Dive Brief:

• Parker Dewey will assist organizations move internships online "as an alternative to canceling their planned summer programs" due to the novel coronavirus, the company said in an April 9 statement. Parker Dewey facilitates short-term, paid, professional internships for college students and recent graduates, it said.
• The company will provide resources such as project templates and best practices for managers, interns and other employees.
• "We've found that by 'unbundling' the workload of a traditional internship into discrete projects, interns working remotely can have an engaging experience that best prepares them to launch their careers upon graduation," Founder and CEO Jeffrey Moss said in a statement. "In the same way, managers appreciate the support the interns provide on their projects, and find projects create more authentic opportunities to mentor the college student, all of which can be done remote."

Dive Insight:

The pandemic brought an abrupt end to many spring internships, and it has cast uncertainty over those scheduled to start in a matter of weeks.

Many employers are still evaluating the situation, though some have rescinded offers. Slightly less than a third of college juniors and seniors said their internship offers were revoked, according to a poll of 1,000 students by Handshake, an early career network. Fourteen percent of students said their internships will go on as planned. Six percent said their programs had gone virtual.

As employers deliberate the fate of these programs, they need to weigh the risk of cancelation, Handshake Employer Product Marketing Director Cameron Jahn previously told HR Dive. If businesses rely on early talent, they may deplete their talent pool by calling off summer programming this year.

By holding remote versions of their internships, employers may avoid the risks of cancelation and see several other benefits, such as a boost in employment branding. This option may be popular among students, Jahn said, and several big-name employers like Google, Twitter and IBM have adopted the model, Axios reported.