AT&T launches externship for 100,000 students whose summer internships fell through

Hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of college and university students and recent graduates were looking forward to gaining critical career-related experience and, hopefully, also making some money through internships this summer. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic turned the labor market upside down and led many employers to rescind their offers of employment or otherwise cancel their internship programs.

These students may be without a job, but they aren’t without opportunities to advance their careers. They can put their skills, education, and drive to work by volunteering in their communities. They can find employment with organizations who remain open as they provide essential services. And they can continue their education, either through their schools or third-parties.

AT&T recently announced the creation of its Summer Learning Academy. According to Dahna Hull, SVP-Human Resources, the Academy is “a free, unpaid self-paced online learning “externship” certificate program, designed to support college students looking for something to fill the void. This program is open to all college students and consists of 80 hours of virtual, on-demand 24×7 content. Registration is open now for college students through June 12 and the program runs from June 22-July 20.”

Continued Hull, AT&T’s “hope is that this program provides an environment where students can continue to grow and prepare for life after graduation.” It is a free, self-paced online learning certificate program powered by AT&T’s award-winning AT&T University curriculum. The unpaid “externship” is designed to support more than 100,000 students on the AT&T University platform. The content is in English but available to students located almost anywhere in the world.

The curriculum includes professional development and business acumen coursework. Students will have the opportunity to hear from speakers like Stedman Graham, Molly Bloom (author of Molly’s Game), and General Thomas Kolditz.

AT&T is working with a number of universities to provide graduating students with certificates that meet some of their professional experience requirements, so if your school requires you to successfully complete an internship prior to graduation, you’re going to want to speak with them about this program to see if they will accept this in lieu of a more traditional internship, the likes of which are far fewer this summer than any university could have anticipated.

To register, go to https://www.att.jobs/externship.