Friday, February 27, 2009

TechBoston takes teens into tech internships

By Lynette F. Cornell, Mass High Tech Intern

Video Gallery

MHT's Jim Connolly: Pink slip parties make a comeback

MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: Solar installation booms in New England

MHT Editor Doug Banks on NECN: Decoding the Gen Y workforce

Related News

Biogen expected to move to Weston [December 2, 2008]

Real Deal: What companies are moving, staying or relocating? [October 3, 2008]

Bedford is quietly collecting tech tenants along Crosby Drive [August 8, 2008]

RI's Vertical Performance Partners expanding to Boston [January 19, 2012]

MIT to build educational video games with $3M grant [January 18, 2012]

Aiming to draw more people into the technology sector, TechBoston is putting high school students right in the middle of the action — the tech employers themselves.

TechBoston, a division of Boston Public Schools, works with local companies to place students curious about information technology into paid internships with local companies, where they can explore their interests and work on real projects.

Now in its fourth year, the Tech Apprentice program hopes to dispel the myth that IT jobs are unavailable, said Joe Chard, organizer of the program, a partnership of the city’s school system, Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC) and the Boston Private Industry Council.

Chard screens students for eligibility, choosing students who want to pursue a career in technology, have demonstrated an IT interest in some way, and who have general professionalism. The students work on IT projects that include mass installations of software, web design, and programming, depending on their skills.

“We hold the students to a very high standard,” said Chard.

The students are mostly juniors and seniors. Two years ago, however, TechBoston placed a freshman who had taught himself Java. Another whiz kid worked at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, programming in SQL, a skill he had developed creating a project in high school with MySQL, a Sun Microsystems Inc. software product.

The majority of students aren’t necessarily that highly skilled, but they all are comfortable with technology and basic skills such as putting together a new computer, according to Chard. “They’re the person in their family that everyone goes to when something messes up,” Chard said.

Stephen Tang, a senior at Boston Latin School, interned at real estate developer Boston Properties Inc. last summer. He worked at the IT help desk, doing inventory for the entire company and responding to service calls. He is hoping to intern there again this summer, but this time in the web development department, an area he’s finds more exciting.

“It was a good place to be,” said Tang.

Boston Properties has been involved from the beginning, hiring one intern each summer. “The aptitude of these students is just incredible,” said Jim Whalen, Boston Properties CIO.

During hard economic times, persuading companies to hire a high school student as an intern proves challenging. For some, it’s the added expense. For others, it’s the idea of having a teenager in the office, said Chard.

To address these concerns, TechBoston requires that students attend an orientation to prepare them for working in a professional environment. Each intern works 35 hours a week for seven weeks during the summer. The companies pay each intern about $2,500 in total for their work.

Last year, 200 students applied to the program, but with just 35 participating companies, there were only 75 slots open for students. The students who aren’t chosen, said Chard, are at risk for losing interest in technology, a sector that desperately needs more young innovators.

“There are a lot of companies that look at it as their responsibility to the community,” said Chard.