Partnership aims to increase student retention by creating internship programs
An initiative created by the Knight Creative Communities Institute (KCCI) 2009-2010 Catalyst Class is launching this week to encourage talented college graduates to stay in Tallahassee after graduation.
The Talent Lives Here – or TLH – initiative is a partnership between KCCI, the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, FSU, FAMU and TCC to help local organizations develop internship programs for area college students. The centerpiece of the program is the TLH Employer Internship Toolkit, a written manual designed to help local businesses create or improve internship programs. The toolkit is now available online at http://accesstallahassee.com/jobs/internships/.
“In conversations with staff from FSU, FAMU and TCC, we found that their students prefer more local choices for internships,” said Allie VanLandingham, KCCI community catalyst and TLH team member. “We recognized an opportunity to aid local organizations in creating these valuable internship programs where they can begin to recruit local talent.”
The TLH initiative was created by the 2009-2010 KCCI Catalyst Class to address research that shows that students who participate in a local internship are more likely to receive full‐time employment and remain in the area. Research conducted by Leadership Tallahassee and funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation showed that only 27 percent of all local college graduates from 2004 to 2006 are still living in the Tallahassee area, and Tallahassee performs lower than the national average on the Brain Drain Index – a measure of a community’s ability to attract and retain talented workers.
“There is an abundance of talent within the institutions of higher learning in North Florida,” said Blake Dowling, director of sales at Aegis Business Technologies, one of the first partners in the TLH initiative. “We take advantage of this talent and in turn help a young student get on the right path with their career in technology or business. This initiative streamlines the internship process for the private sector and will be a great resource to all businesses in our community.”
“Keeping talented graduates in our area is key to economic growth and one of the top priorities of KCCI,” said Laurie Hartsfield, executive director of the Knight Creative Communities Institute. “Our community catalysts have worked this year to build strong ties between local organizations and institutions of higher learning, because those relationships are important to ensuring a strong pipeline of talented workers in Tallahassee.”
The TLH Employer Internship Toolkit is a start-to-finish guide for organizations interested in hiring interns from local colleges and universities. The information in the toolkit covers planning, recruitment, screening, orientation, management, training and evaluation.
“When we retain our talent in the greater Tallahassee area, the entire business community wins,” said Sue Dick, president of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce. “As this initiative takes much of the work, research and guessing out of finding an intern, I am excited to see local businesses embrace this new offering.”
“Capital Events, Inc.’s internship program utilizes talented students from local colleges and universities to produce high quality events throughout Florida,” said Jason Zaborske, owner of Capital Events. “The KCCI Internship Toolkit will help us and other small businesses find the appropriate college/university contacts to start and maintain a quality internship program.”
“The TLH initiative has been embraced by many local businesses already, and we hope to see it grow as more companies find valuable interns and new hires,” Hartsfield said.
About the Knight Creative Communities Institute
The Knight Creative Communities Institute strives to bring unprecedented economic benefits to the region by attracting and retaining members of the creative sector, which will in turn benefit the state as a whole by creating jobs and transforming the state capital into a thriving economic region. For more, visit www.kccitallahassee.com.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
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