• Interns can complete internships on a full-time or part-time basis and last for 4 weeks (140 hours). 
• Internships can take place any time during the year but must start before the end of June 2025. 
• Your organisation must be a registered company or charity and a UK-based SME (with fewer than 250 employees). 
• Interns are current students or alumni who have graduated within the last 15 months. 
• Your organisation will receive a grant of £1,000 per internship towards the intern's wages. 
• Your organisation must top up their intern’s wages to be in line with National Living Wage rates. 
• Your organisation must pay interns per hour via your PAYE system. 
• Your organisation should provide their intern with an employment contract. 
• Interns accrue holiday at a rate of 12.07% during their internship which they should take as paid leave. 
• We ask each intern to write a short blog for us about their internship.  

If you have already identified an intern for your role and don’t wish to advertise the opportunity, you will skip steps 5 and 6 below.

1. Register online. If you haven't engaged with us before, sign up to mycareer then email us at careers-sme-engagement@bristol.ac.uk so we can approve your account.
2. Identify a suitable role and ensure that you can meet the eligibility criteria.
3. Post your internship including a job description. Use our guide to writing a strong job description for help.
4. Our team will assess your eligibility and if funding is available, they will approve your opportunity. If advertised, you will be informed when your opportunity is made live.
5. Our team collects applications for review and will send these to you after the advert closes. You will then shortlist, recruit and offer to the applicant within 2 weeks of receiving the applications. We recommend you ask students whether they need adjustments throughout the recruitment process. This will help you see the full potential of all your candidates. Disabled candidates do not have to disclose details beyond adjustments needed during recruitment. See the ACAS website for information on providing reasonable adjustments at work.
6. Email careers-sme-engagement@bristol.ac.uk to let the team know who you would like to hire. Please include the intern’s name, their student number and the internship start and end dates.
7. You, your intern and the University will sign a 3-way internship agreement.
8. The internship begins and we’ll send you a short form to obtain your bank details so that we can issue the funding. The grant should reach your organisation within two weeks.
9. You and the intern will complete a mandatory feedback form at the end of the internship.

Please include the following elements in your job description:

• Brief overview of your organisation.
• Internship job description.
• Key responsibilities.

We recommend advertising your role for 2-3 weeks.

If you are new to working with interns, use these helpful resources to get started:

• Writing a strong job description.
• Internships that work, a guide for employers.
• Common best practice code for high-quality internships.
• Employment contracts.
• Employment rights and pay for interns.