I have been a host department for the Bath Insights Internship Programme since its inception and I can highly recommend this initiative.
Last year, we appointed an intern to support us with a digital resource project, creating some HTML to make our resources more visually exciting but also to help us think about how we present content. The project was great as other interns did similar activities, meaning they could work together and offer peer support, and we benefited hugely from having a single person focus directly on this project.
From a departmental perspective, I think the internship scheme works well when you have a defined project that needs some attention and focus. For us, we never had the headspace to do this with day-to-day operations, but by having an intern join, it made us prioritise this piece of work and ensure that our intern felt supported and had all the available resources from day one to succeed.
Our Officer role managed our intern, which was a great opportunity for them to develop their line management skills for a short period of time. Again, another benefit of developing people within your teams.
I now rely on having an intern every year and think about this resource when coming to annual planning. I work hard to make the Intern fully embedded in the team and the Department, e.g. invites to Away Days, involved in team socials and working predominantly in the office. This really helps them to feel embedded and get the full experience.
Do not hesitate in recruiting an intern. Yes, it requires thought, yes it requires resources and ongoing support, and yes it will take your time, but the positives outweigh all of this and it's an amazing opportunity for our undergraduates to get more experience.
Oli Schofield
Head of Doctoral Researcher Development and Experience
Doctoral College
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