Is An Internship Program An Effective Method For Finding Dealership Employees?

A dealership in Yerington, Nevada is reaching out to their community and finding the next generation of staff. An internship program between local Wild West Chevrolet and Yerington High School is in its second year. The program connected the high school students with the Chevy store, which provides the students with valuable real world experience.

Yerington graduation coach Debbie Rife spoke to the Reno Gazette Journal about the internship program. In an interview, Rife explained, “Wild West has been a great asset to the school community. They’re here to truly benefit our students.” Those benefits include hands-on experience in sales and auto repair. Three high school seniors are participating in the program. Two of those students are sales interns and another is involved in the fixed operations department. The students come to the store every Tuesday and Thursday. The two sales interns are also spending a lot of their time with the dealership website and social media accounts.

Aside from their experience learning about the retail automotive sector, the store gave the students a truck to fix and raffle off. The machine is a beast. It’s a 1988 Chevrolet Silverado 4×4 with recent paint, new tires, wheels and a bed liner coating. The students and the store will sell tickets to raffle off the late 80’s Chevy behemoth. When the program is completed students will have the chance to get certificates through GM, including a chance for the service department intern to obtain bronze level GM certification.