Aubyn Hill
BY THE time the summer solstice arrives on June 21 of each year, Jamaican university students would have been on holiday, some of them for almost a month.
In the case of those who study in the United States of America, some of them would have finished their exams by the middle of May.
Alas, there are not nearly enough summer jobs available in Jamaica.
It is also apparent that most companies do not really know the value they can receive, and give, when they employ students who are following degree courses at universities and are free to work for up to three months during the summer time.
FIRST EXPOSURE TO CAPITALISM
I have often found it quite amazing how many captains of industry and commerce in many countries - and certainly including those in Jamaica - miss this really quite golden opportunity to introduce bright fresh minds to the corporate world.
They fub the chance to give our university students a very positive introduction to the corporate system and philosophy we support and a system that supports us.
As a CEO, I always treated management trainees as very prized assets. Although summer trainees would not be long with the company nor would they necessarily return after university, I always tried to ensure that the brief time they spent in our company they had a good experience and were placed with good, able and attentive mentors so that they could get the best first impression possible of the business world.
Business leaders have hardly any better chance to make a good lasting impression, of how good business is, on impressionable minds.
Regrettably, the flip side also leaves an impression of corporate capitalism.
When able students rearing with enthusiasm and new knowledge seek to find summer jobs, both to keep them occupied and help them to earn the cash that many of them need to pay for university tuition and expenses, but can find no work, many may develop a negative impression of the business arena.
I have information from a small sample of five university students who have been looking for summer jobs for the past two years. Two are from universities in the United States and three are from the University of the West Indies.
They have applied to most every business sector - the financial services sector, the insurance sector, conglomerates, medium sized businesses, the telecommunications sector and the beverage manufacturing and distribution sectors - without any success.
One is now a third-year student at the University of Pennsylvania (a much better academic pedigree is hard to find) and when he applied in mid-April or early May last year, he was told that he was applying too early.
This year when he applied at the end of May, he did not even get a formal response. The corporate names on these students' application lists read like the 'Who Is Who' among Jamaican companies.
POOR OR NO PLANNING BY CEOS
It is apparent that many CEOs and their senior executives are unaware of how much help they can get from bright summer students.
They also miss out on the very important positive role that they can play when they bring these students into their organisations and make sure they are tracked, monitored and guided during their summer experience in their companies.
The experience of many university students of not finding even short summer jobs and, when they find it, not getting good direction or exposure at the companies when they do find one is a poor reflection on the leaders of our companies in Jamaica.
Too often those university students that are privileged and lucky to find a summer job are quickly relegated to performing jobs with little or no content, no avenue to learn new things about the business.
Many times they are left to be idle and paid a stipend for turning up to work. This really is a waste of our brightest minds and a failure on the senior executives in companies and their hapless line managers and personnel people.
They lack creativity or the vision to see the chance they have to influence young people on the positive role business houses play and must play in the continuing development of our country.
SOME JOBS THEY CANNOT DO
When a summer intern joins an institution like a bank, there will be some jobs that he or she will not be able to do because of the necessity to have access to a computer password.
Summer trainees will not be able to do the work of a teller or similar activities that require a password to the core computer system. Other issues of confidentiality may arise.
However, even with those limitations there are many interesting activities that summer interns can do.
There is plenty of other clean-up, clerical and loan follow-up work that do not need a password but could prove to be very interesting and engaging activities for summer students.
Recent newspaper reports suggest that many companies are experiencing problems in collecting their receivables. This is an area where smart executives could engage smart and enthusiastic university students as a small army to go after delinquent customers on the telephone and by writing letters.
It is also an excellent training activity for these young people.
They learn and understand how hard it is to collect money and will be more careful when assessing borrowers or granting credit in whichever organisation they may join in the future.
Summer interns are bright, generally attractive and engaging young people who can be part of a sales campaign or participate in planning a sales campaign that will be launched in the fall months.
During their summer internship, university students, with proper planning by interested management executives, could be given a mixture of tasks to do.
They could do research and prepare those reports that have been delayed because executives have been too busy, while at the same time participate in some practical experiences in sales, marketing or credit activities.
But once again, the leadership has to come from the CEO and his or her senior management.
Senior executives of corporate Jamaica need to recognise that they have a quite inexpensive but energetic source of brain power in university students who are on holiday and should give some time and attention to finding ways to use this productive and enthusiastic corps of young people in local companies.
Aubyn Hill is the chief executive officer of Corporate Strategies Ltd., a restructuring and financial advisory firm. Respond to: writerhill@gmail.com.
