Undergraduate internships

We are inviting applications to participate in a pilot initiative to provide new undergraduate internships linked to the professions. This initiative is designed to increase opportunities for undergraduates to undertake short internships with employers in the professions during summer 2010. Applications for funding should be submitted by midday on Tuesday 16 March 2010. This is to enable undergraduate internships to be provided during summer 2010. We wish to support approximately 500 undergraduate internships this year, to inform potential wider roll-out in later years. This is a separate initiative from the recent graduate internship scheme, which allocated £11 million for higher education (HE) to work with employers to provide graduate internship opportunities in the Government’s priority sectors (see EP 09/2009). Panel on Fair Access to the Professions This pilot follows the publication in July 2009 of the ‘Unleashing Aspiration’ report by The Panel on Fair Access to the Professions. It examined the barriers and pathways to reaching the professions for all people, regardless of their background, and the processes and structures that govern recruitment into key professions. The professional sectors examined included law, management and business services, the built environment, public service, life sciences and creative industries. The report was commissioned following the White Paper ‘New Opportunities: Fair chances for the future’, which examined the issue of social mobility and its importance for the economy and social justice. The report concluded that many professions are increasingly only accessible to those who are from the most affluent backgrounds. The Panel advised that this could have a negative impact on aspiration and social mobility in the long term. It identified recommendations that the professions, supported by Government, could undertake to improve access. The Panel specifically examined access to internships as an essential part of the career ladder in many professions. Its recommendations included establishing a fair and transparent system of internship opportunities, recognising employer best practice and ensuring that internships are affordable for all. In response, the Government announced, in its December 2009 pre-Budget report, its intention to support up to 10,000 undergraduate internships per year for students from poorer backgrounds, in the longer term. The professions We do not wish to provide a prescribed definition of the professions. However, the professions are generally considered to display similar characteristics including: an autonomous group of individuals recognised as possessing specialist knowledge in a trade or occupation usually acquired through technical training and specific qualifications regulated by statute with responsibilities devolved to professional organisations self-regulation of standards and ethics to ensure that quality is maintained working for the wider public benefit. Traditional professions include medicine and law. Newer professions are emerging for example in the new media and creative industries. Pilot scheme: For this pilot we will allocate funding for HEFCE-funded institutions to provide approximately 500 undergraduate internships to enable students to access and experience the professions. We wish to test a number of elements and approaches during the pilot and interested institutions should consider these in their application for funding. Participating institutions will be required to identify the most suitable undergraduates to benefit from the scheme. This pilot is designed to address social mobility and the beneficiaries selected should effectively meet that concern. These should be undergraduates who would not usually be able to access such internship opportunities. We do not wish to be prescriptive but this could include, for example, undergraduates who are in receipt of a grant or bursary to assist with their studies or who consider themselves to be disabled. These internships should be available to home and EU undergraduates only and must be delivered during summer 2010. For the pilot we will provide funding of up to £1,000 per internship. Institutions should indicate in their applications the total funding they require to deliver these internships. This funding should principally be used to explore innovative ways to support the needs of beneficiaries to participate effectively in these internships and address the barriers to their participation. Institutions should consider: recruitment processes information, advice and guidance financial and non-financial support quality of the internship experience Institutions should consider the level of financial support available to the undergraduate while on the internship; we are particularly interested to test the extent to which employers would be willing to contribute to these costs thus providing an indication of the level of support that would be required. We also wish to test sustainable approaches for expansion of opportunities. Due to the limited resource available we do not wish to support applications with proportionately high administration costs so institutions may wish to consider developing existing activity where appropriate. This funding should not displace existing activity, for example the Shell Step scheme. We will review the outcomes of the pilot in autumn 2010. Note that we will not stipulate a particular delivery model or definition of an internship; we wish to be flexible and to allow institutions to determine an appropriate mode of delivery based on their existing infrastructure, experience and expertise. This will also enable us to test a range of delivery models. Eligibility Funding is available to HEFCE-funded higher education institutions and further education college (FECs). FECs are eligible to apply if they have over 100 directly funded FTE students and can sufficiently demonstrate that undergraduate internships are linked to a prescribed course of HE. We will accept collaborative proposals but these must be led by a single, named institution. In this pilot we would like to fund some 10 institutions including at least one directly funded FEC. We would like to ensure regional coverage across England, if possible. Application process, selection process and timescale HEFCE-funded institutions that wish to apply should download and complete the application for funding, which can be found at www.hefce.ac.uk/econsoc/challenge/interns, and e-mail it to internships@hefce.ac.uk by midday on Tuesday 16 March 2010. An internal team at HEFCE will assess all applications and recommend institutional allocations based on the extent to which applications address the factors identified in paragraphs 10 to 12. This is not a competitive process but if we are over-subscribed we may seek to limit the allocations through excluding applications on the basis of: * relative value for money * suitability of undergraduates identified for support * quality of information provided * ability to deliver in the required timescale * reducing allocations on a pro rata basis * ensuring that we test a diversity of approaches and delivery models across institutions * a combination of the above. We intend to present recommendations for funding the pilot internships to HEFCE’s Chief Executive’s Group in April 2010 for approval. Institutions will be informed accordingly and funding should commence in May 2010. We will confirm monitoring and reporting arrangements in our funding award letter for participating institutions. Because this is a pilot process, participating institutions should expect to work with us to assess and evaluate outcomes at the end of the funding period.

Close Date: 16 March 2010

Type: Educational Research

Contact Email: internships@hefce.ac.uk

More Info: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/econsoc/challenge/interns/

02 March 2010