Guidelines for Health and Safety
Career Development has established the following guidelines for health and safety related to students participating in internships.
- Students are not “placed” in their internship by University of Northwestern – St. Paul. Instead, students are hired and/or selected by the employer/organization through submitting a job application, conducting an interview, and securing the internship offer. Therefore, all health protocols are the responsibility of the internship employer/organization as they are required to follow their state’s health regulations for their type of business/organization.
- Students completing internships should request the employer’s health and safety protocols if they have not received them. If a student has questions regarding the protocols the student is responsible to ask their internship site supervisor for clarification.
- If the student receives the health and safety protocols and they are not followed and the student does not feel safe, they should ask to discuss the situation with their internship site supervisor and/or the employer/organization’s Human Resources department, if needed.
- If the student still has questions or concerns after talking with their internship site supervisor, the student should be aware that the UNW Career & Leadership Development staff and the academic internship advisor are available to assist them as they navigate the situation.
- If a student needs to or chooses to discontinue their internship and resign from their work, the student should first contact their academic internship advisor to discuss how resigning from the experience and terminating the internship may affect their internship credit and the number of hours they need to complete. If the decision is made to move forward with resigning from the position, the student should provide a two-week prior notice to the employer/organization, if possible.
- The Career & Leadership Development staff is available to assist students and collaborate with faculty if a student is unable to complete their internship due to COVID-19 circumstances. The Career & Leadership Development staff is able to coach students and assist them in looking for other internship opportunities.