Reading Internships Scheme success
Wednesday, 10 June 2020
The Reading Internship Scheme (RIS) has become more diversified than ever to become almost entirely a remote scheme, to ensure we continue to benefit our students and local businesses.
Since mid-March, the Careers team have been hard at work ensuring as many internships as possible could be converted from traditional internships into remote internships, with great success. Alongside this, the Employer Engagement team have put in immense effort to continue to source more internship opportunities, to give as many students as possible the opportunity to gain experience and earn money during Summer 2020. From Education Programme Assistants to Web Designers, the opportunities open to students currently span a variety of sectors, and are not degree specific, ensuring they are accessible to everyone that is interested! The University is also now able to offer 100% funding for the salary of our RIS interns for both charities and SMEs, to show our support for the local business community. This has encouraged an increase in interest from local businesses, benefitting everyone involved.
Below is a testimonial from Annabelle Esslemont-Edwards, who completed her internship remotely:
"I would recommend the remote internship to students who have the ability to be accountable to themselves and those who can keep a cool head. Showing yourself that you have the discipline to work can be very rewarding! The most notable advancement must be my independence, and due to this, I am a huge advocate of the remote internship scheme."
We also caught up with Phoebe Plunkett, whose internship was with the University’s Careers Team:
"Working remotely has been a wonderful opportunity to gain skills that I wouldn’t have done if I were to have been working in the office. Having the constant support from my manager and teammates has been fantastic and has ensured that I felt part of the team, even though we couldn’t all be physically together. I would recommend a remote internship to anyone interested in gaining experience and being able to have greater independence in your work style!"
For further information visit the Reading Internship Scheme pages or contact Holly Forsyth, the scheme coordinator.