Leadership & Management

Summer Internship Program Challenges

Raymond Gordon · 4 Aug 2026

Our summer internship program starts shortly and we have 50 students joining us for 3 months, but I do not know how to effectively measure the success of this program, we have had issues in the past with interns not feeling engaged or valued. This year we want to make sure we provide them with meaningful work and a good experience, so they can become ambassadors for our company. We have a budget to send them to a few external training sessions, but I am not sure what type of training would be most beneficial, or how to balance their project work with their overall learning experience. How do other companies structure their summer internship programs to ensure interns are getting the most out of their time with us?

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4 replies

Madelyn Webb · 4 Aug 2026

I've seen a lot of companies struggle to make their internship programs really work, and it's often because they're not setting clear goals for what they want the interns to achieve. What specific skills or areas of knowledge are you hoping these 50 students will gain during their 3 months with you, and how will that inform the training sessions you send them to? We've had some success with companies using tools like LinkedIn Learning to provide targeted training, but I'd love to hear more about what you're trying to accomplish.

Penelope Richardson · 4 Aug 2026

Our company has had success with internships by setting clear goals and expectations from the start, we've found that regular check-ins with the interns and their managers can help identify any issues early on. I'm curious, what kind of work will these 50 students be doing, are they all in the same department or spread across different teams? We've used tools like SurveyMonkey to get feedback from our interns in the past, do you have any plans in place to collect feedback from this group of students?

Amara Barnes · 4 Aug 2026

Having recently joined a new company myself, I've seen how much of a difference a well-structured internship program can make to students. We used to work with around 20 interns at my previous employer and found that regular check-ins with their line managers, as well as a buddy system, really helped them feel supported and engaged. I'd suggest considering a feedback system, like the one we used which was based on a simple online survey tool, to get a sense of what's working and what's not throughout the internship.

Santiago Fisher · 4 Aug 2026

Given the limited timeframe of 3 months, I think we cannot underestimate the risk of burning out our permanent staff who will be supervising and mentoring these interns, so we should consider how to distribute their workload and provide them with support.