InternOKC to return as in-person event this summer

InternOKC provides soft skills enhancement and professional development opportunities to the region’s young professionals.

Most human resource experts will tell you that internships are great ways for college students or graduates to gain valuable experience in a job that can eventually help jumpstart their professional careers.

One way the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber has helped Oklahoma City business and industry develop their interns is through its annual InternOKC program. Created in 2006 to recruit and retain young talent in Oklahoma City, InternOKC provides soft skills enhancement and professional development opportunities to the region’s young professionals, qualities most employers deem indispensable.

Register your interns for InternOKC

Lee Copeland, director of talent and business growth for the Chamber’s Economic Development division, said much like last year’s event, the 2022 edition of InternOKC will help participants develop core competencies employers look for in today’s business professionals.

“We have two primary objectives: keep great talent here in Oklahoma City and help employers train to those gaps of young talent entering the workplace that they need to help them thrive professionally.”

During the first session, which is scheduled for June 14 at the downtown Oklahoma City Convention Center, the core competency will center on developing positive habits and practices that will impact interns’ career development. Session two, which will be held June 28 at Champion Convention Center on S. Meridian Ave., will be about navigating and benefiting from relationships in the workplace, while mindsets and perspectives that help you grow professionally are core competencies to be discussed in session three July 12 at the First Americans Museum. All three sessions will be held from 2 to 5 p.m.

“We have two primary objectives: keep great talent here in Oklahoma City and help employers train to those gaps of young talent entering the workplace that they need to help them thrive professionally,” Copeland said.

He said he and other Chamber staff visit with human resource leaders from the city’s key employers throughout the year to determine what core competencies they will highlight as part of InternOKC.

Providing employers with a value add that will entice them to participate in InternOKC is something that the Chamber takes very seriously. Additional training and resources that help keep their talent here as well as help them coach their interns are the big draws the Chamber uses to attract their partners in the business community. To the individual intern, it is a similar value proposition.

“What we offer them are opportunities to network with other interns their age and be exposed to voices outside their internship that helped them in their professional development, and then to provide a recognized credential that they can pin on their LinkedIn profile as a differentiator for their future employers,” Copeland said.

For a second year in a row, the Chamber is partnering with the University of Central Oklahoma who will issue a micro-badge credential in professional development to each participating intern who completes the program’s requirements with the goal of making them more marketable to employers. The Chamber works in partnership with UCO by providing the content and learning outcomes, as well as the material to show evidence of learning. UCO holds and subsequently issues the micro-badge through their digital credential framework, Copeland said.

Employers interested in enrolling their interns for this summer’s InternOKC program can do so by visiting the InternOKC page on abetterlifeokc.com. The registration fee per intern is $150 for Chamber member companies or $250 for nonmembers.

If you have questions or would like additional information about InternOKC, please contact Copeland at [email protected].

Special thanks to Presenting Sponsor Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc.