I am starting a paid internship program at my organization, and will be working with interns who are going through the same grad program that I did. I was considering starting a book study as professional development for the interns, but am not sure if I will be able to ask the interns to count all of the hours they may take reading the book towards their paid hours. I was considering asking them to read an excerpt that would count towards their hours and to allow their book presentation work to count towards their hours, but to make the reading of the complete book optional. Do you have any suggestions?
There are actually two books that we require all interns to read here at my company, and they are allowed to count all the time. There are a couple of books that I may recommend or assign, depending on their task. That may sound like it would take a large chunk out of the 240 hours, but the return on that reading is actually worthwhile.
Usually, the best way to keep this balanced is to have a clear checklist of expectations for the internship. If they know up front what all they will need to do with their time, and how long they have to do it, that will help them to prioritize. At my company, we require 240 hours, 6 hours a week, and we have confirmed that all the tasks can be completed comfortably within that timeframe.
As to your particular situation, you could have them just read an excerpt, but understand that they are not likely to want to read the rest of their book on their own time. Paying interns for training time is just one of the investments a company makes. If you can't justify paying them to read the book, chances are it's not that important.
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Hello,
I am starting a paid internship program at my organization, and will be working with interns who are going through the same grad program that I did. I was considering starting a book study as professional development for the interns, but am not sure if I will be able to ask the interns to count all of the hours they may take reading the book towards their paid hours. I was considering asking them to read an excerpt that would count towards their hours and to allow their book presentation work to count towards their hours, but to make the reading of the complete book optional. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi @eezzell ,
There are actually two books that we require all interns to read here at my company, and they are allowed to count all the time. There are a couple of books that I may recommend or assign, depending on their task. That may sound like it would take a large chunk out of the 240 hours, but the return on that reading is actually worthwhile.
Usually, the best way to keep this balanced is to have a clear checklist of expectations for the internship. If they know up front what all they will need to do with their time, and how long they have to do it, that will help them to prioritize. At my company, we require 240 hours, 6 hours a week, and we have confirmed that all the tasks can be completed comfortably within that timeframe.
As to your particular situation, you could have them just read an excerpt, but understand that they are not likely to want to read the rest of their book on their own time. Paying interns for training time is just one of the investments a company makes. If you can't justify paying them to read the book, chances are it's not that important.