Summer internships & holidays?

[jiminikriket]

DS is applying for a 3 month internship, but the introductory blurb says nothing about whether that is 3 months straight or whether they will be able to take any "annual leave" for a holiday. What is usual? Do most interns work the whole summer without a break or do they get a proportionate amount of leave to take?

I'd have thought it would be pretty unusual to accrue annual leave in an internship.

DS has done three summer jobs / internships and accrued holiday for all of them. The second two were with the university and he was able to take a week off to join us on holiday.

AFAIK Internships don’t come with holiday allowances, although I’m sure requesting a day off for a family wedding (for example) would be fine. The internship programmes that I mentored are usually quite carefully tailored and timetabled by the training teams with a lot of content.

As well as a training and work experience opportunity, companies often consider the internship programmes to be pre-selection interviews for graduate jobs. Interns need to make a good impression. We provide feedback on interns to HR and, if they interns are unenthusiastic, arrogant or unreliable, that is noted.

I’d be pretty gobsmacked if my shadow intern asked for or took a fortnight off for his summer hols in the middle of a programme.

I have never heard of internships with annual leave but perhaps it depends on the field (?).
The company will have designed a programme to follow with the expectation it will be adhered to.

Where I work there is a 5 week internship and you accrue holiday - I think about 1.5 days (as it's pro rata on 25 days for the year). Most people choose to get it paid instead but you can take it.

You take a holiday before you start. Most students fit in a week!

my ds completed two internships. He did not take any holiday when he was working, but finished mid September so had two weeks break before going back to uni. He found the internship recruitment process was the same as graduate recruitment so applying for internships is excellent preparation for graduate applications.

Ds1 has just been offered an 8 week internship for this summer with one of the big 4 (full time, 2nd year uni). It includes a holiday allowance, but I don't know if that's just expected to be paid out at the end.

Ds2 did 8 weeks work-experience with the regional accountancy practice I work for over the summer (3 days a week - post GCSEs) and had a holiday allowance which he was expected to take. We weren't anticipating this at all.

AFAIK Internships don’t come with holiday allowances,

If the intern can be legally classified as a 'worker' (and the company just saying that they aren't, if legally they are, doesnt mean that they are not, so to speak), then yes, they probably should at least accrue annual leave, it would appear?

Just 'shadowing', with no expectation of actual work, would be different.

www.gov.uk/employment-rights-for-interns