Organizations across nearly every industry are asking the same question. How do we find enough qualified people to support future growth?
Whether the conversation takes place inside a manufacturing plant, an automotive dealership, a franchise network, a healthcare organization, or a growing service business, the challenge sounds remarkably familiar. Experienced employees are retiring faster than they can be replaced. Recruiting costs continue to rise. Competition for talent has intensified. At the same time, organizations are investing heavily in onboarding, training, and employee development in an effort to improve retention and build stronger teams.
Those are important investments, but they all begin after someone has already entered the workforce.
During a recent Training Impact Podcast episode, Jeff Walter sat down with Corey Koopmans, entrepreneur and co-founder of InternCrew, to explore a different perspective. Rather than asking how organizations can become better at recruiting talent, Koopmans encourages employers to ask an earlier question. How do young people discover careers in the first place, and what happens when they are asked to make life-changing decisions before they have enough experience to know whether those decisions are right for them?
That shift in perspective transforms what initially appears to be a conversation about internships into something much larger. It becomes a discussion about workforce development, organizational readiness, and the role employers can play in helping students explore meaningful careers before graduation. It also challenges learning and development leaders to think differently about where the training journey actually begins. Instead of starting with onboarding, perhaps it begins years earlier, when someone is first introduced to an industry, a profession, or a company that ultimately shapes the direction of an entire career.
One of the reasons Koopmans brings such a unique perspective to workforce development is that his entrepreneurial career has consistently centered on helping organizations better manage, develop, and support people. Although each company he has founded has addressed a different business challenge, a common thread runs throughout his professional journey.
His first major venture, Beyond Payroll, exposed him to the operational realities facing employers across dozens of industries. Managing payroll quickly evolved into understanding time and labor management, benefits administration, onboarding, workforce planning, and the day-to-day challenges organizations encounter while supporting employees. After successfully growing and selling that business, Koopmans co-founded Analytically, a workforce analytics platform that helped organizations better understand employee performance and labor utilization through advanced analytics and machine learning. He later launched Hire Credit, a company designed to help employers identify federal and state hiring tax credits while encouraging organizations to expand employment opportunities for underserved populations.
Each of those businesses approached workforce development from a different angle, yet together they created a remarkably comprehensive view of how organizations attract, retain, and develop talent. Rather than focusing exclusively on recruiting or technology, Koopmans spent years understanding the operational systems that influence how people enter organizations, how they succeed, and why they sometimes leave.
That experience eventually led him into education technology through EntryPoint SRM, an artificial intelligence platform that helps school counselors better support students by simplifying administrative work, organizing student information, and improving career guidance. It was while working with school districts that another challenge became impossible to ignore. Schools increasingly wanted to expand work-based learning opportunities, but employers often struggled to participate because the administrative burden surrounding internships had become too complicated.
InternCrew emerged as the natural extension of everything Koopmans had learned throughout his career. Rather than creating another technology platform, he focused on removing the operational barriers that prevent schools, employers, and students from successfully working together.
Throughout the conversation, Walter and Koopmans repeatedly return to a question that receives surprisingly little attention in workforce development discussions.
How can someone choose the right career if they have never experienced it?
For decades, students have been encouraged to graduate from high school, select a college or training program, choose a field of study, and begin preparing for a profession that may ultimately define much of their adult life. The expectation is that young adults can make informed decisions about careers they often know only through classroom instruction, family advice, or internet research.
Experience tells a different story.
Many professionals can identify moments that dramatically altered the direction of their careers, and those moments rarely occurred inside a classroom. A summer job introduced them to an industry they had never considered. A mentor helped them recognize strengths they did not know they possessed. An internship revealed that a profession looked entirely different in practice than it did on paper. Sometimes those experiences confirmed an existing interest. Other times they redirected someone toward a completely different path.
Koopmans illustrates this reality through his own family’s experience, describing how his wife earned a marketing degree before eventually discovering that her real strengths and interests were much better aligned with accounting and financial analysis. Her educational journey was successful, but it also reflected a challenge that countless professionals experience. Career decisions are often made before enough real-world experience exists to determine whether a profession truly aligns with someone’s talents, interests, and long-term aspirations.
Learning and development professionals understand better than most that meaningful learning requires context. Adults rarely master complex skills through theory alone. They learn by applying knowledge, practicing in authentic environments, receiving coaching, and reflecting on real experiences. The same principle applies much earlier in life. Students benefit enormously when they have opportunities to experience workplaces before making educational and career commitments that may shape the next several decades of their lives.
Seen from that perspective, internships become far more than temporary employment. They become structured learning experiences that help individuals discover where they can contribute, where they feel engaged, and where they believe they can build meaningful careers.
The discussion naturally shifts toward skilled trades because they provide one of the clearest examples of the disconnect between opportunity and awareness.
Across North America, organizations continue to report significant shortages of qualified technicians, electricians, HVAC specialists, manufacturers, construction professionals, and other skilled workers. At the same time, infrastructure investment, manufacturing expansion, energy projects, and technological modernization continue to increase demand for exactly those capabilities. Koopmans points to projections showing that the current workforce simply is not large enough to meet future needs, particularly as experienced workers continue to retire faster than younger workers enter these professions.
What makes this situation particularly interesting is that many skilled careers already offer the outcomes students and families say they are seeking. Technical professions frequently provide competitive compensation, exceptional job stability, opportunities for advancement, and clearly defined career pathways without requiring the level of educational debt associated with many traditional professions. Yet despite these advantages, countless students never seriously explore these careers because they have little opportunity to see what modern skilled work actually looks like.
The perception gap is often larger than the opportunity gap.
Many industries have evolved dramatically over the past two decades. Automotive technicians now diagnose sophisticated computer systems as often as they repair mechanical components. Manufacturing environments increasingly rely on robotics, automation, data analytics, and advanced quality systems. Modern construction incorporates digital design, sophisticated project management technologies, and highly specialized equipment. These careers bear little resemblance to the stereotypes many students continue to associate with them.
Without exposure, however, those outdated perceptions persist.
That observation carries important implications for organizations responsible for partner enablement, dealer development, franchise operations, and customer education. Many businesses already invest heavily in training once someone joins their network. Whether through extended enterprise training, customer training, or franchise training, organizations recognize that consistent learning improves performance, operational consistency, and long-term success. The conversation with Koopmans suggests that perhaps the learning journey should begin even earlier by introducing future employees, partners, and technicians to industries they may never have otherwise considered.
One of the most practical parts of the conversation focuses on a reality that many employers understand all too well. Supporting internships is rarely limited by good intentions.
Most organizations genuinely want to invest in future talent.
Business owners understand that today’s students will eventually become tomorrow’s workforce. Many appreciate the opportunity to give back to their communities while helping young people gain valuable experience. The difficulty arises when administrative complexity begins to outweigh the perceived benefits.
Koopmans speaks from firsthand experience because his career has been built around helping organizations navigate payroll, onboarding, benefits, workforce management, compliance, and employment administration. Those operational realities become especially challenging when employers begin working with students who may still be in high school. Questions surrounding workers’ compensation, insurance coverage, payroll administration, liability, onboarding documentation, school reporting requirements, and state regulations quickly create enough friction that many employers simply decide participation is too difficult.
InternCrew was designed specifically to remove those barriers by serving as the employer of record while coordinating many of the administrative responsibilities associated with work-based learning. Employers gain access to students without assuming the full administrative burden. Schools receive structured reporting that supports graduation requirements. Students gain paid work-based learning experiences that help them evaluate potential careers in authentic workplace environments.
The model demonstrates an important principle that extends far beyond internships. Organizations often improve participation not by asking people to work harder, but by making worthwhile activities easier to accomplish. Reducing friction frequently produces greater engagement than adding additional incentives.
For learning and development leaders, one of the most valuable aspects of this conversation is the reminder that training rarely exists in isolation. Effective learning ecosystems extend beyond classrooms, learning management systems, and onboarding programs. They include the experiences that prepare people to enter organizations with realistic expectations, genuine enthusiasm, and a clearer understanding of the work they hope to perform.
That broader perspective aligns closely with the philosophy behind the LatitudeLearning Training Program Roadmap, which encourages organizations to think beyond isolated courses and instead design learning ecosystems that support people throughout their entire journey. Whether learners are employees, customers, dealers, franchisees, distributors, or partners, sustainable performance improvement depends upon creating structured learning experiences that evolve alongside the learner. Work-based learning represents another important stage within that broader continuum.
The same principle appears throughout successful extended enterprise learning initiatives. Organizations that consistently outperform their peers rarely focus solely on product knowledge or technical instruction. They invest in creating learning experiences that help people understand the organization’s culture, expectations, operational practices, and long-term opportunities. Those experiences strengthen engagement because learners understand not only what they are expected to do, but why their contributions matter.
InternCrew approaches workforce development through a remarkably similar lens. Rather than viewing internships simply as temporary employment, the organization treats them as structured learning experiences designed to help students discover where their interests, abilities, and future aspirations intersect with meaningful work.
The result is a conversation that challenges employers, educators, and learning professionals to reconsider where workforce development truly begins. It may not begin on the first day of employment after all. It may begin much earlier, with a single opportunity that allows someone to experience a profession they never realized could become a career.
The conversation concludes by looking toward the future of work, where another transformation is already underway. Artificial intelligence has become one of the defining technologies of this generation, yet Koopmans believes its greatest impact may not come from replacing workers. Instead, it may come from helping people become more capable, more productive, and more creative than ever before. Students entering the workforce today will grow up viewing artificial intelligence as a normal part of how work gets done, much like previous generations viewed personal computers or the internet. Their ability to combine human judgment with AI-enabled tools may fundamentally reshape how organizations think about productivity, collaboration, and innovation.
That observation brings the conversation full circle. Every generation enters a workforce that looks different from the one before it. New technologies emerge, industries evolve, and customer expectations continue to change. Yet one principle remains remarkably consistent. Organizations succeed when they invest in developing people before performance is expected of them. Whether someone is preparing to become an employee, a franchise owner, a dealership technician, a channel partner, or a customer responsible for operating increasingly sophisticated products, meaningful learning begins with creating opportunities to build confidence through authentic experience.
For learning leaders, this episode offers an important reminder that workforce development should be viewed as a continuum rather than a series of disconnected events. Recruiting, onboarding, technical training, leadership development, partner enablement, and continuous learning all contribute to organizational success, but they become even more effective when learners arrive with greater clarity about the work they have chosen to pursue. Helping individuals explore careers before they commit to them strengthens every stage that follows.
Organizations investing in customer training, franchise training, or broader extended enterprise learning initiatives often focus on improving performance after someone joins the business. The discussion with Koopmans suggests another opportunity worth considering. By supporting work-based learning and reducing barriers between education and industry, organizations also have the ability to influence who enters their talent pipeline in the first place. That shift in thinking expands workforce development beyond human resources or recruiting and positions it as a strategic responsibility shared across operations, learning, leadership, and community partnerships.
InternCrew demonstrates that solving workforce challenges does not always require entirely new ideas. Sometimes it requires removing the obstacles that prevent good ideas from becoming common practice. Employers already want to mentor future talent. Schools already want students to gain meaningful workplace experience. Students already want opportunities to explore careers before making life-changing decisions. When those three groups can work together more effectively, everyone benefits.
The conversation between Jeff Walter and Corey Koopmans is ultimately about much more than internships. It is about creating stronger connections between education and employment at a time when organizations across every industry are searching for sustainable ways to build future talent. By helping students gain meaningful workplace experience before graduation, employers have an opportunity to influence career decisions long before a résumé is submitted or a job application is completed. That earlier investment creates stronger talent pipelines, improves workforce readiness, and gives young people the confidence to pursue careers that align with their interests, abilities, and aspirations.
For learning and development leaders, the discussion also reinforces an important truth. Effective training begins long before someone enrolls in a course or attends an orientation session. Learning starts with exposure, grows through experience, and continues throughout an individual’s professional journey. Organizations that recognize this broader perspective are often the ones best positioned to develop engaged employees, capable partners, loyal customers, and high-performing networks.
The companion case study, InternCrew: The Critical Role of Work-Based Learning in Building the Future Workforce, expands on many of the ideas introduced during this conversation by examining them through the framework of the LatitudeLearning Training Program Roadmap. It explores how organizations can design structured learning ecosystems, support different learner types, overcome common operational barriers, and build sustainable workforce development strategies that extend well beyond traditional onboarding. Together, the podcast and case study provide both strategic perspective and practical guidance for organizations looking to strengthen learning across the entire workforce lifecycle.
🎧 To explore the full conversation, listen to the Training Impact Podcast episode featuring Corey Koopmans of InternCrew.
📄 Download the companion case study: InternCrew: The Critical Role of Work-Based Learning in Building the Future Workforce
🌐 Learn more about InternCrew on their website: https://interncrew.com/
