Re: Teaching Tools in Tech Comm Programs -Reply

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

David Hailey wrote:


> If other programs are like ours, probably the most difficult task for the
> teachers is finding good internship possibilities for their students.
> Companies and freelancers can preform a valuable service for the students and
> for themselves by offering the students an opportunity to work in the real
> world.   This can be a cost effective proposition, since many interns work for
> free, and the others seldom get more than a pittance.

I'd like to second the concept of using interns.  My company hires
interns all the time, and thus far we've been really pleased with the
ones we've had.  In many cases, those who haven't stayed with us have
gone on to nicely-paying jobs in other Silicon Valley companies.

If your corporate management is concerned about the training that an
intern may require, our experience is such that an intern generates a
positive ROI within the first year.  With the investment of about 3
months of on-the-job training (that usually does NOT include learning
Frame or Word or some of the other popular tools, because most of the
interns already know them), our interns are functioning at intermediate
technical writer levels by the end of a year.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems