Don't know where OP is sailing from, but in my country, it's customary for students students to do a summer internship somewhere in the middle of their undergrad years. In most domains AFAIK internships are without compensation, but programming internships tend to be pretty well paid.
Do it in the summer or between terms. Or delay your graduation. If you think your degree program won't get you a job (or it will be tremendously harder) because you are older & you don't have recent work experience, then try taking 3 months out to get paid 80k as an intern, then coming back and finish your program.
I really feel that for devs coming from unusual backgrounds, you just need a positive recent work entry on your resume. That's all you need to break through.
The parent's confusion stems from the fact that the OP is a nearly-40-year-old man who did programming earlier in his life, quit for 16 years, and is now trying to get back into it. "Do an internship during college" isn't really actionable advice for this guy.
Sorry, I missed that important point, bad reading comprehension. I thought he said he was getting a degree and was a junior in college but I read it again and he didn't mention college. He's looking at "junior engineer" or beginning programmer jobs.
College internships aren't available, he's not a student. Still, he or she needs one recent dev job on his resume, that will unlock further job opportunities. I think going to recruiting events in person and talking to devs and recruiters in person is one way to make that personal connection that could put you over the hump. Go to an event related to your area of biggest interest, try to make a personal connection.
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