Summer Intern Program

Trma InternTRMA and TREP are joining together (again) to facilitate a high school intern program in the summer. Program started in 2019 with a successful pilot.  TRMA is partnering because the TREP intern program creates a “louder voice for manufacturing” by:

  • Involving TREP’s education partners in the recruitment and screening process of students for manufacturing positions
  • Targeting high achieving students, whom typically are adept at using social media to post their position
  • Including parents along with the intern’s business contact at the concluding celebration dinner where the interns report on their experience

The intern program is dependent on TRMA/TREP businesses providing summer intern opportunities for “our best and brightest” rising or graduating seniors.  To ensure successful matches, TREP’s education partners have agreed to recruit, screen and invite only their top students—those whom demonstrate not only academic excellence but also have integrity, strong leadership and communication skills.  The intern applicants will be students with a proven record of success; juggling multiple obligations, student leadership and a personal drive to exceed expectations.

In addition to making a “louder voice for manufacturing,” there are benefits of hiring a TREP high school intern. First, because of the assurance of quality, this intern allows your experienced employees to focus on more important or higher value activities.  The second is enhancing your employee branding.  It should not be surprising that LinkedIn reports that employers with a strong talent brand have double the applicants.    Selecting an intern with the skills to excel in their role from pre-screened, local talent can positively drive your employer brand and improve community relations like no other program or public relations campaign.  Finally, young people are digital natives and adept at social media providing an inroad into your future talent pool.  Moreover, parent’s humble bragging can further enhance your company’s reputation and provide a grassroots awareness about your great career opportunities.
Our goal is to keep the intern program within the TREP and TRMA membership to develop a reputation within the education community that manufacturing is the “go to” job resource.  With TRMA Members’ participation, this goal is achievable.

Will you help?

For yet another month, there have been more job opening than there are available workers.  Even non-economists can deduce that the labor shortages widespread impacts across industries by noting the plethora of help wanted signs.  If the “now hiring” signs weren’t enough, there is almost daily local-reporting on restaurants and hotels being impacted, area schools are in crisis from the shortage of workers, and labor shortages are not new to manufacturing; the recruitment problems extend well over a decade.  A tightening labor market makes finding and retaining talent a challenge for employers, which requires creativity and bold strategies to solve.  Hiring a high school intern is a creative, low risk, high return strategy to building a future workforce.