Response to Covid-19

As of 2021, all internships should be possible to undertake remotely; in the current environment, students may only be able to commit to remotely-worked roles due to challenging new accommodation, financial or health issues, or caring responsibilities.

What are the criteria for taking part?

You must be:

• a UK charity of any size OR an “SME” (small to medium-sized enterprise) - i.e. an organisation where the annual turnover is less than fifty million pounds, with a headcount of up to 250 employees.
• be UK-based and registered, with a business postal address, telephone number and email address
• able to add a Warwick student to your PAYE payroll system and headcount for the duration of the internship, paying their June/July wages until reimbursed by the Grant
• able to provide project-based work - WIP is intended to create meaningful collaborations between our students and our employer partners, rather than adding an extra pair of hands during a busy period.
• able and willing to commit to the details below, particularly programme timelines, before registering

If you can answer ‘Yes’ to all of the above, we'd welcome your internship vacancy as a part of the Warwick Internship Programme.

What is your commitment?

You'll need to fill out a template describing your internship, and submit this to our portal, myAdvantage, for checking. You can access the template on our Recruitment page, once you've registered. To comply with the programme's terms, you'll need to be able to offer work in a Covid-secure working environment, or appropriately-supported remote-working format, and offer any training or equipment necessary for the intern to complete their work for you. This includes any IT packages or licenses they'll need. The programme timeline is fixed, so ensure that you can work within the dates provided below. You are committing to plan for (and deliver, if funded) a safe, project-based, 6-week internship that aligns with the programme's intent to increase employability skills, as well as with your own business objectives. You must provide your intern with a Line Manager, ensure that their activities will be covered by your insurance, and that you can provide work remotely if government guidelines or the Intern's circumstances dictate this. If you are allocated funding, you will need to sign a three-way agreement that sets out the expectations of all three parties - you, your intern, and the University of Warwick. It is absolutely essential that you pay your intern through a PAYE payroll system, so that they can demonstrate that they have paid any applicable tax/NI deductions, and that you make appropriate provisions for holiday and statutory sick pay. It's vital to this programme's survival that you respond to our Evaluation survey. If your intern is to attend a workplace, this must be Covid-secure, or remote working must be offered as an alternative.

What will it cost you?

You will pay the intern via your normal Payroll process, and use their first payslip as proof that they are being paid appropriately, in order to claim your Grant as reimbursement. It is not possible to receive your Grant in advance, so your cashflow must allow for this. You must pay the programme minimum of the Living Wage - £9.90 per hour, or £11.05 if you are located in Greater London - for 37 hours per week. The Greater London Grant is available on the basis of your organisation's location, and is not affected by any successful intern's location, or by remote-working arrangements.

You may choose to increase your financial costs by paying a higher rate in line with your remuneration structure, or agree with your Intern for them to work additional paid hours - your Grant will not increase in line with these decisions, as it has been calculated to support £9.90/£11.05 per hour, for 37 hours per week, for six weeks, including 7% for your payroll costs . In addition, the internship will bring a cost to your time: writing a job description, shortlisting applicants, interviewing, applying for funding, preparing for your intern's arrival and supervising their work and development during the internship. All Grant-related costs calculation are approximate, please ensure that you understand how a grant’s value will translate to your own costs.

What are the risks?

• Recruitment risks: Every care will be taken to promote Warwick Internship Programme to students, but we cannot guarantee the level of applications, or the suitability of applicants to your specific role. As with any recruitment initiative, you may find that your applicants or internship just aren't the right fit for your organisation. Your chosen candidate may select another opportunity. Since Covid-19 arrived, applicants may only be able to commit to remote-working due to challenging new accommodation, financial or health issues, or caring responsibilities. We ask that you submit a vacancy advert that sets out the role as clearly as possible, and that you offer flexibility wherever possible, noting that this will optimise your prospective recruitment pool.
• Programme risks: You may lose Grant eligibility if you do not follow programme actions and deadlines; funding is limited to around 45-50 internships and will be allocated to the first internships to submit their Recruitment Outcomes form from 4th April (the timestamp on these online forms ensure fairness). There is a risk that you will not secure funding, and will be asked if you wish to fund the internship yourself. Information on the remaining number of available grants will be updated daily on this page.
• Funding risks: We have limited funding, and demand is likely to outweigh supply. To mitigate against this, we ask you to pay attention to programme dates and consider at all times whether continuing with your internship recruitment is in your best interests. You can use our sidebar for a running tally of remaining Grants. Make an advance decision about how you will proceed if not allocated a grant. Ensure that you are able to pay the intern yourself if making, or appearing to make, an unconditional offer, or that you are clear with candidates that your offer is conditional on being awarded a programme grant.

How can Warwick help?

Accessing the WIP programme gives you access to our talented pool of prospective employees, and in doing so road-test our students for future employment, gain additional resource for a project, learn from fresh ideas and a new perspective, and give your employees the opportunity to develop their leadership and teamworking skills. Along the way, Warwick's internships team will look through your internship job description and suggest improvements, to enhance attractive/high quality features. If you are one of the first 45-50 respondents when funding opens on 4th April, Warwick will provide a VAT-free Grant of £2300 (or £2600 in Greater London) to reimburse your salary costs in arrears, providing your internship continues to fulfil the criteria laid out in your agreement, which include paying the programme's minimum Living Wage. If you do not receive funding, you will still have the option of continuing with your internship supported by our team, subject to your commitment to pay the intern the wage in your vacancy advert from your own budget. Warwick supports your intern before, during and after their internship via the Work Experience Learning & Development Moodle courseLink opens in a new window and the WIP: Your Career in Progress e-platform.Link opens in a new window Register now to be eligible to submit an Internship vacancy:

WIP process and timeline

Please note that you must be able to commit to all stages and dates specified in the diagram below in order to take part in WIP 2022.

Download a PDF image of the timeline