Professional Training Agreement Development and Use for Undergraduate Environmental Health Science Internships (Poster)

Environmental Health Science students from accredited and non-accredited programs often complete internships as part of their degree programs. This is certainly beneficial to the student because it can give them the hands-on experience that can boost them above competitors in the selection process for jobs. However, it can also be extremely beneficial for internship providers as well. Students can be trained in specific skills that can be used independently many times before the internship is completed, thus providing 1) a low cost or sometimes no cost in the case of voluntary internships to the employer 2) valuable skills to employees who learn how to train interns, 3) an “test” period in order to determine whether an intern should be hired full-time upon graduation. Getting the most out of an intern however, it relies heavily on the organization of the provider and can be successful by first discussing the section of the resume that will be built by the completion of the internship.  This can be accomplished with a “Professional Training Agreement” (PTA) which is a document that should be discussed and signed by both parties prior to the start of the internship. This document will solidify each the expectations for the employer and the intern and can be used as the basis for evaluating an intern’s performance. Presented here are several PTA documents with contents that have been derived from surveyed internship providers and interns from government agencies, industry, academia, and NGOs.