Creating Internship Programs that Produce Results

April 03, 2007 - April 04, 2007
Kansas City, Missouri,

Internships can be used for strategic advantage against your competitors if they are done correctly. However, if not taken seriously, internship programs can be detrimental to your employer brand and your ability to recruit the upcoming talent. This two-day workshop will give those that currently have interns scheduled for the summer to evaluate and tweak their program to be sure that interns have a positive experience. For those that are considering developing an internship program this workshop will give you some good pointers to get started and help you avoid some of the common mistakes companies make. Take your internship program to the next level!

From this workshop you will learn:

The benefits of a successful internship program
How to get support from management
How to get students excited about your internship program
Examples of work projects and programs that are meaningful for the student and provide value to the employer
What you should (and should not) provide in your program
And, other helpful pointers to make your internship an effective component of your overall recruiting plan

As an added bonus, all organizations participating in this workshop will be eligible to participate in a market research project regarding interns expectations. AgCareers.com will facilitate a third-party survey of all interns that your organization has selected for the summer prior to their start date. This first survey will ask them about the company's intern recruitment process and about their expectations of their internship. Upon completing their internship programs, student interns will be surveyed again to see how well expectations were met. The individual company results will be provided back to each company (respondent identity will be kept anonymous), but you will also receive a report of the overall survey's responses so that you can compare your results to those of other organizations participating.

Bob Broeckelman, Farm Credit

Bob Broeckelman, Ph.D. is the Director of Employment and Training at USAgBank headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, part of the $120 Billion Farm Credit System which serves farmers and ranchers throughout the United States. Bob’s responsibility is to assist the bank, associations and their branches with their selection and training of new personnel throughout 11 states in the southwestern part of the United States. Through extensive research on each position and the applicants for the position, a concentrated effort is given to match the right person with the right job. Over the past eighteen years, turnover has dropped from as high as 28 per cent, down to three to four per cent.

Bob has received three degrees from Kansas State University, his most recent in 1988, when he completed his Ph.D. in Adult and Occupation Education with an emphasis in management and human resources. He taught high school vocational agriculture at Norton High School for 5 years and was on the Kansas State University staff serving as the Executive Secretary of the Kansas Association of FFA and Kansas Young Farmers Association for the State of Kansas for five years prior to coming to Farm Credit Bank of Wichita, now USAgBank over 24 years ago.

He has been very active in the community as well as the school system. He recently served on the Maize High School Site Council; is Past President of the Rotary Club of West Wichita; Past Chairman of the Rotary Vocational Services Committee; and past vice-president of the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Pastoral Council. He has served as the past president of the Kansas State University Ag Alumni Association; member of the Kansas State University Alumni Association, past president of the Wichita Chapter of Administrative Management Association, and past president of the Autumn Ridge Homeowners Association. In 1970, he was instrumental in starting the first State FFA Alumni Association (Kansas) in the United States.

He is married to Bunny, a kindergarten teacher at Central Elementary School in Maize and has three married children --Ashley (daughter) a graduate from Kansas State University in Elementary Education and is teaching 5^th grade in the Maize School System. Brooks (son) a graduate of Kansas State University is a pilot for Atlantic Southeast Airlines ASA, affiliated with Delta Airlines in Atlanta, Georgia and Barry (Son) a graduate of Kansas State University and is presently a student at the Kansas University Medical School in the process of completing his clinicals (3^rd year) in Wichita, Kansas.

Stephanie Chipman, University of Missouri-Columbia

Stephanie Chipman is currently the Director of Career Services for the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. She has worked at MU for the last two and one-half years. Prior to joining the MU CAFNR team, Stephanie worked in career services at both Truman State