An Overview of Flexware’s Trailblazer Internship Program
The 2015 Trailblazer interns + a few Flexware employees + StratoStar team during a Professional Development Day
One of the most exciting parts about being a college student is when you actually get to a point where you begin taking classes that apply to your major. But sometimes, it can be hard to determine if that subject matter is really what you want from a professional standpoint by just sitting in a lecture hall. Students then feel the pressure to find the perfect internship. This internship has to be a place where they are not only able to work and be compensated, but also to figure out some aspects of what they want from a work career along the way. They need experience, they need expertise, and unfortunately, it’s hard to find an internship that doesn’t involve solely making coffee runs and sitting in the back of corporate meetings.
I think a lot of companies have lost the idea of the meaning of internships in the first place. When did interns become the people who have to do all the grunt work, as opposed to the people you would want to showcase your industry to?
If millennials are the future of the workforce, wouldn’t you want to make them interested and engaged in your field rather than drive them away?
The leaders at Flexware Innovation asked this same question. How can we, as a company, create an internship program that enables interns to get hands-on, tangible experience in the manufacturing world? These leaders also noticed that there was no internship program focused on developing the manufacturing leaders of the future. Flexware decided that the internship format needed to be changed, and thus the Dr. Theodore J. Williams Trailblazer Fellowship was born.
This internship fellowship would involve a small, handpicked group of college students from all across Indiana and would place them in companies and on projects based on their skills and interests.
These interns go through a multi-step process of interviews and meetings, assessing their skills and personalities so that their placement is exactly the right fit. Others are given projects right here at our home base, building robots and programming apps. Regardless of where these interns are placed, time and effort goes into ensuring they are pushed and challenged within their program.
Along with their plant specific projects, there are 8 scheduled Professional Development days where all our interns come together for different themed events that specifically teach the students different real life skills such as resume building, interview tips, networking, and most importantly – leadership development.
At these Professional Development days, the interns also get the chance to tour awesome local Indiana manufacturing plants such as Nestle and Endress + Hauser, in order to get a hands on view of the manufacturing world and all of the different opportunities across the industry.
Being an intern should not be something a student dreads, and Flexware leaders have taken that to heart. Flexware has created this program to enable young engineers to explore their fields with the safety and creativity they need in order to flourish. If you’re interested in learning more about the Trailblazer Fellowship, please visit http://www.trailblazerfellowship.com/.
Marketing Manager
Having a lifelong love affair with learning. Intrigued by unique, authentic, and passionate people.
