The Graduate Internship Programme
The Graduate Internship Programme was launched as part of the Backing Young Britain scheme in September 2009. The scheme was funded by HEFCE and was designed to assist unemployed graduates and support the Government’s priority sectors for economic growth. It also supported small businesses in a number of key sectors.
The internship scheme was delivered by Higher Education Institutions across Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Northampton and the Open University. Ten institutions delivered in the region of 370 internships, all of which were paid and were up to six months in length. A large number of graduates went on to secure permanent jobs with their host organisations.
How did it work?
Companies were offered a grant of £1500 towards the salary costs of a graduate. To be eligible for the grant, the organisations were required to have less than 50 employees or belong to the following sectors: Low Carbon, Digital industry, Life science and pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, professional and financial services, engineering construction or ageing society.
How did graduates benefit?
- Experience in their chosen career field after leaving university
- Contacts in the business world which could benefit them in the future
- Put what they had learnt at university into practice
- Paid whilst being on an internship
- Developing employability skills before applying for a permanent job
How did employers benefit?
- Access to graduate level skills with little or no financial investment
- Graduates to work on projects that the company may not have had the resources or skills to complete
- Cost effective recruitment – it gave them the option of seeing how the graduate would fit into the organisation before offering them a permanent position
