If you have any questions regarding the Professional Pathways programme, please contact the team at:
professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.
Pathways to Marketing
Pathways to Marketing offers employers the opportunity to work with University of Exeter students keen to start their careers in this sector.
In June 2024, a total of approximately 25 successful students, selected from a range of disciplines and year groups, will undertake four days of experiential learning delivered by industry experts, followed by completing a 35 hour fully-funded internship with a UK organisation in the Marketing sector.
"The Pathways programme is fantastic. It is great to connect with students and get an insight into their understandings of marketing. We were amazed at the skillset of the student that joined Bigwave, and he contributed incredibly well to the team he was placed with." (Simon Beer, Bigwave Marketing)
Employers can get involved in a Professional Pathway programme by:
- delivering a 1-hour training session
- providing a business project for students to work on during the training
- offering a 35 hour internship (submissions now open for Pathways 2024 - see below for more info!)
(If you are a current student, please see our Pathways to Marketing student page.)
We will be delivering the training element of the programme on our Streatham Campus in Exeter between 17 - 20 June 2024. The training is designed to give students an insight into the sector, covering as many areas as possible while also providing them with the opportunity to meet professionals working in the marketing sector.
We regularly work with a number of organisations who deliver a 1 hour session for us each year. For reference, please see below the schedule from our 2023 Pathways to Marketing training programme. If you would be interested in delivering a session and have a suggestion for a different topic not covered below, we would be happy to hear from you at: professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.
Schedule from our 2023 programme:
| Training session topic: | Organisation delivering training: |
| Digital Marketing | Bigwave Marketing |
| How brand drives business success | Alder and Alder |
| Exeter Grad to Business Owner | Optix Solutions |
| Marketing Plannning & Strategy | Starshipit |
|
Market Research & Analysis |
University of Exeter Market Research and Insights Team |
| A Career in PR and Marketing | One Voice Media |
| Why Personal Brand is important in B2B marketing | Program Agency |
| Online Events and Video Marketing | Bitpod |
| Understanding Consumer Behaviour | Marketing Professional |
| Insights I wish I could have shared with my younger marketing self plus In-house vs Agency? | Wall to Wall Sunshine |
As part of the training days (17 - 20 June 2024), students will work on a group project which will be a sector-related business challenge set by an employer. This enables students to apply the knowledge and skills gained in their training to a set task and could be of interest for any organisations/businesses with currently under resourced projects. Students will spend 2 - 3 hours per day from Monday - Wednesday to work on the project together before presenting their findings on the Thursday, the final day of the training. If possible, we'd be keen for employers who have submitted a project to attend the presentation day and be on the panel as this is a valuable learning experience for students to present back to the employer, plus a great opportunity for you to hear the students' findings and suggestions first hand and ask any follow-up questions. Presentations will take place on our Streatham Campus, Exeter on Thursday 20 June 2024 between roughly 10am - 1pm.
Ideally you would be offering a project alongside hosting an intern as we would then put your matched student intern(s) into the group allocated your submitted project. Your intern would therefore start their internship with you having already gained some initial knowledge of your organisation and area of work and can hopefully hit the ground running when they start their internship with you. Please note, the project task will need to be different to the submitted internship project, however it could tie in and be a good opportunity for your matched student(s) to work on some of the ground work before their internship.
Please note, we have now reached the maximum number of internship opportunities we are able to fund via this year's Pathways to Marketing programme and are therefore closed. To register your interest for our 2025 Professional Pathways programme, please email the team at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.
The role or project must:
- Be within the marketing sector or if your company is not within the marketing sector, the role must be supporting the marketing function of your organisation
- Use undergraduate level skills, knowledge and/or experience
- Aid career development
- Include tasks and responsibilities normally associated with a graduate level position
- Provide training and support
- Be a total of 35 hours and be undertaken either part-time or full-time between 24 June - 5 July 2024.
All students will go through a rigorous recruitment and selection process conducted by the University, to ensure we select the best candidates.
Students successful in gaining a place on the programme, will be presented with all the internships opportunities on offer and asked to identify their preferences. We will make the final decision of who will be matched to your opportunity and as such, your organisation will not need to undertake any recruitment or selection process of our students.
Once we have identified the most suitable intern for you, we will send you their details in May 2024. We very much hope that you will be satisfied with our selection, however if for any reason this is not the case, you will have the opportunity to withdraw from the scheme. Unfortunately, at this stage of the recruitment process, we will not be able to find a replacement intern.
We ask that all employer hosts work through a basic induction with their new intern(s). You are welcome to complete your own induction or you may wish to use the Professional Pathways Internship induction checklist we have put together. You can download this checklist here: Professional Pathways Internship Induction checklist.
We have also put together some notes of guidance for employers hosting an intern via the Professional Pathway programme. You can view these here: Employer Host Notes of Guidance.
We ask employers to set clear objectives for their intern(s) and be available to provide information and guidance throughout the 35 hour internship.
The Professional Pathways Team will be available during the internship to support you and your intern(s) should this be required.
At the end of the internship, we ask that you please complete the Employer Feedback Form. This will be emailed to you shortly after the end of the internship and your comments will be taken into account during our evaluation exercise.
All parties (the employer, the University and the student), must adhere to the Student Secondment Agreement. This agreement ensures the student is committed to the internship and both the employer and the University understand the remit of their duty of care for the student. This document must be signed by all three parties before the internship can begin.
Hear from employers who have previously hosted an intern via our Pathways to Marketing programme:
"We thoroughly recommend the Professional Pathways programme to local employers. Our intern was extremely competent and capable, and enabled us to move forward with a broad range of our marketing activities. The quality of their work was incredibly high and they quickly fitted into the team working in both a remote and face-to-face capacity. We learned from each other - they asked us lots of thought-provoking questions and we were able to give hands-on experience of what they'd covered in their university studies. We will look forward to continuing our relationship with the University." (Louise Want, The Conversation Space)
"The two interns who worked for me on a research project around engagement with climate change were great - full of ideas, hard working and a pleasure to work with. The research they did was genuinely useful and will feed into an engagement strategy around climate change." (Victoria Patch, Environment and Climate Emergency Team, University of Exeter)
"The matching process was really easy and the student was a great fit. The student was highly motivated and keen to engage in the tasks provided. The pre-induction training by the University prepared the student well." (Matthew Pavli, Content Drive)
"For anyone considering offering a position to an intern from the Professional Pathways programme, my advice is to do it! The additional resource added to our team added real value, with the work undertaken influencing a significant project for the business this year." (Laura Thomas, Doddl)
"Such a valuable opportunity to work with students to gain their perspective on our projects. Incredibly refreshing and helpful." (Kate Durward-Akhurst, Commercial Marketing Team, University of Exeter)
"The energy, expertise and professionalism the interns brought with them was a great boost for our young leaders; they were great role models for the young people we work with to be around." (Ellen Jones, Sound Communities CIC)