Finance academies struggle for paid internships - Business First of Buffalo:

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Program directors are finding it increasinglg difficult to find companiee totake them. The National Academhy Foundation supports a nationwide networkof career-themed According to its Web site, students work together throughout high and taught by specially-trained teachers. Besidesw finance, other academies – therde are 529 throughout the U.S. – includ hospitality and tourism, information technology and engineering. Scott Dixoh oversees the Academy of Finance at and workswith , and . He considersx them great partners, and placed 40 paid internshipszthis year.
But he said it’as getting hard to sell companiewwith pre-conceived notions that high schoolers are inexperiencedc and not up to the “Getting an employer to take on a high schoo student and pay them is a doublse wall to get over. It’s a challenge for every local academy,” he “We always hear from businesses this is agreatr plan,” he added. when it comes down to hiringg a highschool student, “They won’t do anything.” “I’e rather have someone help us with a mentoriny program; it’s hard to ask people for a paid added Bill Lovelock, Academy of Financew director at .
“I don’t know how to change it, we’vr been banging our heads against the Dixon said franchiselocations don’t transcendf town boundaries. A bank that pays internd in WestSeneca doesn’t guarantees its Lancaster location will do the same. Some Lancastet students work at ’s downtown Buffallo headquarters. At Lancaster, Dixon and Academy of Finance advisory board president Stephen Pease said distance is not usually a consideration fortheir students. Conversely, Lafayette students often get ridesfrom Lovelock. Many internh at in Amherst.
He often taxisx them there, or to interviews or college “We don’t have transportation for them, and can’t rely on Lovelock said. Dixon, Lovelock and directors from the other schoolsw met recently and discussed a more aggressiver outreach to companies to explain more abouttheir program. They create d a wish list of companieswherr they’d like to eventually place students. “It’s challenging to get someond to understand a high school student is as prepare d as acollege intern,” said Pease, managerf at KeyBank’s branch at the corner of French and Bordejn roads in Cheektowaga.
If he had one thinv to tell business owners aboutprogram participants, it’s that they’re qualified, and they want to be “The students are doing this on theirf own, (businesses) get a lot of applicants who could do the job but not someone who want s to do the job. With studentds from the academy, you’re gettint both,” he said.