Local firms are dealing with the fact that Louisiana’s “pause” on education also extends to internships, which typically feature training that’s instrumental to understanding their companies’ cultures and industry basics.
Brown & Root had to scale back on the number of interns employed this summer by some two-thirds, both at its corporate office, where an online program wasn’t available, and particularly within its engineering division.
“We normally hire several interns at each of our engineering offices, but this time we didn’t because most of our engineers were working remotely, and it would’ve been too difficult to manage,” says Katie Richardson, the company’s human resources director. “It’s hurt us.”
To offset any potentially negative impacts, the firm has discussed offering co-ops, allowing college interns to come into the office to work while attending school. While they’re still weighing the possibility, Richardson says Brown & Root is hoping for the best in 2021 and still expects to begin recruiting summer interns around April and hire some 90% of them full time.
MAPP Construction has also had to downsize its internship program across its sites, though President and CEO Mike Polito says the program hasn’t shifted online.
“If everyone isn’t in the office, they won’t learn,” Polito says. “It’s not impossible to train online, but I do think everyone paused a bit, not knowing how often they’d be in the office so that they could train these folks.”
Polito says he hasn’t dwelled on the issue, hoping that “this is a short interruption and [they] can catch up.”
Still, most employers brush off fears that high school- and college-aged trainees who are able to secure internships won’t be adequately prepared for the workforce.
HNTB, which annually hires about 150 interns across its firm, moved some of its summer interns to fully remote work. However, Bryan Jones, vice president and deputy office leader of the Gulf Coast district, says the company hasn’t seen any impact on those interns’ workforce readiness. He notes HNTB usually converts 40-50 of its interns to full-time hires and brings back another 50 for a second-year internship, which he doesn’t believe will change in the coming year.
“Of course, there’s always value in face-to-face interaction,” Jones says in an email, “but the unprecedented situation this year actually helped convey some great working-world lessons to interns about thinking innovatively, overcoming challenges, communicating differently and finding a way to collaborate and get the job done.”
