Internships
About
Internships provide an opportunity to gain graduate level work experience, typically during the summer vacation or during term-time.
Many large companies target their internships at undergraduate students in their second, or penultimate, year of study. About a third of their graduate positions are filled by students who have completed an internship or placement year with them. Some internships are also open to graduates.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) also offer internships, although these are not always advertised.
The Careers Service organises a range of internships, both on campus and with SMEs in the North East. These are available throughout the year.
Benefits of doing an internship
Internships can help you to:
- gain hands-on experience and develop industry knowledge, providing useful evidence for your skills and motivation when you apply for graduate jobs
- decide where your future career interests lie
- gain an insight into UK business culture
- make contacts within the sector; some students secure graduate jobs with their internship provider
- gain positive feedback and references, useful for future applications
Many internships are paid or provide a bursary; the Careers Service doesn’t advertise unpaid internships. You can find advice on our website about funding for unpaid work experience.
When to apply
Applications for large companies start to open in September, the year before the internship will take place. They start to close between November and February. This is usually to allow for quite a lengthy application process.
Internships organised by the Careers Service will be advertised on MyCareer throughout the academic year, with term-time internships advertised from October and summer internships from March.
Some companies recruit all year round, particularly SMEs, but it is best to start looking as early as possible.
See Finding internships to search for opportunities.
CVs, applications and LinkedIn profiles provides useful advice on how to write an effective CV, covering letter and application form.
Further information
Events to look out for
Recruitment events are not just for graduate jobs. Most employers at our events also offer internships, so it's worth attending to find out more about their opportunities.
At our recruitment events and employer and sector insights, you can hear about their internship schemes, build your network and ask questions.
We also list events from external organisations. These can include opportunities to find out about work experience.
Guides and advice
The following resources also include advice, case studies and employer profiles:
Finding Internships
The two most common ways of finding internships are applying for advertised opportunities and seeking out hidden ones by networking and applying speculatively.
The Careers Service advertises internships on MyCareer. Log in to search for internships and sign up for personalised email alerts.
Search for internships
Use the resources below to look for advertised paid internships.
NCL Internships
The Careers Service organises a range of internships, both off campus with local businesses and on campus with Newcastle University. These are in a range of occupational areas, from marketing and research to IT and project management, the NCL Internships Example Work Assignments (PDF:163KB) document details some of our previous internships. They are designed to be flexible around your timetable and are available throughout the year.
To search for these opportunities, go to MyCareer, click on 'Search' then 'Vacancies' and type ‘NCL Internships’ in the text search box.
Internships around the UK
Use the following resources to find advertised vacation internships around the UK:
- MyCareer - select 'vacation internships' under 'vacancy type'
- Prospects – select ‘work experience’ under ‘types of jobs’
- targetjobs
- Bright Network - search for internships and placement years
- RateMyPlacement – includes student reviews
- Student Ladder – lists opportunities for first, second and final year students
- Milkround
- 10,000 Interns Foundation - paid summer internships for students or recent graduates who are Black African, Black Caribbean and/or Black British. Applications open in August and close in October
- TheJobCrowd – select ‘work experience’ or ‘internship’ under ‘job type’
- AllAboutCareers
- Jobted
- The Big Choice.com: Placements
- Graduate-Jobs.com: Internships
- LinkedIn – in the ‘advanced search’ feature, select ‘internships’ under the experience level
- E4S – internships and placements in the UK and abroad
- STEP – UK wide project based work placements for students and graduates
- EmployAbility – advice and work experience opportunities specifically for disabled students
- Change 100 – three month paid summer internships for students and graduates with disabilities or long-term health conditions
- Placement UK – paid placements for European students in the UK
- Instant Impact – internships with small and medium-sized enterprises
- ScotGrad – Highlands and Islands Summer Internships. Open to undergraduates at any UK university
Global internships
For overseas internships, see Global Work Experience.
Speculative applications
Speculative applications
Not all internships are advertised. In fact, many people create opportunities through networking and making contacts, or by developing their own business ideas.
If you have identified a company you would like to work for, you could try approaching them directly about possible opportunities. Send them a tailored CV and covering letter, expressing your enthusiasm for the sector and showing that you have researched the company.
Where possible, identify a contact name to address your covering letter to. Call or email to find out who is responsible for recruitment within the organisation or a key contact in the department you want to work in.
It’s useful to follow up a speculative application with a phone call a few days afterwards to show you are serious and motivated.
TARGETjobs have a useful guide about making a speculative application to find hidden internships.
Finding companies
- Find organisations on MyCareer - click on ‘search organisations’ under the Vacancies tab
- Researching employers – contains sources of company profiles and a list of business directories and databases
- Explore Occupations – find employer directories for specific sectors
- LinkedIn – an online networking tool allowing users to connect with professionals across all industries
- LinkedIn's Find Alumni tool can help you find organisations Newcastle graduates are working in
Other ways to find internships
Other ways to find internships
Academic schools sometimes offer internships, for example through research scholarships. There are also opportunities through externally-funded vacation studentship schemes, eg through research institutes and charities. For science-related scholarships, see our Life Science and Physical Science sector pages. Ask your school if they run similar schemes or have contacts you could approach.
The Business School offer global experience internships as part of their Global Experience Opportunity programme. They also advertise internships and placements on their Student Experience Blog.
Some student competitions, such as TARGETjobs’ Undergraduate of the Year, offer a paid internship as a prize.
Forage offers free virtual internship programs built and endorsed by leading companies, such as KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and Unilever. They contain a series of resources and tasks designed to simulate the real-world experience of starting a career. You can add them to your CV as achievements, and as certificates on LinkedIn, but Forage advises not to include them in your main work experience section. For more information about describing your experience, view Forage's Referencing Policy.
For information about virtual internships, watch the SRS Recruitment and Employability Experts' guide to Everything you need to know about virtual internships (39:55)