Each summer, the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) offers consulting internship opportunities to qualified graduate students from the University of North Carolina.
Growing technology-based firms often need access to specialized hands-on business skills and expertise to help their ventures advance to the next level. Graduate from students interested in enhancing their educational experience work with the SBTDC’s Technology Commercialization Services team to provide consulting assistance to select SBTDC clients.
As part of the SBTDC’s Summer Internship Program, interns will have the opportunity to work with two technology-based clients during the 10-week internship. Projects include primary market research, financial analysis, commercialization plan development, market assessments, competitive analysis and more. Participating schools have included UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, NC State, East Carolina University, Wake Forest University, UNC Greensboro and Western Carolina University.
SBTDC staff interview, select and place our student consultants to work on projects developed by clients and the SBTDC. An SBTDC mentor will work with the clients and the interns throughout the summer to monitor the project and make sure it stays on target.
The SBTDC and the university that the students are enrolled in, participate equally in the funding of the stipend paid to interns. Clients are not required to provide funding, but we do ask that they consider doing at the end of the project if they found the work product to be valuable.
To date, 125 students have participated with 250 clients for a total of 50,000 hours of service. This is the equivalent of 24 full-time employment years. Past interns have gone on to land full-time positions at a companies of all sizes in a multitude of industries around the world, while a handful also take on the challenge of starting their own business, some of which have now had a successful financial exits.
For more information contact John Ujvari.
