GORGE

WORKS

careers built

here

BUILDING A BETTER WORKFORCE

Gain New Skills and Help Build Our Workforce

Internships play a critical role in today’s business world.

Are you wondering how to break into a new career? Are you looking for a chance to prove yourself?

More and more, employers are relying on internships to help grow their industry workforce and fill jobs.

Why?

Bringing a new employee on board takes both time and money. Vacant positions mean lost productivity, lost management time in searching for and interviewing potential replacements, and the added cost of advertising the position for as long as it takes to hire. Once hired, it also takes time to equip and train the new employee.

Is it any wonder that employers would like a chance to try out an employee on a short-term basis in an internship?

Benefits to the intern are equally important. Whether the internship leads directly to employment or not, the intern gets the on-the-job experience that is often a requirement for hiring managers. Prove yourself in an internship and you are likely to get a good recommendation that will help reassure future employers that you are worth the hiring risk.

Gorge Works offers paid summer internships in a wide variety of fields. Each intern also participates in weekly Professional Development Workshops designed to help grow their general employment skills.

Application Season is complete for the Summer 2019 year, but will open again in December for Summer 2020. Meanwhile, keep an eye on our website for other internship and employment opportunities, and new related to career opportunities.

Host An Intern

Gorge Works is excited to have a wide selection of host employers participating for the 2019 Summer Internship.

Our thanks to these participating employers:

Big River Insurance, The Dalles

City of The Dalles

Collins Aerospace

Crestline Construction

Innovative Composites Engineering

Oregon Cherry Growers

The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce/Port of The Dalles

Powder Pure

SDS Lumber

Waste Connections

If you are an employer and are interested in hosting an intern for Summer 2020, please email us at [email protected].

Learn more

Professional Development

Community leaders and industry specialists teach interns professional development skills in weekly workshops. Do you have some expertise you’d be willing to share with people embarking on a new career? If so, you may be a future Gorge Works presenter!

Here are a few examples of last year’s presentations:

Career Exploration

High-Flying Applications

Project Management

Workplace Expectations

Ethics for the Workplace

Community Development

Your Self-Care Tool Box

Learn more

Our Objectives

Gorge Works has three objectives:

  1. To help businesses identify candidates for skilled employment;
  2. To provide internship opportunities allowing for the exploration of local career opportunities;
  3. To promote the Columbia Gorge as an excellent place to live and work.

We believe this program can provide life-changing opportunities for people to try out career options, show their abilities to potential employers and connect with diverse training options, whether they are new high school or college graduates or are already on the job and looking to improve their options.

Supply and Demand

Filling skilled jobs, particularly in technology and manufacturing industries, is a growing challenge in the United States, where skills gaps, retirements and other factors contribute to vacancies.

The situation is no different in the Columbia River Gorge where dozens of skilled, well-paying jobs with benefits remain unfilled while workers languish in unskilled, minimum-wage or part-time jobs with no benefits.

Getting Started

Gorge Works is working with a number of major employers in the Columbia Gorge. They will be offering internships that range from front office specialities like accounting, marketing and Human Resources, to hands-on jobs like heavy equipment operators, mechanics and advanced manufacturing. In addition to the host businesses, several other major employers are serving on our steering committee, and a number of local organizations have agreed to serve in supporting roles, including the Port of The Dalles, Columbia Gorge Community College, The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce and others.

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