The “re-internship”: a new definition of Tooling & Retooling the American Workforce
In the crosshairs of low workforce participation levels, hiring managers that are complaining they can’t find qualified workers, stagnant wages and an educational system that is stagnating at a time when federal, state and local budgets are being cut sits the Tooling & Retooling investment theme. In order to remain competitive on the global stage, workers will need to shore up their skills and for some that means finishing the education they started, while for others it means going further.
Recently a new situation has arisen — the rise of what’s being called the “returnship” or “re-internships”, which is simply a word for a mid-level professional taking a low-wage, short-term position with a company in hopes of in the very least building their resume with a new skill or experience, and at best getting their foot in the door in a way that leads to a full-time position:
In 2008, Goldman Sachs launched a mid-career internship program: the “returnship.”Since then, other major financial companies like MetLife, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, along with technology and engineering companies such as IBM and General Motors, have embraced the concept of the return internship.A return internship, or re-entry program, is a temporary, mid-career internship meant to assist people who spent significant time out of the workforce — for childcare, to pursue a personal interest, or for personal health reasons — to gain the skills they need to return to work.For companies, it’s a way to recruit highly qualified mid-career professionals, and for workers, it is a chance to get a foot in the hiring door.
