FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2009
Contact: Sarah Howe
202-775-9111

UNCLE SAM TO HIRE 60,000 INTERNS IN 2009; PARTNERSHIP FOR PUBLIC SERVICE RELEASES LEAVING TALENT ON THE TABLE: THE NEED TO CAPITALIZE ON HIGH PERFORMING STUDENT INTERNS REPORT

WASHINGTON – College students looking for well-paid, meaningful internships take note: Uncle Sam is hiring.

According to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, the federal government will hire about 60,000 student interns in 2009. There will be jobs for every academic major at more than 100 federal agencies including the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and even at the White House.

However, a new Partnership for Public Service report released today, Leaving Talent on the Table: The Need to Capitalize on High Performing Student Interns, found that few of these student interns will be hired for full-time, civil service jobs upon graduation.

According to the organization’s research, nearly 60,000 students were employed by federal agencies in 2007, but only 3,939 or seven percent of the interns were converted into permanent jobs. This record contrasts sharply with the private sector, which converts more than 50 percent of its student interns into permanent positions.

"Internships are the best way to test a prospective employee’s skills, fit and attitude,” said Max Stier, Partnership president and CEO, at the release of the Leaving Talent on the Table report at The George Washington University. “The federal government needs to do a much better job of evaluating its interns and inviting top performers to stay. Right now, student interns are simply overlooked as a source of talent.”

According to the report, two key factors are driving the government’s lackluster performance in converting interns into full-time civil servants:

• The majority of interns are hired under programs not set up to lead to permanent employment. Most interns (about 45,000) were enrolled in the Student Temporary Experience Program (STEP) that is not designed for conversion. Thousands of others who work in unpaid agency internships or who are paid by third-party organizations also have no easy route to transitioning to a permanent job. Only the lesser-used Student Career Experience Program (SCEP) offers a built-in mechanism for agencies to offer permanent employment to interns with desirable skills.
  
  
• Federal internship programs are decentralized, fractured and difficult for student internship seekers to navigate. There is no centralized registry for internship postings. Even within a single agency, there are often several internship programs managed separately. In addition, there is uneven knowledge among the federal human resource community about hiring authorities.

The Leaving Talent on the Table report recommends that the Obama administration and federal agencies:

• Prioritize student internships as key talent sources for entry-level jobs, recruit accordingly and resource programs adequately.
• Make greater use of the SCEP program when hiring interns since these internships are designed for agencies to convert promising students into permanent employees.
• Give agencies and managers greater flexibility to hire capable students from all internship programs into permanent positions, including students in STEP, unpaid internships and those paid by third-party organizations. 
• Evaluate the use and effectiveness of student internship programs to build a talented workforce.

Because of the importance of creating avenues for young talent to enter the civil service, the Partnership for Public Service today is launching a new Center for Federal Internships and Fellowships to help agencies with their outreach and hiring strategies.

The Center will house the Partnership’s Federal Service Student Ambassadors Program and its new Making the Difference Federal Internship Program. Interest is already high for the Making the Difference Program, with nearly 1,000 students having applied for just 30 summer internships.

To find more on how to get a federal internship, go to the Partnership’s online site for students, makingthedifference.org.

The Partnership for Public Service works to revitalize the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works.  Visit www.ourpublicservice.org for more information.

###

 

© 2007-2010 Partnership for Public Service