Experiential Education Experiences

Internship & Experiential Education is designed to assist in connecting students and employers in developing career-related learning opportunities in an internship, cooperative education (co-op), volunteer, service-learning, or externship experiences. The classifications sometimes vary depending on the academic discipline. All positions are carefully supervised, professional-level, and structured in which the student sets intentional learning goals and actively reflects on what has been learned.

There are many benefits to providing experiential education opportunities to University of Kentucky students. Whether you are looking to increase profitability and productivity, complete a project, or alleviate personnel shortages, hiring a student may be one of the most cost-effective decisions you will make – but there are more reasons to add students in a professional role to your team. Students are enthusiastic, present fresh ideas, contribute to the success of your organization, and provide a pool of potential employees with experience and training.

At the University of Kentucky, there are two forms of experience opportunities offered to students:

Academic Experiences: An academic experience indicates that a student will be seeking academic credit for a career-related experience. This process includes creating a Learning Contract, obtaining department approval, obtaining a UK Sponsor, submitting completed field hours, and receiving an employer evaluation. An academic experience may be either paid or unpaid. Academic experiences are typically done on a general elective, Pass/Fail basis with the number of acceptable credit hours determined by the student’s college or department.
Non-Credit Experiences: A non-credit experience implies that a student will be working for the benefit of experience gained, but not for any type of academic recognition. In this case, the employer should consider the intern as they would any other temporary employee. This option may be preferable to a student who does not need additional credit hours. Non-credit experiences are often paid in order to comply with U.S. Department of Labor laws. Exceptions made are those experience positions affiliated with non-profit organizations.

How Will Your Internship & Experiential Education Help Students?

By participating, you become part of the educational process, sharing your valuable expertise, and teaching students about your profession. Offering experiential learning opportunities helps students:

Obtain professional experience in their areas of academic study
Create opportunities to work with professionals
Learn about their own strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, values, etc.
Develop marketable skills such as professionalism, leadership and problem-solving
Build confidence
Define career paths
Make valuable contacts

How Can You Participate?

Develop a job description. Information needed for a strong position description would include duties & responsibilities, qualifications, compensation, provides training, duration of position, learning outcomes, if the position is virtual or in-person, and how the student will be supervised.
Determine pay for positions. At least 75% of the student’s duties should be professional-level, non-clerical tasks. The average hourly rate ranges from $10.00 to $16.00 per hour, depending on the nature of the position and specific to the industry (i.e. engineering and accounting co-op or experience positions often pay more than the highest end of this range.)
Post your position in Handshake
Receive approval of your posting
Interview students and make offers directly to those selected
Provide a quality learning experience for the student with consistent guidance and supervision

Host UK students!

The University of Kentucky (UK) has created a Job Shadowing program to give students of various academic majors an opportunity to explore potential careers through job-shadowing placements coordinated by UK’s Stuckert Career Center.

This program is intended to support students exploring their academic major and to provide early exposure to professional career pathways. Employers who participate in the job-shadowing program will have the opportunity to broaden student awareness about their field and industry, make important connections, and identify potential students to consider for future opportunities within the organization.

The Details:

The job shadowing experience should be between 4-8 hours of shadowing (see examples of job shadowing opportunities below).
The experience can be with more than one professional in the organization but the student should have only one point of contact throughout.
The job shadowing must take place between January 8 and March 29, 2024.
A University of Kentucky student will be matched with you. (Students will select their top 3 employers. This is on a first-come first-serve basis).
Deadline to register is November 17, 2023.

Examples of Job Shadowing Activities:

Providing a tour of the facility/office space.
Providing an overview of an organization’s mission, vision, operations, staff divisions, and organizational charts.
Sharing career history and/or industry trends.
Discuss the student’s career interests and questions.
Inviting the student to observe meetings, conference calls, or other events.
Reviewing the student’s resume, LinkedIn profile, and other professional documents.
Arranging informational interviews for the student with your colleagues.
Shadowing client interactions.
Providing a capsule/mini-internship or volunteer experience at your organization.
Completing small tasks or assisting with projects.
Exploring potential career paths within the organization and the profession.

Informational Interview is typically an experience offered by a couple of different modalities that include a visit to the employer/organization worksite, through a phone call, or online. The informational interview is typically from 1-2 hours.

Micro-internships are used by companies ranging from those in the Fortune 100 to emerging start-ups and go across departments including sales, marketing, technology, HR, and finance. Unlike traditional internships, Micro-Internships can take place year-round, typically range from 5 to 40 hours of work, and are due between one week and one month after kick-off.

The University of Kentucky has partnered with Parker-Dewey, so you can apply to work with some of the top companies to enhance your skills, explore careers, build your network, and get paid!

If you want to expand your recruiting pool to access diverse talent with 21st-century skills and the grit to succeed, Micro-Internships make it easy. If you want to improve the effectiveness of your hiring efforts and lower the costs (and risks) associated with onboarding, no problem. If you just need some immediate help on projects because you or your team is overloaded, we’ve got you covered.

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Address	408 Rose Street Lexington, KY 40506
Phone	(859) 257-2746
Fax	(859) 323-1085