Uni internship scheme reaches out to local businesses
The University of Warwick has been reaching out to a number of local businesses in the area, by providing funding for internships.
The Warwick Summer Internship programme, funded by the University and Santander, will provide 36 recent graduates with paid internships between 8 and 12 weeks long with employers across Britain, in a variety of sectors. Ten of the internships are in the West Midlands, including both small and large organisations.
Local-based cashback website, imutual, has benefitted from working with Warwick through gaining a Digital Marketing intern, Natasha Clark, 21, to help them with their social media, PR and marketing.
“I’m really excited to be a part of this scheme,” said founder of imutual, Richard Yendall. “To have secured the funding to be able to take on an intern is invaluable experience, both for us and Natasha.
“It’s great to be able to work with local institutions and help support recent graduates too.”
Natasha has just finished her degree in History and Politics at Warwick, and hopes to go on to work in journalism or marketing. “This internship is the first paid internship I’ve ever had, and it’s proving really useful for my future career.”
Paul Faithful, Managing Director of Potenza Technology in Coventry, was also pleased to be able to take part in the scheme. “It offers a great way to establish the capabilities of a graduate in a low risk way.
“In return, they are provided with a breadth of experience and responsibility they would not receive in a larger organisation, with the strong potential for a job at the end,” he said.
Warwick offer a number of internship programmes, from working within the University, to undergraduate and graduate placements at businesses all over the country, in a variety of sectors.
The University’s Press Officer, Peter Dunn, said that Warwick recognised that work experience is vital to enhancing graduate employability, and is relevant to all career ambitions.
“The Summer Internship scheme was designed to give our finalists a kick-start in their career and life after Warwick. Especially small and medium enterprises will recognise the value of graduates as employees.”
Over 50 percent of previous Warwick interns have gone onto a variety of permanent roles through other internship and work placement schemes.
Finalist students applied through the University for the various roles, were interviewed by the employers, and then offered roles within the business if they are successful.
Comments (2)
Last year, I applied for an internship in Bristol near my home to do some PR and Marketing with a start-up branch of a major holiday company and was ‘happy’ (well, begrudgingly – vital experience and all that – and softened by the small amount Warwick Careers offer to students who undertake unpaid work experience) to work unpaid during the summer of 2012 for them. Having been accepted after sending through my CV and going through an email interview, I was usurped by a scheme run by Bristol University, who offered the company £1000 to take on an intern. I notified Warwick Careers, who were understandably aghast. Therefore, if other universities are paying for their graduates to be taken on as interns (and I presume as a consequence helping the university’s rankings) then Warwick obviously needs to be able to compete. I’m glad therefore that perhaps something positive for Warwick Students has come of my loss, even if it does simply highlight the underlying issues in the status of internships here.
This is not a good practice. It is wrong for the University to pay businesses to open up internships. In effect, we are subsidising these businesses by giving them labour for free or reduced rates. We have seen other businesses like PoundLand fire their staff only to rehire them or others under similar workfare schemes. By creating this, we eliminate the pressure on businesses to provide good-quality paid internships. There is absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be happening. There is very accurate information out there about how there are huge corporate surpluses being sat on. We are actively paying taxes to fund corporate profits. If only we got a share of that profit, but it’s a fact we keep getting less and less.