GACC California is currently gaining experience in the field of virtual training programs at light speed. The good news is that approximately 65% of the current host companies of GACC California are willing to incorporate a virtual intern into their team. We have also found that with our current virtual participants, monitoring the program closely and being involved in their weekly schedule is very important to providing a truly meaningful internship training. Therefore, setting resources aside for sponsor monitoring of the internship and the training plan is very important. This recent study by Buffer and AngelList shows some of the drawbacks of remote work: https://lp.buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2020. These are the top struggles that our virtual interns face:
Proper preparation (i.e. orientations) as well as close contact with the interns throughout the program can avoid those pitfalls, and will ensure that the benefits of remote work outweigh the cons. The results of our survey are promising, and lay a solid foundation for our virtual internship program.
