Professional Skills Internship

Resources for employers, educators, and students offering or participating in a professional skills internship

What is a professional skills internship?

Through a professional skills internship, students practice what they’ve learned in school and get hands-on experience with professional norms and expectations.

This is a great way for employers to mentor and prepare learners for future employment and success, and for students to learn “what it’s really like” in the workplace.

Unlike clinical internships—which focus on technical skills associated with specific healthcare careers—professional skills internships help students learn what it’s like to actually work in a healthcare setting.

The Ready for Healthcare Professional Skills Toolkit materials cover:

core competencies and professional skills
internship program basics and logistics
internship goal-planning and preparation
best practices for asking questions
healthcare workplace responsibilities and trends
reflection, student self-assessment, and employer assessment of interns
next steps and takeaways

Download some or all of these resources in the following section.

Curricula, Tools & Materials

The Professional Skills Internship Activity Toolkit includes:

an employer guide outlining internship basics, criteria, preparation, best practices, and logistics
additional tools for employers hosting interns, including a list of core competencies and skills to be developed, sample intern projects mapped to those competencies, performance evaluation assessment tools, and sample intern projects
a guide for educators, including learning objectives and plans for guided activities that students complete throughout the course of the internship
a student packet with activity worksheets and other guided resources
resources for educators / program coordinators conducting site visits to employers and progress check-ins with students

Each tool is available as an editable Microsoft Word .docx file. You can download all of the resources as a compressed .zip package or as individual files.

Learning & Teaching Guides

Educator Guide for Professional Skills Internships

Student Packet for Professional Skills Internships

Employer Guide for Professional Skills Internships

Planning & Execution

Considerations When Working with High School Students

Interview Guide and Evaluation for Employers

Pre-Internship Site Visit Form for Educators / Program Coordinators

Sample Professional Internship Projects

Internship Project Description Form

Internship Skills Checklist

Intern Assessment