Telecommuting Internships – Do They Work?

Internships have played an increasingly important role in the academic and career development of college students. The hands-on learning experience provides students the opportunity to apply classroom concepts while exploring a variety of career interests. For the past few years, students at the author’s college have participated in a telecommuting internship. Instead of physically reporting to an internship site, the students work much like telecommuters, with the college as their home base. This paper describes the internship experiences over several semesters. The pros and cons of the telecommuting internships then are presented. The conclusion is, although the telecommuting internship is not the regular model, it is worth doing.