Micro-Internships
By MORGAN CHILSON
In the small, rural Kansas town of Chanute where K-State student Sophie Osborn calls home, internships are sparse.
Osborn discovered the Kansas Micro-Internship program two years ago on her winter break, while skimming the internet for jobs that could boost her resume. It was just the opportunity she needed — with good pay and the option to work remote — to build skills that would support her marketing degree.
The Kansas Micro-Internship program was founded three years ago. Micro-internships are abbreviated internships that can be done remotely with a commitment of 10 to 40 hours, said Timothy Peterson, the senior project director for the Kansas Board of Regents. The Kansas Board of Regents administers the program in partnership with Parker Dewey.
Pay is typically between $15 and $20 per hour. Peterson said that support for the grants allows employers to receive $500 per project up to $1,000 total.
Osborn has completed several micro-internships in human resources and marketing, as well as tackled projects for businesses and nonprofits.
“I started working with a Kansas City small accounting and bookkeeping firm. I really enjoyed that, so I just continued with them,” Osborn said. “I’ve worked in so many different areas in the past year or two. It’s helped me figure out what I want to do. After graduation, I want to go into consulting, which two or three years ago, I wouldn’t have known existed.”
Governor Laura Kelly has included $500,000 for the KMI program in her FY 2025 budget proposal, Peterson said.
“If the legislature approves it, that will provide another 800 no-cost $500 KMI projects for Kansas businesses, nonprofits and entrepreneurs beginning in July,” he said.
Peterson added that the program is good for all involved. Employers can find students to complete their smaller projects, and connect with talent they may want to hire full time. Students get the opportunity to broaden their skill sets and network with potential employers.
“Employers get immediate on-demand help, but long term it can really enhance the talent pipeline. Our goal is to get more college students connected with more Kansas employers, and eventually keep them in Kansas,” Peterson said.
He also said that employers have been enthusiastic about their experiences.
“What a deal the micro-internship was for Automation Controls Inc.,” said Regina Brown, president of the Topeka company. “And it was a great experience for the student, too. It was a win-win all around. We connected with a future engineer and exposed him to a senior engineer at Automation Controls. He could see and experience what an engineer actually does.”
The engineering student from Washburn University helped an Automation Controls’ employee create a step-by-step manual for setting up a pair of servers. He did such an excellent job that the company hired him back to assist in the actual setup for a pair of servers.
“These two micro-internships, 80 hours total, only cost Automation Controls $690,” Brown said. “And the added bonus? He wasn’t on our payroll, so no withholdings and no Automation Controls W-2. That benefits both the micro-intern and the employer. They just receive a check at the end of the month, and a year-end 1099 from the program administrator.”
There’s minimal paperwork for students to register to work, and it’s easy for employers to post their jobs, Peterson said.
“It literally takes about 15 minutes to register and post a project with no paperwork — here’s the task, here’s the project I need done and here’s when I need it,” he said. Janet McRae, past president of the Kansas Economic Development Alliance and the Economic Development Director for Miami County, used a first internship to tick off one of those impossible-to-get-to tasks on her list.
“I’ve had this lingering, nagging issue with my Outlook [email] because I have used Outlook for more than a decade,” McRae said. “I had all these contacts that may have multiple entries for the same person as they changed jobs. I threw that out as a project and found a student who knew Excel well and was able to get in there and clean up my Outlook.”
She added that it was a good experience and was done in two weeks. McRae is now using a second internship to tackle a more in-depth project.
“We know that AI [artificial intelligence] uses in businesses are evolving and changing. So much focuses on ChatGPT. All those other uses have gotten a little scary for businesses but also kind of exciting too,” McRae said. “It made sense for us to reach out to a student who is more involved in using those right now.”
The student is working on a 15-minute seminar about different AI-based tools that are available for business use. McRae said that they’ll record her presentation to make it available for their businesses.
“We’re giving her a chance to talk a little about herself and put in her school contact information. If someone thinks this would be a great hire for them, they can reach out to her and the content is still branded as ours,” McRae said.
Brown said they made a long-term internship offer to their micro-intern, but he’d already been “snagged up” by another company. “The relationship we formed will last a lifetime,” she said.
Peterson says he looks forward to the program’s continued growth.
“Half of our undergraduate students are in a two-year college. There’s a tremendous amount of talent we’re highlighting,” he said. “There’s a ton of talent out there that we just want to connect with Kansas businesses.”
Students interested in participating must be enrolled in a two-year or four-year Kansas college or university, and they must fill out an online profile at www.kansasregents.org/workforce_development/kansas-micro-internships. Employers can visit the same site to sign up and outline their projects.
Osborn encouraged students who take on internships to push themselves beyond their comfort zone.
“It’s a lot of doing your own research and problem-solving. I really enjoy that aspect of it,” she said. “I definitely have learned a lot more from projects that I may have been unfamiliar with in the beginning.”
