain this sort of experience is through an internship.

To this end, DePaul University has seen a dramatic rise in the number of students taking part in its University Internship Program (UIP), which is a broad-based internship course that focuses on students learning a wide range of general workplace skills, rather than a specific discipline. Launched in the summer of 1999, UIP is a unique opportunity that allows students to carve an entry-level path into the working world. Students learn key skills essential for an organization, as well and complete an accompanying course that teaches such out-of-curriculum topics as conflict resolution and workplace ethics. This winter, 244 students are participating in the program, an increase of 54 percent over the previous year. That number is expected to top 300 by this spring.

“With the economy where it is, more and more employers are seeking employees with experience, and an internship can be a pipeline to that experience and a good career,” said Carol Montgomery, associate vice president for alumni and career networks at DePaul. “Internships make students more marketable.”

Internships also can give students an advantage at landing a job with companies where they worked as an intern. A survey late last year by the National Association of Colleges and Employers noted that companies made permanent job offers to more than 56 percent of the interns they hired.

Students in the UIP program receive course credit for the internships, which typically last about 10-12 weeks. Participants typically earn between $9 and $15 per hour. However, there are a number of unpaid opportunities, too. “In the past few months, we’ve seen a slight rise in the number of unpaid internships that employers are offering,” Montgomery said. “However, the number of paid internship opportunities we are seeing is holding steady.”

DePaul students have worked as interns at a number of Fortune 500 companies, and that trend continues.

Approximately 120 available internship positions offered by a diverse group of companies are currently listed for DePaul students. In addition, employers still have been visiting DePaul’s campuses to recruit interns and other employees.

Montgomery said UIP provides a new option for students to participate in an internship outside of the departmental internships in their respective majors. Hundreds of additional DePaul students take part in these types of internships each year.

“We focus on the types of general skills and practices you wouldn’t get in an internship that was confined to a student’s major,” she said.

Founded in 1898 by the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) Catholic religious community, DePaul follows a mission that emphasizes academic excellence, service to the community, access to education and respect for the individual. DePaul is the largest Catholic university in the United States.

In addition to its Lincoln Park and Loop campuses in Chicago, DePaul has campuses in Lake Forest (Barat and Conway Park), Des Plaines (O’Hare Campus), Rolling Meadows, Naperville and Oak Forest (South Campus). DePaul also offers MBA and bachelor’s degree programs in Hong Kong, and MBA programs in Bahrain and the Czech Republic.