Parents naturally fret about their children’s future and in no area, aside from health and safety, is that concern more pronounced that their education. Aside from institutions and degrees, the summer internship has become an especially important milestone. I know many parents who are urging their children to secure next summer’s internship now. Hopefully a successful summer gig will produce experience, maturity and maybe even a full-time job offer.
While a traditional internship may provide experience and opportunity, it only provides a narrow exposure to one company. At such a young age, maybe an experience with more exposure to different avenues before the traditional college years internship would help a young person discover their true calling. If so, the Swiss have an innovative view of internship that perhaps we could try here:
“Schnupperwochen”: (translation: “to get a taste of something.”). In other words, a “mini-internship.”
Suzanne Lukas (aka “The Evil HR Lady) shares the experience that her son is having with this summer program in Switzerland during which he will have a dozen weeklong internships that are intended to really help her child figure what he really wants to do
She writes that “The U.S. school system doesn’t emphasize hands-on learning or specific career prep. The Swiss system has various options that let you test it out early on. If you think you want to be a doctor, you get to shadow a doctor. If you think you want to be a logistics professional, you get to do an internship in logistics.”
Many businesses in a given area could band together to offer this unique high school experience during the summer. Learn more about “Schnupperwochen” in Ms. Lucas’ short Inc. article “The Swiss Just Do a Lot of Things Better. The Mini-Internship is One of Them.“
