Undergraduate Internship Scheme - information for recruiters

• For each summer intern, we will give you £1,000 funding. Your intern should be paid a minimum of £230 a week to meet minimum wage requirements, so you need to contribute at least £105 a week (or £21 per day) to make up the difference.
• The intern must be employed by the business, not self-employed. Internships must be eight weeks long. You can choose to employ the intern for longer if you wish, but this will be at your own expense (the UWE funded eight week internships must start by Wednesday 31 July).
• Internships are a chance to be included in a unique, rewarding, high profile scheme with potential for ongoing participation in future years.
• UWE students come from a diverse range of backgrounds, and boast a wide range of skills and experience which can benefit your business. Previous participants use interns as a fresh pair of eyes or resources to support a project, or as an extra pair of hands over the summer vacation period.
• Participation in this programme could help achieve some of the corporate social responsibility and community engagement ambitions of your business. It also offers your business the opportunity to inspire and educate the next generation of undergraduates.
• Taking on an undergraduate intern allows you to try someone out who might eventually be taken on as an employee, whilst enabling the intern to develop relevant undergraduate skills, knowledge and experience. This is an opportunity to develop the skills of your existing staff by enabling them to mentor, supervise and guide an intern.

• Funding to businesses is £1,000 (inclusive of VAT if charged) per intern.
• Internships must be for a minimum of eight weeks if full-time
• Undergraduates must be paid a minimum of £230 per week.
• You must be able to pay interns PAYE.
• Costs to business will be a minimum of £840 plus employer National Insurance contributions and VAT if charged.
• There will be no limit to the number of vacancies you can advertise, however, funds will only be allocated upon successful appointment of an eligible UWE undergraduate and receipt of contract.
• Undergraduates can only be funded once, ie we are not able to fund the same intern twice for the same organisation.
• If for any reason the internship ends prematurely, we will require the funding to be reimbursed (as a proportion relating to the time actually worked)
• Confirmed suppliers, who have submitted contracts and whose invoices have been presented correctly with a full UWE purchase order number, should be paid a week after the end of the contract.

• All interns must be current UWE undergraduates who have not yet started their final year of study.
• The Undergraduate Scheme is open to all 1st, 2nd year and placement year current UWE students on BA, BSc, BArch and BEng courses, who will be returning to UWE in September 2013. Masters, Postgraduate and PhD students are not eligible.
• Students completing UWE accredited Foundation degrees in partner Further Education colleges will be eligible as long as there is evidence that they are continuing their studies with UWE.

• The internship needs to give the undergraduate a meaningful opportunity to build skills, knowledge and confidence in a professional area of work.
• We are defining 'professional' broadly to include professions such as law and accountancy, engineering and technical disciplines, new media and creative opportunities, business development, IT, HR, marketing and psychology – this list is not exhaustive.
• Most summer vacation undergraduate internships are likely to involve a range of activities including shadowing professionals, attending meetings, visiting different sites, drafting documents, undertaking research, small projects or other activities relevant to the profession.

• You can start the recruitment process immediately.
• Due to restrictions in funding, internships will need to start by Wednesday 31 July 2013.
• Funding is limited, and we reserve the right to close the scheme early if funding is exhausted. We highly recommend you start your recruitment process as early as possible.
• There is scope for your intern to remain with you on a part-time basis during term time at your own expense. This is to be agreed between yourself and your intern and funding is only available for the initial £1,000 subsidy and for the initial eight week period.
• Advertising the internship does not guarantee funding. Funding is reserved for you once we have received signed contracts, student details confirming you have recruited an eligible UWE student, and a start date.
• We cannot guarantee applications to your role, the location nature of the role will play an important part in whether you are successful in filling your opportunity. Please note, if you are based out of Bristol, you may find it harder to recruit as the majority of our students are based in Bristol over the summer.
• Not every role advertised will be filled, but we will directly market your vacancy to eligible UWE students.

The recruitment processes is up to you - but ensure you are happy that the candidate you have selected is on board with your aims, and you both are happy with what is expected of each other by the end of the project. As with any contract of employment notice is available for both parties.

• Interns should be given a short induction to cover general information about the company (including normal working hours, dress code, travel arrangements, parking, lunch facilities), who they will be reporting to, what is expected of them in terms of project aims, how the project will be structured, the team they will be working with, how to report absence and any other pertinent information.
• Ensure that any intern is fully briefed about health and safety procedures especially for fire evacuation and reporting incidents.
• We strongly recommend that each intern is assigned a mentor from within your organisation. This is an excellent way of both supporting your intern, whilst providing a staff member with a valuable development opportunity.

There is a dedicated Undergraduate Internship Team on hand who will:

• Provide you and your intern with an information pack, full of advice guidance and tips as to how you can make your internship a successful experience for your company and the intern.
• Help promote opportunities to eligible students registered onto the scheme.
• Be on-hand to answer questions and queries made by interns or yourselves before, during and after the internship.
• You conduct the interview and appoint the intern of your choice.
  We will check in with you and the student intern to monitor progress and ensure everything is working well.
• Please note, we cannot guarantee applications but we will directly market your vacancy to eligible UWE students.
• Finally, whilst we are always available to offer support to our undergraduates, the mentor role provided by someone within your organisation is extremely valuable.

The Environmental iNet is an EU funded project offering free and independent services across the South West (excluding Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly). It has a dedicated and experienced delivery team providing assistance and advice on a range of issues and helping innovative businesses to develop, protect and commercialise their ideas, products and technologies.

The UWE Green Internship in partnership with the Environmental iNet, offers the opportunity for students from multiple disciplines to contribute to the development of a low carbon economy in the South West of England. With three leading universities as partners, the project also provides access to a wealth of expertise and research resource. Visit the iNet website to find out more about its services and regular calendar of events, or call the team on +44(0)117 32 86711.

• Providing feedback is essential to any undergraduates development; assessing skills developed, strengths, areas for further development and advice on the industry/current market will be invaluable to their career progression and this is the fundamental aim of this scheme.
• Appraisals or feedback should certainly happen at the end of the placement, but it could be useful to meet half-way through the project to allow the intern to put the feedback into practice. Constructive and positive feedback on tasks, which particularly highlight skills and competencies involved as well as assessing to what extent project objectives have been achieved will also benefit your staff and your business.
• In addition, the undergraduate has the opportunity to enter into the UWE Intern of the Year Award. To enter into this award, you will need to nominate your Intern with supporting evidence and the intern will be required to also produce some supporting evidence. This allows the student to consider each part of the internship and will provide you with a valuable case study to take forward. It is also another excellent opportunity for positive publicity for your business. A copy of this will be found in your information pack.
• Towards the end of the internship we will send out a survey for both yourselves and the intern to complete – it is essential for us to gather this information in order to make improvements to the scheme and we thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this.

All you need to do is add your vacancy to Careerhub. Follow the instructions below to see how to do this. It is vital that this part of the process is followed to ensure these vacancies are highlighted to the Internships Team in order that they can target the relevant candidates and keep a record of the positions advertised to manage the funds appropriately. You will receive your applications directly.

Steps to follow

• Visit Careerhub.
• Log in with your usual username and password.
• Select the 'notify a vacancy' option on the left hand menu when you wish to add a vacancy.
• Enter the job title 'UWE Undergraduate Internship 2013' and your job title.
• In the body of the text add "This is a UWE 2013 Summer Undergraduate Internship in partnership with 'insert your company name' - minimum of eight weeks at £230 per week - open to 1st and 2nd year undergraduates (BA/BSc/BArch/Beng only), returning to UWE, to complete a degree in either September 2013 or 2014."