Internships are amazing. They give hands-on experience. They give networking resources, and it gives interns practical knowledge beyond the classroom.
Companies also benefit from internships. O’Reilly knows how valuable interns are, so they created a new program.
Rather than a traditional internship where one or two students go and work, O’Reilly created classes of 10 to 20 students.
About the internship
For 12 weeks, students attend lectures and use what they learned to work on seven paradigms that prepare them for real world development.
For example, if they learn about JavaScript in lecture, they complete JavaScript exercises in the lab.
This summer’s class was 11 students.
“They are sponges — students absorb all of this information at a tremendous rate,” said Jeffery Brannon, an instructor with O’Reilly.
Brannon said he loved seeing new ways of thinking from students who haven’t been exposed to a specific technique.
Students are paid for their internship hours.
“We didn’t want students to have to work 20 hours a week, go to school and have this internship as well,” Brannon said.
The next session, which starts Oct. 1, will have about 20 students.
“I get to watch them grow over the 12 weeks,” Brannon said. “It’s amazing to help provide that knowledge and see students apply it.”
O’Reilly plans to have three 12-week sessions a year. The internship program is meant to continue growing every session.