Randall Bass, vice president for strategic education initiatives at Georgetown University, knows students who have gigs of all kinds—but they don’t always see them as gigs. For example, students who are savvy with digital marketing and SEO, coding, or graphic design offer those services to student organizations of which they’re a part. And while some students get the chance to use their skills in internships, Bass sees an untapped potential for more of them to use what they’re learning in class to boost their resumes and make money now as freelancers.

A new partnership between Podium Education, an experiential learning company, and the freelance platform Upwork aims to offer that opportunity. 

The Big Idea: The partnership, announced today, is an extension of the work that Podium already does with more than 70 universities. Through their Global Career Accelerator, students learn marketing, data analytics, or coding skills for credit and get the chance to work on a specific project with companies such as Intel and the nonprofit charity: water. With the new partnership, students who complete the coursework will have customized access to and onboarding with Upwork as well as coaching on how to be successful on the platform. 

“For some students, this will be a really great way to channel amateur gig work that they’re already doing,” Bass says. “It’s not going to appeal to everyone, but I think that it’s a brilliant way to annex a percentage of what students find energizing and in some ways are already doing.”

According to a December 2023 Upwork survey, 38% of American professionals performed freelance work last year—an increase of 4M people from the year before. For Gen Z, that number rose to 52%. 

Given young people’s rising interest in pursuing freelancing as a career, the partnership with Upwork was a “perfect match,” says Christopher Parrish, a Podium co-founder and president of partnerships.

Leveling the Playing Field

The Details: For decades, internships have been seen as the ticket to gainful employment post-college—those with at least one internship during college were less likely to be underemployed than their peers, according to a February report from The Burning Glass Institute and Strada Education Foundation. 

  • But only 41% of college students pursuing their bachelor’s degree said they had had an internship, according to a 2023 Gallup survey. 
  • The number was even lower for first-generation college students and those enrolled at public colleges and universities.

The No. 1 reason students provided for why they hadn’t had an internship was that they are hard to get. Podium is among a number of companies—including Riipen, Parker Dewey, Forage, and Handshake—that have launched platforms in the past decade that are designed to expand access to internships and other kinds of work-based learning. For Podium, the new partnership with Upwork extends that focus, Parrish says. 

“Internships can sometimes feel like a token for the elite,” he says. “A student can say, ’I have a rich uncle and I need an internship, so I’m going to reach out to him and he will be able to hook me up.’ There’s a lot of that. So, for students who are first-generation college students and don’t have the luxury of a network, you’ve got to really think about how they get their foot in the door.”

Podium currently only partners with four-year institutions, but they plan to add community colleges to the mix in the future.

Another Tool in the Toolkit

On the Ground: The University of North Texas, which is part of the Global Career Accelerator, is a majority minority institution, where about 4 in 10 students are first-generation. Adam Fein, the university’s vice president for digital strategy and innovation and chief digital officer, says incorporating freelance work into the curriculum is on par with adding microcredentials and certificates to a student’s array of options. 

“We’re really working hard to not be a single-product industry anymore,” Fein says. “We want to put our students in a position for success, and if that means gig work, great. If that means a full-time job, great. If it means just gaining more experience and something to put on their resume, it’s good. In the last couple of years, our career center has started to talk to our students about how it’s not one size fits all. A job can look a few different ways.”

As more and more jobs require technology skills, including artificial intelligence (AI), which Podium offers in its curriculum, Bass has found that the coursework gives students outside of the typical computer science tracks a chance to skill up. At Georgetown, he sees the greatest match and satisfaction in the Podium program among liberal arts students who want to burnish their degrees with practical skills and exposure. 

Bass doesn’t see freelance work replacing internships, however, but rather as the next step for students who are ready for it. Internships, he believes, are still valuable for students in figuring out what they want to do in the first place. 

“We need many experiences to become the people we are,” Bass says. “I don’t think there’s any substitute for a really quality internship in which you immerse yourself, you work with other people, and you test yourself in a particular context. The freelance piece is intermediate and advanced in terms of development. That’s when you know what you’re good at, what you can offer the world, and get experience doing that.”

Adapting to the Future of Work

A Growing Need: The rise of the internet prompted the first wave of remote and professional freelance work opportunities, but the COVID pandemic led to a surge in people quitting their jobs and making the transition. As companies adapt, so must universities who are preparing students for the job market. 

Bass and Fein said both Georgetown and the University of North Texas have begun teaching students about how to make a career out of freelancing, including how to approach their work as entrepreneurs and to be realistic about the challenges of essentially running their own businesses. But universities are not known for being nimble. While they adjust to the new reality, Upwork is stepping in to provide coaching. 

“We have an Upwork Academy that is really geared toward freelancers of all types,” says Dave Bottoms, who leads Upwork’s Marketplace organization. “We want to coach the college students that are being onboarded. How do you market yourself? How do you find jobs? How do you write a good proposal? Can you communicate effectively with clients and deliver work on time?”

The coaching comes in the form of webinars that students can do at their own pace, but the platform also provides consultations for users to talk to successful freelancers and get tips. Upwork is also looking into creating a freelancer badge that will show up on user accounts saying they’ve been accredited through the Podium program.

This is the first time that Upwork has partnered with universities to help fill their talent pool, and Bottoms is optimistic about how they’ll bolster the platform. The Upwork survey found that Gen Z freelancers are more likely to master AI than their older peers, and nearly half perform specialized skills like programming, design, and social media. All of these skills are in demand from employers on Upwork.

“I think you’ll see in the future that there are more benefits available to freelance workers to make it even more attractive,” Bottoms says. “But right now the primary focus is, how do we make that project-based work predictable so that you know how long you’re going to allocate to a particular project, and you’re also building a pipeline for what you’re going to do next?”