While a college degree offers the opportunity for increased income, a degree alone does not guarantee a student's successful entry into the workforce. Work-based learning, such as internships and apprenticeship programs, has become an increasingly popular way to help students build workforce skills and experience and gain real-world exposure to a career in the field of their interest. For employers, such programs provide labor while also building a talent pipeline, which many have argued is lacking in the current U.S. workforce. But despite their potential and popularity, a lack of consistent standards for internship programs has led to much variability in their quality and structure, with many providing less-than-ideal work experiences. Moreover, a large proportion of internships are unpaid, making it difficult for low-income students to participate and creating inequities between their career experiences and those of students who can afford to work for free. Finally, school districts and colleges struggle to develop enough internship slots to meet student demand. One recently created internship program is exploring how to address these challenges. In 2015, Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation (Great Lakes) awarded $12.2 million to selected four-year colleges in Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin to develop semester-long paid internships for college juniors and seniors with financial needs. In 2016, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) began researching the implementation, scaling, and sustainability of the Career Ready Internship (CRI) program, as well as employers', students', and colleges' experiences with the program. The research team has disseminated two surveys--one to student participants and another to employers--and is examining multiple years of program data as well as progress reports that colleges submitted to Great Lakes. This issue focus provides a brief overview of the CRI program in the context of recent research on internships and a snapshot of early findings from the study.