Internships get canceled or go virtual because of pandemic

The global coronavirus crisis, which has already thrown much of the business world into turmoil, is also disrupting summer internships, which are an important stepping stone to working life for many university students and recent graduates and a recruiting pipeline for companies. Yadeen (pic) is one of many young people who have had their summer internships canceled because of the pandemic. — Yadeen Rashid/AP

LONDON: Yadeen Rashid was flying high in February. He’d just earned stellar grades in his latest semester at Virginia Tech university, where he’s in his third year double majoring in economics and political science. And he’d just landed a summer internship at a data analysis company.

Then the pandemic hit, triggering lockdown restrictions and pushing the US economy into recession. Many companies canceled their internships programmes and rescinded job offers – including NTT Data, where Rashid was set to intern.