Employers looking at a hybrid format for their summer internships

Seeing some light at the end of the long COVID-19 pandemic tunnel, employers are moving toward offering internship programs and attending career fairs both virtually and in person, according to the final results of NACE’s Spring 2021 Quick Poll on Internships and Fall Recruiting.

More than 40% of employers are planning to hold a hybrid internship program—which is a blend of virtual and in-person experiences—this summer. In addition, approximately 45% expect and prefer to attend both in-person and virtual career fairs in the fall.

Although 43% of responding employers anticipate holding a hybrid internship program this summer, 38% plan to offer a summer internship program that is exclusively virtual, which is not surprising. In fact, among employers that are planning to have either an exclusively virtual or exclusively in-person internship program this summer, three times as many will have a virtual program.

Still, this is a significant shift from last summer, when 72% of the employers that held an internship did so virtually, according to results of NACE’s 2021 Internship & Co-op Survey Report.

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In terms of attending career fairs in fall 2021, the highest percentage of responding recruiters not only prefer attending both in-person and virtual career fairs (44%), but also feel this is their most likely way forward (45%).

Nearly one-third of respondents prefer to attend virtual career fairs exclusively, while 40% feel this is most likely the way they will attend career fairs. On the other hand, although 13% of recruiters would rather exclusively attend career fairs in person, none predicted this will be the most likely way they will actually do so in the fall.

About NACE’s Spring 2021 Quick Poll on Internships and Fall Recruiting:

NACE polled its employer members and nonmembers on their plans for their summer internship programs and for engaging in fall 2021 recruiting, in light of the pandemic. A total of 318 employer members and nonmembers responded to the poll, which ran from April 6 through April 30, 2021.

Complete final results are available on NACEWeb.

(Source: NACE)