Offering internships

We know that all organisations are different and employers have different needs. So the Graduate Talent Pool will offer maximum flexibility to enable you to shape your internship offering to maximise the benefit to your organisation.

The key to developing a successful internship and recruiting the right candidate is to ensure you have a clear picture of what you are offering and what you expect from prospective interns.

You need to:

• think through what you need the graduate to do - this could be a task requiring specialist knowledge or skills that are not currently present within your organisation
• state your needs upfront
• be clear about the objectives of the job – and use these when discussing the role at any interviews you hold
• put prospective interns through the same selection process as any other potential employee

Remember, your internship should offer a genuine work experience opportunity, giving graduates the chance to enhance their employability and career prospects as well as providing clear benefits for your business. Internships are not a substitute for permanent jobs.

Please note, GTP only accepts advertisements for live internship vacancies. Any adverts found to be sign posting to external sites will be removed.

More help on offering internships

The key to developing a successful internship is to ensure you have a clear picture of what you are offering and what you expect from prospective interns. This will ensure both parties have a clear picture of expectations from the beginning, and will help you recruit the right candidate.

Best Practice Code for High-Quality Internships - The voluntary Best Practice Code for High-Quality Internships has been developed by the Gateways to the Professions Collaborative Forum.

The Code provides guidance on best practice for the design and running of internships, and will help to ensure that both interns and employers obtain the maximum benefit from a placement.

The Best Practice Code sets out the six principles of best practice for internships: preparation; recruitment, induction; supervision and mentoring; certification, reference and feedback.

Work Experience - An Employers Guide - This Briefing, developed by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), outlines the case for employers becoming involved in work experience, or increasing their involvement in it. It also provides a framework and a set of guidelines, which can be used to optimise the quality of work experience which they offer.