Work arrangement and start date: April-May

Get in touch with your intern and ensure that you both have a clear understanding of:

• a mutually-agreed start date between Monday 27th June and Friday 8th July - this window is important for our funding conditions and your Grant may be affected if you start too late. Student Visa Holders are likely to be limited to a start date 4-8th July.
• the expected work pattern and location, including working from home arrangements. Remote work should be provided if social restrictions are imposed - remote guidance available
• Payroll and any other contractual/joining information to be exchanged - including information about pay dates and cut-offs. Interns are often caught out financially by missing a Payroll cut-off and not realising their payslips may have a very different amount than expected. If they aren't able to provide a P45, they may be shocked by the tax and NI deductions - we'll be doing our best to keep them informed about all this!

Internship administration: until 20th May

Action any admin instructions in your funding email. Sign and return your grant agreement and any financial information requested.

If you have been identified as a new vendor to the University (in your funding outcome email), you will need to complete and return a New Vendor Master Record (MDR2) form along with your bank details on company letterheaded paper in advance of your internship, to ensure you can be set up and paid your grant via the University's finance system.

Please complete all admin by 20th May so that we have time to process the finance side of our own administration and set up your Grant.

Prepare to receive your intern: June

May/June is your time to ensure that you are ready for your intern to arrive. Make sure that the whole team is aware of their start date and role, any unusual arrangement you are making for them, and have any discussions about your expectations about how they will work together. Plan how you will put in place:

• • induction, line management, buddy, etc.
  • any training or equipment that needs to be discussed, ordered or diarised in advance
  • staff ID, work space, equipment etc
  • training around H&S, training, data protection, confidentiality, etc.
  • regular and mid reviews, and exit interview

Create an internship work plan, even if very high-level, so you can be clear about your expectations. Download our How to optimise your intern's contribution PDF and look over the on-internship resources at our Internships, Placements & Work Experience website for context. If your intern is based overseas during the WIP internship, please remind them to check that their work is compliant with and adheres to the regulations of the country where they are based e.g. securing a work permit, paying taxes etc., as this is the intern's personal responsibility.

Internship begins: 27th June - 8th July

Your internship needs to start on the date you've agreed with your intern, and always by 8th July. Our interns are often nervous about things like what everyone will consider "appropriate" clothes for your work environment, or how to know what the arrangements are around lunch, so try to share some of this in advance so they can turn up on Day 1 ready to learn rather than distracted by these sorts of concerns.

It's important to start with a thorough induction to ensure that your intern understands your organisation's purpose, structure, business practices... and how their role fits in. You'll get the most out of your intern's time if you are very clear about your expectations and encourage them to ask questions if they are unsure, or just curious. You can read more at Internships, Placements & Work Experience, (including our remote working guidance) but a good baseline is to assume that what you put into an intern's induction, you'll get back in the resulting context and insight they are able to apply to their work. You might need to be quite directive initially, until they find their feet, but most interns will appreciate being given a little more breathing space after a while, and being treated the same as everyone else. The main difference you may find is that although they may take to the work itself like a duck to water, they may not have much experience with day-to-day working culture, particularly office etiquette. You will both benefit from more frequent check-ins, to make sure they're on track and to catch any issues, than with your more experienced colleagues.

It's important to schedule a mid-internship review with your intern to ensure that your expectations are still aligned, and that targets or deadlines are still realistic - timing this half way through gives you both time to adjust if necessary.

You may find it useful to share our guidance with colleagues who will be working with your intern.

Paying your intern and receiving your Grant

• You will pay your intern as you usually pay your staff, via a PAYE payroll system, and per the advertised rate. The interns June/July salary will initially come from your own funds, with the Grant - due at the end of August - reimbursing these costs. They will need their first digital payslip to confirm to us that they are being paid correctly, and that any appropriate deductions are being made from their gross wages, before your Grant can be released. It is a stipulation of your agreement that you will only receive your Grant if your intern has been paid in this way, and it is not possible to pay your Grant in advance of your intern receiving any pay.
• If you have been identified as a new vendor to the University (in your funding outcome email), you will need to complete and return a New Vendor Master Record (MDR2) form along with your bank details on company letterheaded paper in advance of your internship, to ensure you can be set up and paid your grant via the University's finance system.
• Once your intern has started, please prepare your invoice on a company letterhead. HMRC have confirmed directly to the University that no VAT is payable on a WIP grant. The invoice must include:
  • Customer: "University of Warwick, Student Opportunity, University House, Kirby Corner Road, Coventry, CV4 8UW"
  • Goods/services: "WIP 2022: [your intern's name]"
  • Our reference (your vendor number): [this will be provided by email]
  • Your purchase order number: [this will be provided by email]
  • Payment amount: "£[as per your confirmation of funding email] (no VAT)"
  • Intern’s hourly wage: "£[as per your advert]"
  • Invoice date: [no later than 29th July]
• Our financial year ends on 31st July; we have an extremely limited period in which to process your grants beyond this date, as beyond this period, we no longer have access to 2021/22 funding. Your invoice will be validated for payment when your intern completes the online Working Requirements Confirmation form (you'll both be sent a link), accompanied by their latest payslip, as soon as they have been paid for the first time, and no later than Friday 29th July. Therefore, if your intern is paid at the very end of July, we recommend that you each set aside ten minutes on payday to complete the appropriate actions. In all cases, have your invoice prepared to email to us once you know that your intern has completed their online form and submitted their payslip – this will enable us to process your invoice without delay.
• All invoices are payable within 30 days of validation.

End of internship

At the end of your internship, we recommend marking the occasion with a final summary presentation or report from your intern, to ensure you have each captured everything that you want to take away from the six weeks. It's also good practice to have an exit interview, to give you each opportunity to feed back on the experience and make any suggestions for (a) your organisation's future internship hosting and (b) suggestions for your intern's development. There are more details on our Internships, Placements & Work Experience.

You will each receive a link to our online evaluation form, which is critical to the programme's ongoing funding, and also enables us to spot how we can improve your experience

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.