Summer Internship Programme 2016
Student Information Pack
Contents
UCL Advances ............................................................................................................................. 2
What the Summer Internship Programme is ............................................................................. 3
Should I apply? ........................................................................................................................... 4
Eligibility ................................................................................................................................. 4
Will I get a spot? .................................................................................................................... 5
Companies and placements ....................................................................................................... 6
Eligibility ................................................................................................................................. 6
Types of companies ............................................................................................................... 6
Types of roles ......................................................................................................................... 7
How to apply .............................................................................................................................. 8
How to find a company .......................................................................................................... 8
Interviews and selection ........................................................................................................ 9
Application form .................................................................................................................... 9
How the applications are evaluated ...................................................................................... 9
Your obligations ....................................................................................................................... 10
Enterprise Bootcamp ........................................................................................................... 11
Terms & Conditions ................................................................................................................. 12
UCL Advances
UCL Advances, UCL's centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction, helps anyone
who wants to learn about, start or grow a business. Its primary role is to promote a culture
of entrepreneurship on campus and engagement with entrepreneurs and small businesses
beyond UCL’s boundaries. It works to support start-ups and small businesses across London
by helping them to access the technical and business expertise of UCL’s staff and students
through a series of programmes to help support ambitious young companies.
UCL Advances is affiliated with UCL Enterprise, which provides UCL’s structures for engaging
with business for commercial and societal benefit.
What the Summer Internship Programme is
What is it?
UCL Advances has been running this internship programme for many years and it has grown
year on year with the commitment from UCL to:
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Better students’ employability skills;
Connect students with the exciting entrepreneurial and small business scene in
London;
Showcase the quality of UCL students to local businesses; and
Support London-based SMEs gain real tangible benefits from a UCL intern and to make
their businesses progress.
Who is it for?
Any level UCL student or recent graduate (within the last 2 years) is eligible for the
programme.
The benefits
You receive an allowance for worthwhile work experience (£250 per week, tax free) which
will aid professional development, enhance your CV and could possibly lead on to a
permanent job. You also gain the opportunity to attend numerous tailored training
workshops to develop business skills.
Should I apply?
Eligibility
School
You must be a UCL student or recent graduate (2014, 2015 and 2016) to participate. Affiliate
and intercollegiate students are eligible provided they have been issued a UPI.
Degree/focus
Students from all faculties, all degrees, and all concentrations are eligible for the
programme. We do not give priority to a particular focus; programme participants have
always been representative of the variety of studies offered at UCL.
Year
Students from any year, undergraduate or postgraduate, are eligible to apply. Alumni
within two years of graduation are eligible to apply.
Twelve-week internships are restricted to final year and graduates ONLY (this is a
requirement of Santander Universities who part-funds these placements).
Visas
To be eligible for the programme, you need to be eligible to work in the UK up until the end
of the proposed internship period. We are unable to issue a visa for the Summer Internship
Programme.
A Tier 4 student visa allows you to work full-time outside of term time. Whether you are in
term time or holiday in the summer months depends on your degree; please ensure you
have the right to work before you apply. In general, undergraduate students on a Tier 4 visa
tend to be eligible as they are not in term time over the summer. Postgraduate students on
a Tier 4 visa tend to still be on term time over the summer, in which case they would not be
eligible. It is your responsibility to check and confirm that you are eligible to work in the UK
full time.
Please see the following links for more information about working while on a visa:
http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/International-Students/Study-work--more/Working-during-yourstudies/How-many-hours-a-week-can-I-work/#term_time
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/iss/immigration-visa/working-during
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/iss/immigration-visa/working-after
http://uclu.org/services/advice-welfare
Pre-existing Relationship
Please note that if you have had a pre-existing relationship of the following types below, the
application will be invalid:
 A paid employee/intern
 A shareholder of the business
 A relative to the owner(s)/director(s)
Will I get a spot?
Number of placements
This year we will be placing 110 students in 8 week and 12 week internships.
How competitive is it?
This depends entirely on the number of applications received and the amount of funding we
have available, both of which vary year-to-year.
In previous years we have received as few as 150 applications and as many as 500, but the
number of available positions has changed drastically over the last few years as we get an
increasing amount of funding.
The bottom line is: if you do not apply, you have a 0% chance of getting a spot!
Stipends
All of the interns receive a £250 per week tax-free training stipend. These are transferred to
intern bank accounts monthly and the final instalment is dependent on the completion of a
feedback form sent to an intern during their penultimate week.
It is important to note that this is not a salary, as you are not entering into employment with
either UCL or your host company. The programme is essentially hands-on entrepreneurship
training over the summer for which UCL provides you a tax-free training stipend.
8 vs 12 week
Why do we offer two options and what are the differences between them?
Eight-week placements are fully funded by UCL and the number of spots that we offer is
determined by the amount of funding we have in the budget each year.
In 2012 we began partnering with Santander Universities on the Santander Universities SME
Internship Programme, where they fund 50% of a 12-week internship and UCL subsidises
the rest. Therefore the number of 12-week internships we are able to offer each year is
dependent on the amount of funding allotted to us by Santander.
How can I be awarded a 12-week internship?
Due to Santander Universities funding regulations, 12-week internships are ONLY available
to final year students and recent graduates.
Companies and placements
Eligibility
SME
The company must be an SME to be eligible for the programme. Generally, this means the
company must have fewer than 250 employees and a turnover of less than €50 million. In
determining whether a company is an SME for the purpose of this programme, we adhere
to EU definitions.
London-based
The company must be registered and/or trading in London. If the company’s premises are
not based in London, they must demonstrate that they trade in London or have close ties to
London as our funding is specifically for London-based companies.
Office space
The company needs to have an appropriate workspace in an office environment. Co-working
spaces are acceptable but the company should not be hot-desking. You must be located in
an office environment with at least one other full-time member of staff of the business.
The company must not be home-based. This includes a professional, dedicated office space
within the home. Converted residences are acceptable as long as they are now operating
entirely as a business and not as a residence in any part of the space.
Access to senior management
A member of the senior management team must be committed to spending at least half a
day per week meeting with or mentoring you (taking you to meetings, reviewing goals and
tasks etc). This is because these internships are meant to expose the interns to all facets of
how a small business works and to impart entrepreneurial skills.
Types of companies
The companies that have taken part in past years have ranged from early stage start-ups
with only 1-2 people in the business to well-established medium-sized companies. They are
all based in the Greater London Area, but most are based in central London.
All industries are eligible and each year a broad range of industries are represented in the
programme (e.g. creative; small tech; social enterprises; professional services).
Types of roles
The types of roles students take on range from business-facing to technical. Potential
placements could involve development, social media marketing, project management, event
coordination, communications, and so on. Whatever the focus of the internship is, we
would hope and expect that each intern also have the opportunity to learn directly from
senior management about business skills in general.
All of the placements are full-time at the company’s offices. Student interns are expected to
work 35-40 hours per week.
A unique aspect of working in an SME, particularly of working in a start-up, is that the
direction of the company can change very quickly, as an SME needs to adapt to the market.
On the one hand, this offers an excellent experience as an intern gets exposed to all aspects
of the business and can watch their efforts impact the company very quickly. On the other
hand, a great amount of versatility is required; the work changes from day to day and there
may be peaks and troughs in workload.
How to apply
In order to apply for the programme, you need to have already chosen and been accepted
by a host company. The application is a joint effort and you and your company will each
need to fill in a section; both sections will be evaluated. The top applications will be
accepted onto the programme and offered funding.
All applications must be submitted by 12pm on Monday 25th April 2016. This is a strict
deadline and any applications with a later timestamp will not be considered for the
programme.
How to find a company
Option 1: Source your own company
This is the option we recommend the most to students. By sourcing your own company, you
ensure that you find a placement most suited to your interests.
Please be very sure that your company is eligible for the programme before you apply. An
applications submitted with an ineligible company will be rejected. To be eligible, a
company must:
* Be an SME;
* Be registered and/or trading in London (London-based);
* Have appropriate office space that is not home-based; and
* Have a member of the senior management team spend half a day per week with you
to mentor you.
We have prepared an information pack to give to companies when you approach them
about the programme, which can be found here.
Option 2: Attend our recruitment fairs
At the end of March, we invite companies interested in our programme to attend
recruitment fairs to speak with and collect CVs of potential student interns.
The number of fairs we run depends on the number of companies who sign up; as a
guideline, in 2015 we held three fairs with approximately 25 companies at each.
In conjunction with UCL Careers, we will be running Personal Branding workshops to help
you prepare for the recruitment fairs. We cannot recommend this to you enough; feedback
from last year demonstrated that students who attended this workshop were significantly
more likely to be successful in the programme.
Interviews and selection
All interviews with potential companies are to be arranged independently, and this process
may vary between interns depending on how companies prefer to conduct their interviews.
If you are meeting companies through our recruitment fairs, interviews will probably occur
after the fairs. Make sure that you have exchanged contact information with your
companies of interest at the fairs.
You must select a single company before applying. You can submit only one application, so
you should ensure that you and your company are committed to the programme before
submitting an application. If your company has been interviewing multiple students, make
sure that you are their chosen student before submission.
Application form
Please click here to access the application form for an 8 week internship.
Please click here to access the application form for a 12 week internship.
We recommend that you set aside about 30-60 minutes to sufficiently fill out the form.
Single sentence answers are not appropriate.
How the applications are evaluated
We are looking primarily for a demonstration that you understand what the placement can
offer you and how your previous experience fit in with the placement. Be descriptive yet
specific in your answers.
A panel of evaluators will independently rate each question on the application out of a
maximum of 3; these ratings are then averaged and ranked with funding being offered to
the top applications.
We typically retain 10-15 applicants for a waitlist, as there are inevitable last minute dropouts due to unforeseen circumstances.
Your obligations
Professionalism
You are entering into a real business and your work and actions have an impact. You are an
ambassador of UCL during your placement, and as such, we expect you to show
commitment, passion, professionalism, and be hard working and a self-starter. We expect
you to treat your placement seriously and to conduct yourself professionally.
Hours and holidays
All interns are expected to attend full-time hours at approximately 35-40 hours per week.
Interns do not have any paid holiday time on this programme, as interns do not enter into
employment with either UCL or the SME. Any days or hours that are taken off must be
cleared by your supervisor well in advance and must be made up on another date.
If you take extended holiday (equal or greater to one week and approved by your
supervisor) you must notify UCL Advances.
Conflict resolution
Should any concerns arise in your placement, we expect you to make the first efforts to
resolve them. You should be able to have open communication with your supervisor about
what you wish to get out of the programme and about when you are unhappy. UCL
Advances staff is available to assist if you and your supervisor are unable to resolve your
concerns.
Feedback
A mid-internship progress evaluation (up to 200 words) is due for every intern, reflecting on
their time in the placement so far and how their work has kept to or developed from the
initial plan submitted in the application. This can also be a time for the intern to reflect on
soft skills that have been learnt and other qualitative aspects to the internship.
At the end of the internship, we will ask you to fill out some brief feedback forms. Your final
payment will be authorised once UCL Advances has received your completed feedback form.
A formal summary report for UCL Advances is not required for the programme, though your
host company may request one.
12 Week Interns
You will need to complete a separate application form for Santander Universities and there
will be additional forms and administration tasks (such as completing an online profile for
Santander Universities) to complete.
Enterprise Bootcamp
You must attend a mandatory Enterprise Bootcamp as a part of your internship. This is a
non-negotiable component of the programme and your funding is dependent on your
attendance.
The content of the Bootcamp does not change year-to-year, so if you have attended
previously there is no need to re-attend.
Bootcamps fill up very quickly and we are not always able to accommodate student interns,
so if you are interested in applying for the Summer Internship Programme we highly
recommend that you attend a Bootcamp as soon as possible.
Terms & Conditions
By submitting an application to the programme or as a company attending the recruitment
fairs you agree to the following terms and conditions of the UCL Advances’ Summer
Internship Programme.
1. Applications
a. Applications must be received by the stated deadline to be considered for the
programme.
b. Offers of funding and places on the waitlist are both conditional on the submission
of the required paperwork by the stated deadline. UCL Advances reserves the right
to withdraw offers if the deadlines are not met.
c. Each party can only submit one application to the programme, jointly with one other
student or company to make a single student-company pair. Students cannot submit
applications with more than one company and companies cannot submit
applications with more than one student.
d. Application to the UCL Advances’ Summer Internship Programme is free of charge,
but companies choosing to attend the optional recruitment fairs are subject to a fee
according to their company size to offset the costs of running these events.
2. Eligibility
You confirm that you meet all of the eligibility criteria for the programme. Specifically, you
confirm that:
Students
a. You are a current student or recent graduate (within 2 years of graduation) of
University College London.
b. You have the right to work 35-40 hours per week in the United Kingdom for the
dates and duration of the internship.
Businesses
a. You are an SME in accordance with EU definitions.
b. You are registered and/or trading in London.
c. You have an available, steady desk for the duration of the internship where the
intern will be based for the entirety of the programme. The desk is not a hot-desk.
d. This desk is in appropriate office space in the Greater London Area near to the desk
of the intern’s direct supervisor.
e. Your office space is not based inside a residence or on the same premises (homebased).
3. Withdrawals and Funding
a. If either the student or the company in a pair withdraws from the programme after
the application deadline, the application and/or funding will be withdrawn, as places
on the programme are offered to company-student pairs and not to individuals.
b. If either the student or the company in a pair withdraws from the programme before
the application deadline, the remaining party is free to submit an application with a
new partner. Deadlines will not be extended in this circumstance regardless of how
close to the deadline the withdrawal occurs. It is entirely the responsibility of an
abandoned party to find a new partner and UCL Advances in unable to assist with
this process.
c. Students are funded only for the hours that they work. If a company or student
withdraws before the completion of an internship:
i. Pending payments for unworked days will be cancelled.
ii. Payments already issued to the student for unworked days will be repaid to
UCL in a timely manner.
d. Any expenses incurred by the student as a direct result of the placement are to be
covered by the company. Examples of this include travel to and from meetings
outside of the office and conference/training fees.
e. Travel costs resulting from a commute between the student’s home and the office
are the student’s responsibility and the company is not expected to cover or
contribute toward them.
4. Recruitment fairs
Students are not charged a fee to attend the recruitment fairs. References to payments,
refunds and cancellation fees in this section are not relevant to students on the programme.
Payment and Confirmation of Booking
a. An e-mail confirmation will be sent to the company following payment of the
registration fee. If an e-mail confirmation has not been received after completing the
registration process, please contact the contact person for the fair or
businesssupport@ucl.ac.uk.
b. Final details will be sent up to seven working days prior to the event. Please contact
businesssupport@ucl.ac.uk if you do not receive event details.
c. UCL Advances cannot be held responsible for the non-arrival of event information.
Cancellations and Refunds
a. All cancellations and refund requests must be made in writing 3 full working days
(Monday – Friday) prior to the start of the event to the contact person for the
recruitment fair or to businesssupport@ucl.ac.uk.
b. If the above notification period is not given, or in the event of non-attendance, then
a £50 cancellation fee applies - whatever the reason.
c. Illness: in the event of non-attendance due to illness, a doctor’s certificate must be
provided otherwise the full cancellation fee will be charged.
d. Individuals who withdraw after the start of an event will still be liable for the
cancellation fee as outlined above.
e. Cancellation and Non-attendance: an individual who has registered for a fair who
doesn’t either: a) provide the required 3 working days’ notice, or b) fails to attend,
will be charged the full registration fee, in addition to the cancellation fee as above.
This is due to administrative and catering costs incurred by the department and your
place could have been allocated to another individual.
f. Attendees are welcome to send a substitute without incurring a charge, provided
UCL Advances is notified in writing (businesssupport@ucl.ac.uk or the event contact
person) 3 full working days prior to the event.
g. UCL Advances reserves the right to, due to unforeseen circumstances, cancel or reschedule an event. In the unlikely event of cancellations, UCL Advances will refund
the full amount of the registration fee (if applicable). However personal expenses
incurred by the attendee are non-refundable by UCL Advances.
5. Data Protection
a. The application and information provided will be held on UCL databases. You may be
contacted about other UCL Advances or UCL activities in the future. By submitting
this information you agree that your details may be used for this purpose. Your
details will not be passed on to any third parties.
For further information please visit http://www.ucl.ac.uk/advances/internship-programme
or contact businesssupport@ucl.ac.uk.