In-person activities are the most widely used and effective means for recruiting interns, according to results of NACE’s 2025 Internship & Co-op survey.

Moving to skills-based hiring opens opportunity for a broader demographic of students to access positions where they otherwise would not meet the qualifications. Many employers include skills development in their internship programs to enhance their interns’ career readiness and bolster conversion.

More than 70% of organizations expect to increase or maintain intern hiring, according to NACE’s 2025 Internship & Co-op Report. However, overall intern hiring is expected to fall 3.1%.

To persist toward successful conversion of interns, organizations must not view engagement as a 10-week summer pursuit. Instead, engagement must gain momentum through recruiting and pre-internship, accelerate during the internship itself, and be maintained after interns return to campus.

Relocation assistance may be the secret sauce to attracting top-notch interns.

When students responding to NACE’s 2024 Student Survey were asked to identify the obstacles preventing them from participating in internships, their responses revealed they attributed their decision to a lack of time, concerns over pay, and scant opportunities.

There are several factors linked to the decision to convert for Class of 2024 graduating seniors, according to results of NACE’s 2024 Student Survey.

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling is developing a pre-onboarding program to engage and build excitement among its interns prior to their start date next summer.

Data suggest that providing interns with relocation assistance correlates to better conversion rates for organizations that hope to turn interns into full-time hires.

This past summer, Arup expanded its career readiness programming for summer interns by working with its internal learning and development team to implement a series of competency-focused workshops.

Liberty Mutual has found that one of the most effective ways to maintain or strengthen connections with prior interns when they are on campus is to meet them where they are, such by hosting meetups, dinners, or coffee chats on or near campus.

Global Atlantic Financial Group, the small employer winner of the 2024 NACE Recruiting Excellence Award, addressed a pressing need for increased diversity and innovation and a robust talent pipeline.

Because Liberty Mutual Insurance hires hundreds of interns a year, it equips interns with a wide range of skills and has the skill profile of an intern closely align with its early career roles to prepare interns for potential future full-time roles.

Visa’s internship program is designed to build full-time conversion and provide an exceptional experience for incoming talent. Phill Haig, Visa’s director of early career programs, says Visa’s target conversion rate has been 70%.

Interns who feel committed to the organization because they were well treated are 7.14 times more likely to accept an offer of full-time employment.

Visa has found that hiring diverse talent is easier to accomplish the earlier it can engage students and it helps create a network of brand evangelists who are able to advocate for Visa on campus.

The Williams Companies evaluates talent for internships based on the NACE Career Readiness Competencies, focusing on the competencies where it has seen gaps in its intern class.

Last year, Progressive Insurance achieved an intern conversion rate of 91%, far exceeding the overall conversion rate of 57.6% for 2021-22.

This gain underscores the value employers place on their internship programs and their commitment to them.

The large-employer winner of the 2023 NACE Award for Recruiting Excellence, DISH’s “Recruit Once, Hire Twice” college recruiting process brings in top interns and works to convert them into full-time hires.

Protiviti has long felt that setting up its interns for success from the moment they first power on their laptop during the summer session is integral. When Protiviti switched to a virtual onboarding model for its interns in 2020, it realized there was more that could be accomplished in the virtual setting with intentional planning.

Start with the basics. Your virtual internship should incorporate the elements that give your in-person program value: meaningful work that is tied to your organization’s mission and goals; immersion in your organization’s culture; and the opportunity to build a community with other interns that outlasts the summer.

Intern conversion is a business imperative at all times, but especially in the current job market, when many organizations respond to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic by shrinking programs and budgets.

While virtual internships are essential in the current work environment, it is important to recognize that many benefits of a traditional internship are lost when internships are done online, says Matthew Hora.

Position your internship program for success by ensuring your intern orientation provides a strong start for your interns. They will be able to make meaningful contributions to your organization, and your organization will establish goodwill with interns from the outset, putting you one step closer to conversion.

Employer members in the NACE Community discuss the appropriate amount of time to give an intern to decide on an offer of full-time employment.

Ellucian’s internship toolkits are intended to enhance the employee experience, while providing interns and their managers with key information and resources.

NACE offers suggestions for getting the most out of your organization’s intern surveys.

"When setting intern salaries, factors such as students’ major, functional area, degree, and year of study are important considerations.

The key competencies employers want in the students they hire for internships are also among the skills employers help their interns to develop.

When it comes to selecting students for their internship and co-op programs, employers have a set of five competencies that are “must haves.

Are students who repeat their internship experience with an organization more likely to convert to full-time hires? nearly 90 percent of eligible returning interns received an offer of full-time employment, and nearly 90 percent of those accepted. In comparison, just 43.5 percent of nonreturning interns were offered a job with their internship employer.

Document aspects of your organization’s internship program on an ongoing basis to, among other things, help you clarify what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

NACE offers best practices for internship programs that feed full-time hiring, including recommendations for work assignments, work arrangements, housing and relocation assistance, and program management.

Successful strategies for converting interns into full-time hires. As the job market continues to improve, employers continue to look first within their internship programs for entry-level college hires.

PwC is providing its more than 3,600 summer interns with an experience that is preparing them for the new virtual world.

CDK Global’s retooling of its internship offboarding process has expanded opportunities for interns to stay connected with the firm.

Abbott Laboratories’ high school internship program exposes students from diverse backgrounds across the United States to STEM fields.

Although AOIC requires potential interns to be enrolled in college, in certain cases, summer interns who did not return to school because of COVID have been allowed to stay on.

The value of Eaton Vance’s summer internship program is evident in the attention the firm dedicated to its transition to virtual last spring and its management last summer.

Offering regular activities keeps interns engaged with the organization, which is crucial, especially in a virtual environment.

The average conversion rate for interns climbed nearly 20%, fueled by a substantial increase in the average offer rate, according to results of NACE’s 2021 Internship & Co-op Survey Report.

Many challenges with managing an internship program as a sole URR practitioner can be overcome by being resourceful, especially by involving colleagues.

The lessons Cree Wolfspeed’s URR team learned during the COVID-19 pandemic have helped inform their preparation for this summer’s program and beyond.

During the pandemic, only 22% of college students took an internship, half were in-person positions, and quality indicators for online internships were low, according to a new study.

Talent acquisition professionals provide insight and ideas on topics around internships, such as converting interns to FTEs, internship duration, and more.

Employers committed to building a pipeline of diverse talent must consider how to diversify the makeup of their internship program.

Despite greater recognition of their negative impacts on the workforce, lack of diversity and an abundance of unpaid internships remain issues, says Anjali Lalani.