The Internship Makes Sense. The Liability Feels Complicated.

We hear some version of this from employers all the time:

“We’d love to bring students in. But with the work we do, there’s too much liability.”

And honestly? Fair.

If you are running a manufacturing facility, construction company, healthcare organization, skilled trades business, or any workplace where real work is happening, you cannot just bring a student in and hope for the best.

You have a business to run.

There are questions about safety. Supervision. Insurance. Age restrictions. Compensation. Equipment. What an intern can actually do. And, at some point, where the line sits between an intern who is learning and an employee who is doing productive work.

That can get complicated quickly.

But here’s the question we keep asking:

Does complicated have to mean no?

We don’t think it does.

Liability Is Really a Design Problem

When most people hear liability, they think about everything that could go wrong.

We think there is another way to look at it.

Liability is also about looking at those risks ahead of time and building the experience accordingly.

Take welding.

Maybe you have a student who has completed coursework and is genuinely interested in the trade. That does not automatically mean they should walk into a shop on day one and start operating equipment.

So don’t start there.

Maybe they observe.

Maybe they help with measurements, preparation, materials, documentation, cleanup, or another part of the workflow that lets them understand how the trade actually works.

Maybe they spend time beside someone who has been doing the job for twenty years and finally see how everything they learned in class translates to an actual work environment.

Then, as their knowledge and readiness grow, the experience can grow too.

Real-world experience does not have to mean throwing someone into the deep end.

It should mean giving them meaningful exposure at the level they are ready for.

That distinction matters.

And Yes, We Want Students to Get Paid

Whenever possible, InternCrew wants to connect students with paid opportunities.

Part of that is practical.

Part of it is bigger than that.

During our Indiana Workforce Project interviews, we heard a phrase that has stuck with us:

The Paycheck Epiphany.

One interviewee described watching an at-risk student change after receiving that first paycheck.

Suddenly, work was not just an assignment.

Someone expected them to show up.

Someone depended on them.

Their time had value.

Their skills had value.

And at the end of the week, there was something tangible in their hands that proved it.

That first paycheck can teach accountability, independence, confidence, and the connection between effort and opportunity in a way that is difficult to recreate inside a classroom.

But compensation matters for employers too.

An internship may start with great intentions and still create problems if the student gradually begins doing work that would otherwise be performed by a paid employee or contractor.

As one interviewee explained:

“The first intern I ever brought in was unpaid, and I got lucky. She was a marketing student, her school gave her credit, she wanted the portfolio piece, and nobody ever complained. It was two years before I understood how close I had come to a wage claim I would have lost, and the thing that would have sunk me was not the credit or the paperwork. It was that by week three she was doing work I would otherwise have paid a contractor to do.”

That is the part employers cannot afford to leave to chance.

Good intentions are not the same thing as good structure.

What About Students Under 18?

This is another place where employers can immediately hit the brakes.

And sometimes, there are legitimate restrictions on what a younger student can do.

Age can affect the equipment they can operate, the environments they can enter, the work they can perform, and the supervision they need.

But “they can’t do everything” is very different from “they can’t do anything.”

A 16-year-old might not be ready or permitted to operate a particular piece of equipment.

They can still learn what it does.

They can still watch the person operating it.

They can still understand where that job fits into production, what skills it requires, what training leads there, and whether they can picture themselves doing it someday.

That exposure matters.

Sometimes one of the best things a student can learn during an internship is:

“I want to do that. What do I need to learn before I’m ready?”

That gives them direction.

This Isn’t Just a Skilled Trades Issue

It is easy to picture liability when we are talking about welding equipment, construction sites, manufacturing floors, or healthcare environments.

But the same need for thoughtful structure exists in an office or remote internship.

What work is the student doing?

Who is supervising them?

Are they actually learning?

How are they receiving feedback?

Are expectations clear?

Is someone intentionally helping them connect the work they are doing to the career they are exploring?

Remote work may remove a piece of machinery from the equation, but it does not remove the need for a well-designed experience.

And that brings us to the bigger point.

An Internship Shouldn’t Just Be a Student Sitting Somewhere

Indiana already has the pieces.

We have employers who need people.

We have schools and training programs preparing them.

We have students trying to figure out what comes next.

We have manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, technology, agriculture, construction, skilled trades, entrepreneurship, and dozens of other career paths worth exploring.

The problem is not that every student needs to choose the same path.

The problem is asking young people to choose a direction before they have had enough chances to see where those paths actually lead.

That is where work-based learning becomes incredibly valuable.

The classroom can provide the foundation.

The workplace provides context.

A student can learn about welding.

Then they can walk into a fabrication shop and see it.

They can study healthcare.

Then they can experience what a healthcare environment actually feels like.

They can think they want marketing, engineering, manufacturing, IT, construction, or nursing—and discover that they were exactly right.

Or completely wrong.

Both outcomes have value.

Because finding out what you do not want to spend the next twenty years doing at 17 is a pretty useful piece of information.

So No, Liability Shouldn’t Be Ignored

It also should not automatically kill a good opportunity.

Employers should not have to choose between protecting their company and helping young people gain experience.

Students should not be placed into work they are not prepared to perform just so everyone can say an internship happened.

There is a better middle ground.

Thoughtful placement.

Clear expectations.

Appropriate supervision.

Mentorship.

Compensation where possible.

Responsibilities that match the student’s age, ability, and experience.

And support for the employer trying to put all of those pieces together.

That is part of the role InternCrew wants to play.

Not making liability disappear.

Helping employers think through the experience before a student ever walks through the door.

Because the goal isn’t simply to create more internships.

It’s to create better ones.

Experiences that help businesses meet their future workforce earlier.

Experiences that help students understand the world of work before they are expected to enter it.

Experiences that actually give someone enough information to make a decision about what comes next.

Indiana’s future workforce already exists.

Our job is to connect those people to the places where they can learn, grow, contribute, and figure out where they belong.

And for the student trying to figure out what comes next?

Find your direction.

Sources & Reporting

The Indiana Workforce Project combines original interviews with employers, educators, workforce leaders, students, and community partners alongside publicly available workforce data, policy announcements, and industry research. Unless otherwise noted, interview participants’ perspectives are presented anonymously to help better understand Indiana’s workforce ecosystem.

Public Sources

TCWGlobal, Avoid Legal Trouble: The Importance of Compliance for Intern Programs
FirstHR, How to Hire Interns: Paid, Unpaid, and the Legal Rules

Original Reporting

Interviews conducted by the Indiana Workforce Project (2026)
Ongoing interviews with Indiana employers, educators, workforce leaders, students, and community partners

Want to be part of the conversation? Whether you’re an employer trying to build your future workforce, an educator helping students explore what comes next, or a young person looking for real experience, we’d love to hear from you. Connect with InternCrew and help us build better paths from education to work. Contact InternCrew