Internships

(see also the importance of internships)

What is an Internship?

An internship is an opportunity offered by an employer to potential employees (usually undergraduates or students) to work at a firm for a fixed, limited period (usually between one week and 12 months).

Internships may be part-time or full-time. Usually they are part-time during the university year and full-time in the summer, winter or Easter holidays, when they typically last 4-12 weeks.

Internships usually take place in the third or fourth year of a university undergraduate degree course. Internships typically last from between one month to a full academic year (12-months). During this period students are supposed to put the subjects learnt studying at university in to practice.

Degree courses of this nature are often called sandwich courses, with the work experience year itself known as the sandwich year or sandwich placement.

Internships offer students a period of practical experience in the indsutry relating to their field of study. This experience is valuable to students as a means of allowing them to experience how their studies are applied in the "real world", and as work experience that can be highly attractive to potential employers on a candidate's CV.

Sandwich placements can also offer student interns useful insights for their final year of study and prepare them for the job market once their course has finished.

After their internship year (sandwich placement) some companies may choose to sponsor high quality students in their final year at University, with the promise of a job at the end of the course.

Who are Interns?

Interns are usually university students, or university graduates who have not yet found employment. Interns are less frequently college students (under 18) or older "career changers".

Why do Companies offer Internships?

In the short-term, internships provide employers with cheap (and sometimes even free) labour, for what is usually low-level office based tasks, such as photocopying, filing or report drafting.

Long-term, employers can use internships as an effective way of advertising their graduate jobs and/or schemes to students. Graduate jobs surveys suggest that almost half of all graduate employers hire at least 20% of their ex-interns for graduate jobs and training schemes. It is highly likely that graduates will return to the organisation that hired them as an intern for full-time employment after leaving university.

The prospect of hiring ex-interns after graduating is also very appealing to employers because these graduates already understand the company and the job they will be doing. Ex-interns require little or no training.

Why do People do Internships?

Internships provide opportunities for prospective employees to gain experience in a particular field or industry. determine if they have an interest in a particular career, create a network of contacts, or gain university module credits.

Interns may also have the possibility of putting themselves forward for forthcoming opportunities for paid work, during their internship.

What do Interns do?

An intern is someone who works in a temporary position for an employer who operates in an industry they are interested in working in. Unlike conventional employment, internships have an emphasis on training, rather than employment itself.

Salaries on Internships

An internship may be paid, unpaid or partially paid. Paid internships are most common at engineering, legal, business (especially accounting and finance), technology, medical, science, and advertising sectors. Internships in the media (radio, television, print) and non-profit organizations are often unpaid.

Many employers in the highly sought after professions, such as TV and politics, demand that graduate level job candidates undergo a period of unpaid "work experience" before being able to get paid work. In most cases this "work experience" is actually simply unpaid work and is contrary to the Minimum Wage regulations if unpaid. Such is the demand for this kind of work that very few complaints are made about this, and so the practice continues albeit illegally.

Research Internship

This is also sometimes known as a "Dissertation Internship". This is usually undertaken by students that are in their last year of academic study. For a research internship a student will undertake research for a particular company. The company may have something that they feel they need to improve, or the student may be able to choose a topic within the company themselves. The results of the research study will need to be accumulated in to a formal report and presented to the company and to the university institution the student is studying at.

Now see - The importance of Internships, Industrial Placement and Sandwich Placement.