PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — When college students are looking for hands-on career experiences, they often do not realize the opportunities that exist close to home. Likewise, businesses and organizations might not know where to begin when starting an internship program or trying to connect with students.
During her virtual visit with Aroostook County employers on March 10, Kate Howell, program director for Maine Career Compass, hoped to make more people aware of how businesses and students can connect and provide great benefits to all involved.
Maine Career Compass is a statewide program administered by EducateMaine and funded by FocusMaine, the latter of which is a 10-year, private sector-led initiative aimed at increasing job growth for Maine.
Maine Career Compass has two overall goals: marketing the state as a great place to live and work that has exceptional career opportunities for college graduates and investing in networking and internship opportunities for students, Howell said. The program partners with businesses, giving them support for an existing internship program or helping them learn how they might establish one.
Kate Howell, program director of Maine Career Compass, was the most recent speaker during the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce’s virtual breakfast briefing March 10. (Courtesy of Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce)
Every year Maine Career Compass connects summer student interns with “cohorts” of other interns in their region. They host networking events and outdoor activities that give interns a chance to meet one another and talk with various local employers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all recent cohort events have been held virtually.
Currently there are cohorts in Portland, Bangor and Boothbay Harbor, but Howell expressed her intention to connect with County employers and college internship coordinators to establish a cohort of students in the Presque Isle region this summer.
“I feel that if we’re going to call ourselves a statewide organization, then we need to showcase career opportunities that exist outside of southern Maine,” Howell said, during the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce’s monthly breakfast briefing on Zoom.
Nearly a dozen local employers, including those from the University of Maine at Presque Isle, the Presque Isle Career Center and MMG Insurance, attended the briefing and expressed strong interest in promoting Maine Career Compass to students and posting internship opportunities online.
Margo Dyer, human resources business partner at MMG, a company with a longtime summer internship program, asked Howell how businesses could go about becoming partners with Maine Career Compass.
Howell recommended that businesses reach out to Maine Career Compass directly. Even if businesses do not have the resources to start an official program or are not sure where to begin, she and colleagues can assist with creating internship job descriptions, posting an opening online and helping businesses establish how they expect both the students and business to benefit from the experience.
“The important things are having a project that students can work on throughout the summer, having a supervisor they can regularly meet with and gain mentorship from and giving some type of formal feedback,” Howell said.
Howell noted that while the Maine Career Compass does not conduct the hiring of student interns, they partner with Live and Work in Maine to post internship opportunities for various regions of the state.
Information on Maine Career Compass and its internship programs can be found at https://mainecareercompass.org/ or by contacting Howell at kate@mainecareercompass.org.
