Employer Benefits

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An internship is any carefully monitored work or service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what she or he is learning throughout the experience.

So how do CCE internships benefit employers?

• Obtain assistance with project needs
• Meet staffing needs
• Base permanent hiring decisions on knowledge and observation of candidate's work
• Increase awareness of your organization on campus to attract additional qualified full-time and internship candidates ; and
• Avoid a long-term budget commitment necessary for permanent hires
• Year round source of highly motivated pre-professionals
• Students bring new perspectives to old problems
• Visibility of your organization is increased on campus
• Quality candidates for temporary or seasonal positions and projects
• Freedom for professional staff to pursue more creative projects
• Flexible, cost-effective work force not requiring a long-term employer commitment
• Proven, cost-effective way to recruit and evaluate potential employees
• Your image in the community is enhanced as you contribute your expertise to the educational enterprise

Download Center

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#	File Name	Download
1	Market Representative Agreement
2	Initial Assessment Application
3	Certificate of Sponsorship Information
4	CoS Request Form
5	Vacancy Information Proforma For CCE's Careers Network vacancy database
6	Application For UK Work Placement
7	Employer Registration Form
8	Internship Agreement
9	Host Company Agreement

Interviewing an intern

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The interview and selection process for an internship program should be similar to any other full-time, regular employee recruitment process because selecting the right interns is just as important as selecting the right career employees. Managers should not rush into selecting interns, but should instead have a well-thought-out interview and selection process. Here are recommended steps to help organizations find the right candidates for internship programs:

Pre-interview

Assuming that organizations have taken advantage of all possible marketing strategies to promote their internship program, they should have a large enough applicant pool to start the interview process. After receiving the application materials, organizations will start reviewing all applications to find the candidate/s who have the skills and experience that fit with the organization’s needs. If the goal of the internship program is to develop potential career employees, then selecting candidates to interview that have similar skills and experience to new grad hires will be most effective. At no time should any organization rely solely on candidates’ application materials without interviewing.

The Interview

Keep in mind that all principles regarding employment interviewing for career employees also apply to internship interviews. All organizations should develop a set of interview questions so that the interview process has a structure and a focus. Interviews that are free flowing and lacking in structure can discourage a candidate from wanting to serve in an internship at any organization. When developing a list of interview questions, remember that questions normally asked to a career-level applicant might not be appropriate for a candidate-level internship interview. Here are some samples of questions to ask in an internship interview:

• Tell me a little bit about yourself and why you are interested in working with us.
• What do you know about our organization?
• How can you contribute to our organization?
• How would you describe yourself?
• What are your strengths and areas of improvement (weaknesses)?
• How did you choose your major?
• What courses do you like the most? The least? How do they relate to your career goals?
• What do you expect to gain from an internship with us?
• What are your plans, if any, for graduate study?
• Tell us about a time when you’ve used teamwork to solve a problem.
• Give an example of a situation during which you worked under pressure with a tight timeframe to complete a project.

Most candidates aren’t able to answer long-term career questions ("Where do you see yourself in five years?") or salary questions ("What are your salary requirements?"). Behavioral questions, such as the last two in the list above, can be very helpful in determining whether candidates have the desired skills and abilities. Organizations should ask the same questions of all applicants to ensure equity. Many organizations have a two-step internship interview process — either a phone interview followed by an in-person interview, or a panel interview followed by a one-on-one interview with the internship supervisor. Organizations should decide what type of interview process will work best for their organization. No matter what process organizations select, it is important that candidates leave an interview with a positive impression of the organization.

The Organization’s Responsibilities

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CCE Internship employer should consider the quality and timeliness of the work produced to date, ability to take and follow direction, work habits, and areas needing growth and development.

• Set clear objectives and expectations for the position.
• Evaluate the intern and provide regular feedback.
• Provide adequate training and supervision to make the internship a real learning experience.
• Select and train appropriate supervisors and mentors who will guide the intern, assist in skill development and answer questions.
• Include the intern in company social events to provide networking opportunities.
• Provide a professional environment that fosters a safe and productive work atmosphere.
• Conduct business in an ethical manner.
• Provide a final evaluation at the conclusion of the internship to discuss the intern’s performance and accomplishments, and also to identify strengths and opportunities for continued development.
• Should the organization become dissatisfied with the performance of the candidates , the organization will notify the CCE before performing necessary disciplinary procedures.
• The organization will respect an internship termination request by the CCE for any candidates not complying with CCE internship guidelines and procedures, as long as the organization has been notified seven days in advance.

Selecting Process

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Once the interviewing of all applicants is complete, organizations are encouraged to take some time to review their notes and all application materials before they decide on the best candidate/s. Selecting the right intern/s is just as important as selecting the right career employees. If an organization plans to convert interns to career employees, then this process is particularly critical. Even if an organization does not use its internship program as a longterm recruitment tool, choosing the right interns will still affect how smoothly and efficiently an internship program will run. As a word of caution, organizations should be aware that just because an intern candidate has been selected, doesn’t mean that the offer will be apted. Here are some tips to convert candidates in apting internship offers:

Complete the selection process early – Organizations that wait too long to contact candidates will lose the best candidates to other organizations that made their selections more quickly. Organizations should try to complete their selection process within a week of interviewing all applicants. Sometimes the selection timeframe is controlled by Human Resources and can take longer than expected, so organizations should not wait too long to submit choices to Human Resources. If organizations are trying to decide between two equally qualified CCE candidates, they may choose to call references or perhaps add one more additional phone interview to ask follow-up questions that may help inform hiring decisions.

Communicate with the candidate directly – A personal call to the selected candidate might assist organizations with securing a verbal commitment. During an internship selection process, it is important that hiring managers are not on vacation or away from the office for an extended period of time. If the hiring manager does plan to be away, it is important that he/she leaves an alternate contact person’s name and gives that person instruction on what to tell the candidates.

Send an offer letter – All organizations are required to detail an internship offer in a hard copy letter so that there are no questions later about what was said or agreed to. An offer letter can include details such as start and end dates, hours to be worked, benefits, and a brief description of the internship. A learning agreement will detail the program more thoroughly and should be read and understood in a one-on-one meeting with the candidates and the supervisors.

Competing internship searches – Most CCE candidates apply for more than one internship in order to increase their chances of securing the most competitive internship. Organizations should keep this in mind when they start to contact candidates selected as interns. Candidates often receive more than one internship offer in fields such as engineering, computer science, and financial services and may take some time to decide which offer best fits their career goals.
Organizations are encouraged to allow candidates time to make a decision by asking them to respond within a specified timeframe. One to two weeks is usually enough time for candidates to make a decision on multiple offers.

The cumulative offer – Some CCE candidates may be given multiple internship offers. When this happens, candidates are encouraged to evaluate their skills and abilities.

How Should Internship Interviews Be Conducted?

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Just like the application process, the interview should be conducted in broadly the same way as when recruiting a regular employee. That said, consideration should be given when devising interview questions to the fact that many of these young people may have limited industry experience (which is presumably why they want to do an internship!) and much of the relevant experience they do have might be from their school and university education in addition to extracurricular activities.

We recommend focusing on interview questions around employability skills (for example, problem-solving skills, teamwork, communication, their potential for growth, their enthusiasm and commitment to the values of your organisation) rather than strict qualification and technical requirements.

In addition, if you intend to have your intern working on a particular project, the interview is a good opportunity for you to ask questions about how they would approach the project and what ideas they might have about it. You could even place these sorts of project-based questions in an application form or advertisement.

What Tasks Should I Get Interns To Do?

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The aim of the internship from an employer’s perspective is to get the best out of the intern so that they make the biggest possible contribution to your company by using their skills and ideas.

If an internship is to be beneficial to both the employer and the intern, it is imperative that the intern is given as much responsibility and diversity in their work as possible.

From your perspective, you want to make the most out of having an extra member of staff who, if given the right tasks, can improve your productivity and bring new ideas and perspectives into your organisation.

From an intern’s perspective, if they are taken on just to make tea and carry out administrative tasks such as data entry (remember that these young people are often graduates) then they are not going to be exposed to any opportunities for professional development. Furthermore, taking this young person’s time up could be preventing them from being employed by someone that actually needs them and can offer them a workload more commensurate with their set of skills. On this basis, we strongly recommend that you do not ask interns to carry out basic or menial tasks any more than you expect other workers to do so.

Don’t forget that the job advert that you placed for the internship should have contained a list of the main duties and responsibilities that the intern will have, so it is sensible to think well ahead when writing the job advert about how you intend to shape the intern’s role on a day-to-day basis. Even so, there are some occasions where flexibility is helpful. For example, allowing interns time off to attend job interviews is generally regarded as common practice, seeing as their aim on leaving university is typically to secure a full-time paid position in their chosen industry sector. Of course, if the intern is of a suitable calibre and proves themselves capable of performing well in your organisation, there is no reason why you cannot offer them a position.

What Should I Be Paying?

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What are the national minimum wage rates?

There are currently three age-based National Minimum Wage rates which may apply to individuals undertaking an internship placement with your organisation. These are for workers aged 21 years and over; 18-20 inclusive; and under 18 (but above compulsory school age). These rates are updated in October each year, and current rates are available at www.gov.uk

However, there are a number of circumstances where the NMW does not apply; these include students doing work experience as part of a UK-based further or higher education course; young people of compulsory school age; a volunteer or doing voluntary work; on a government or European programme, or work shadowing. We also recommend that interns receive travel expenses for journeys they undertake on behalf of your organisation, such as travel to and from external meetings and events.

Finally, once you’ve decided to offer an internship placement, remember to add the intern to your payroll system and ensure your interns receive their payment and expenses at the end of each month.

VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers are an essential part of voluntary organisations, and can provide a motivated and flexible work force to those struggling with limited resources looking to achieve their charitable objectives. However, it’s important not to blur the distinction between volunteers and paid employees - this includes interns.

According to the NCVO, volunteers don’t have a contract of employment and can come and go as they please. Also, as volunteers are under no formal or contractual obligations they are not paid for their time. Whereas interns undertake regular paid work for an employer and are bound by a contract of employment and are entitled to receive the National Minimum Wage.

Whilst employers aren’t legally required to pay volunteers, employers should agree to cover any expenses, such as food and drink, as well as any travel the individual undertakes as part of their role. Not only does this help improve people’s access to opportunities, but it shows that your organisation appreciates volunteer’s time and expense which will help individuals remain engaged and committed.

Being clear about the expectations and intentions of both parties is essential when beginning a volunteering arrangement.

Employer's Checking List

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Recruitment

• I have decided what application system I will use for our internship (for example standard application form, CV plus covering letter).
• I will ensure that the application process is fair, open and accessible.
• The job advert includes all the necessary details (for example the length of the internship, the main duties for the intern, the possibility of a permanent job).
• I have devised an appropriate set of interview questions and will conduct the interview in the same way as I would for permanent staff.

Payment and duration

• I have consulted the National Minimum Wage legislation and can confirm that my internship arrangement adheres to this legislation.
• The job advert for the internship clearly states what expenses and salary are available throughout the duration of the programme.
• The intern has been added to the payroll system (if necessary). 

Induction

• The intern’s induction programme includes the necessary elements (for example an introduction to your company, a tour, health and safety information).
• I have got copies of any relevant documentation and forms ready for the intern when they arrive.
• I have arranged dates and times for the intern to meet all the people they will be working with, plus any relevant senior staff. (if necessary).

Treatment

• I fully intend to give the intern as much responsibility and work diversity as possible.
• I will allow the intern time off to attend job interviews.
• I have spoken to colleagues, line managers and other key personnel about any specific projects and work that they feel an intern could contribute to.
• I have devised an engaging and diverse work plan for the intern, including which department(s) they will be working in and what their duties/core work will be.   
• I will update the work plan on a regular basis, following discussions with the intern, and will incorporate the intern’s goals and objectives whenever possible.

Supervision

• I will appoint an experienced mentor for our intern who can guide them through their internship.
• and offer them support, particularly in the first few weeks.
• I have put in place a suitable mechanism for training and supervising the intern as they carry out.
• their daily tasks.
• Regular performance reviews (either weekly or monthly) have been scheduled for the intern.
• their line manager to discuss both their current and future work.
• I have arranged dates and times for the intern to meet all the people they will be working with, plus.
• any relevant senior staff.

Reference and feedback

• I will arrange a final review meeting for the intern once their programme is close to completion (to be conducted by the intern’s line manager).
• I have put together a list of relevant questions to use in the final review meeting and have given them to the intern in advance of the meeting.
• Notes of the intern’s responses in the final review will be made to help write a reference letter.
• I will also arrange an exit interview to give the intern an opportunity to give feedback on the quality of our internship programme (to be conducted by a member of the HR team or a senior member of staff).
• I will provide a reference letter for the intern, including any positive messages coming out of the final review meeting.