Summer Placement / Summer Internship

[Daddylonglegs123]

My young person year 2 is looking for a summer placement or summer internship. They are only receiving the minimum loan so are contributing by topping them up to the maximum loan amount. They usually work over summer and rent is a 51 week contract. I know some of the placements are paid pro rota but just wondering if they don’t manage to secure a placement within easy travelling distance of either home or Uni is the young person or us normally expected to pay for accommodation for a 10 or 12 week sumner placement or do companies advertising paid summer placements usually offer free or subsidised accommodation or how do they usually work? Thanks

DD did 2 summer placements this year. Both paid living wage per hour but didn't help with accommodation costs. Luckily she only needed to be in the office one day out of five. She stayed in her uni city and commuted for that day (long commute but just about do-able for one day x 12 weeks). She works part-time during term and holidays so did another 12 or so hours a week to cover rent etc (and keep part-time job).

DD did see some placements not offering living wages or not offering enough hours but didn't apply to these. Some of the uni ones were shockingly paid eg £180 stipend but expected 40 hours work per week.

Thanks think one of the ones my YP is looking at is just over an hours drive each way from home but not the best roads and unsure yet whether they would be required to go in every day or not but 22K pro rota and either 10 or 12 weeks duration. Others are in multiple locations but none of them near enough to make living at either home or Uni town doable. They also mentioned maybe applying for one abroad in Europe and very prestigious but definitely not a cheap country to live in. The companies they are looking at are large organisations (STEM area) so I was optimistically thinking they may possibly provide subsidised or free accommodation.

They are at a top Uni and the Course and playing sport at a fairly high level takes up all of the time term time. But they do work in the holidays to earn some extra cash.

It varies. My DS did one this year (abroad) where he wasn't paid anything but they provided accommodation, gave him a scholarship for living expenses and reimbursed his travel costs, so the only thing he had to pay for was insurance.

Most of his peers who did summer internships were paid; some had accommodation provided but most didn't. Some universities have grants available to help where there is a shortfall, but I imagine there are specific eligibility criteria.

Could your DD sublet her uni accommodation for the summer to cover the rent in her placement location? DD sublet (unofficially) from a friend of a friend for the summer at the end of 1st year. Worked well for both. Landlord visited once and didn't notice that his tenant had changed nationality.

DD not at a top uni and doing a subject with low contact hours so has plenty of time to work term time.

Interestingly my middle one is involved in graduate recruitment this year as says their algorithm doesn't favour placements over other student work (quantity weights more). I guess placement might help in other parts of the interview process eg answering behaviour type questions. Plus it helps to rule out careers.

They also mentioned maybe applying for one abroad in Europe and very prestigious but definitely not a cheap country to live in.

My son was in Switzerland but the arrangements described above made it financially accessible.

He also applied (and was placed on reserve list) for RISE Germany which is worth looking at.

@Ironoaks it was Switzerland that they mentioned did they enjoy it?

@Daddylonglegs123 he did an internship with NCCR Bio-Inspired Materials. There was quite a lot of paperwork involved (registering with host university, SEMP, insurance etc) but once there he enjoyed both the research project and the experience in general.

It may depend on subject.

For those aiming for careers in law or finance, placements/internships can be very valuable. Firms often them as an early step in their graduate recruitment process. Whilst both the work itself and the experience of applying will be useful. The competition for popular ones is intense so a chance to get used to the competition for graduate recruitment.

Subletting is one option, another is university accommodation. The employer may have suggestions. Or that friend of a friend might be perfectly happy to rent out their spare bedroom for the summer, especially if the lodger is willing to feed the cats/water the plants whilst they are on holiday.

@Daddylonglegs123 Ds did a summer internship in our home city because he knew this would be where he would be returning back to post uni to live at home and save for a house deposit. So if he applied for a graduate job with them they would know people he personally worked with rather than a different office.

He went through a 4 or 5 stage process to land the internship in the first place. That process is to thoroughly vet them and then based on their performance on the internship they can be offered a graduate position with no more interviews etc. Ds was indeed offered a graduate job. That lines up with what @Needmoresleep says above.

There were other students who were at our city uni who were not intending to stay in the city post graduation so it meant they couldn't apply for the graduate job and also means they are now spending part of their 3rd year applying so your DD might want to think about the future too.

In terms of in the office, there was a meet the team which he had to come home for and miss a day's worth of lectures for as it was non-negotiable and when they took proof of their ID and their NI number, filled out some paperwork and had their photo taken for their ID badge later. A laptop was delivered here by the company just before he started. He went into the office I think 3 times over an 8 week period, the rest was done online. HTH