St Mary’s is committed to supporting our students and graduates to develop the knowledge, skills and experience they need to be successful in their future careers, as set out in our employability strategy. To support this St Mary's is looking to promote and increase the internships offered at the University. These can be offered to recent graduates if full time or to current Level 5 or 6 students, if the work can be undertaken flexibly alongside their studies.
It can be very rewarding to engage an intern, the department will gain:
- a new and motivated member of staff
- new skills and perspectives to the organisation
- additional resources for peaks in workload or projects
If considering to employ an intern please note:
- an internship is usually between 6 weeks to 12 months in duration
- the internship should offer a high quality experience to the student e.g. in the form of a project or work that has impact within the department
- the internship should enable students to acquire and demonstrate a range of skills e.g. teamwork, analytical, communication, problem solving
- the internship should provide concrete experiences within the workplace so that students and graduates can clearly demonstrate their impact on their CV when applying for future roles
- the intern should be well supported by the department with a clear supervisor
- the intern should be recognised as a valued member of the team.
Intern pay
The suggested hourly rate for interns is £7.70 per hour (age 21-24) or £8.21 per hour (age 25+). These rates align to the National Living Wage and the National Minimum Wage. The rates change every April.
You will also need to consider paying the interns travel expenses for journeys they undertake on behalf of St Mary's, such as travel to and from external meetings and events.
Internship Hiring Process
If you would like to hire an intern follow this step by step process:
Define the Role
- Identify the main tasks for the intern and the skills required to perform successfully in the role. You can refer to the ONS website, which provides guidance on jobs that are classified as graduate level and appropriate job titles and role content.
- Clarify the duration, working hours, start date and supervisor
- Consider whether the position can develop into a full time role
- Identify the budget to hire an intern or make an application through university planning round
- Complete the Request to Engage an Intern form (Appendix 1) and get sign off from your Head of Serivce
Advertising
- Prepare an advert stating main duties, skills required, application process (usually a CV and covering letter) plus closing date, Appendix 2 gives an example advert.
- Include a contact for informal enquiries
- Advertise the vacancy via CareerConnect within Employability Services to reach recent St Mary's graduates. For information on how to do this, please contact careers@stmarys.ac.uk
Recruitment
- Convene a small panel
- Utilise competency and motivation questions to ascertain capability and willingness to do the role
- Use the scoring template (Appendix 3) to compare candidate performance and record feedback
- Offer feedback to successful and unsuccessful candidates to support their continued professional development
Hiring
- Ask the selected individual to complete the Intern Starter Pack (Appendix 4)
- Verify the interns passport (you must see their actual passport) and take a photocopy
- Complete the Supervisor/Line Managers form (Appendix 5)
- Send all three documents to hrhelpdesk@stmarys.ac.uk
- HR will issue the individual with a contract
- Individual to submit timesheets each month via ESS (PeopleNet)