Project>Login’s receptions on Maine college and university campuses help computing and IT students find paid internships with Maine employers
The fifth-round of Project>Login receptions will kick off the 2017 paid-internship recruiting season in September and provide opportunities for students to talk with IT professionals and recruiters from some of the Maine companies that want to hire them.
Business representatives talk with students about the role of IT in their companies, the opportunities for internships and continuing employment, and what they’re looking for in successful professionals.
Paid internships are important entries to employment: in 2014, 8 of our major employers reported that they hired, on average, 65% of their paid interns for continuing employment.
The receptions will be held on these campuses:
For detailed information, students should contact their professors and career services staff.
Project>Login’s networking receptions are part of a statewide series of relationship-building events for aspiring IT professionals and Maine employers. They are sponsored by Project>Login, a program of Educate Maine, the business-led advocacy organization whose mission is to champion college and career readiness and increased education attainment.
Project>Login was launched in February, 2013, with the goal of generating enough trained professionals in computing and IT to keep Maine businesses at the forefront of their industries. All sponsoring campuses have committed to doubling the number of computing and IT graduates within four years of joining the project. In addition to computing and IT graduates, Project>Login will be reaching out to engineering, math, and other STEM disciplines as requested by our employers. Our goal is to match students from many different skill sets with these important internship opportunities.
In addition to networking receptions, Project>Login’s initiatives include an inventory of paid internship opportunities with Maine businesses, extensive online educational resources, and a support network designed to grow the computer and technology workforce.
For younger students who are discovering whether computing might be right for them, Project>Login created the Maine Digital Festival and is a founding partner of the Maine State of Learning initiative.
The lack of trained computer and technology professionals is a growing challenge nationwide. While the need for this workforce has grown through recent years, the number of college graduates with degrees in this field has dropped. The U.S. Department of Labor projects that by 2018, 1.4 million computing jobs will have opened in the U.S. If current graduation rates continue, U.S. computing degree-earners would only fill 61 percent of these jobs.
Project>Login is funded by private-sector businesses affected by the workforce gap. Business sponsors are: Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, IDEXX Laboratories, MaineHealth, Maine Medical Center, Tyler Technologies, The Jackson Laboratory, and WEX. Education sponsors are the University of Maine System, Husson University, Thomas College, and University of New England. Foundation supporters are the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, TD Charitable Foundation, and Northeast Bank.
