Pathways to Charity and Development

If you would like to express an interest in hosting an intern for Professional Pathways 2026 (internships will take place late June/early July), please complete this short form and we'll be in touch. Applications to submit an internship will open early 2026. Please note, if you are a student this is not the correct form and please email the team instead at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk who will advise you on how to register your interest or how to apply, if applications are open.

The role or project must:

• Be within the charity and development sector
• 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 22 June - 3 July 2026.

We will be delivering the training element of the programme on our Streatham Campus in Exeter between 15 - 18 June 2026. 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 charity and development 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 2025 Pathways to Charity & Development 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 2025 programme:

During the training days (15 – 18 June 2026), students will engage in a group project based on a sector-related business challenge provided by an employer. This opportunity allows students to apply the knowledge and skills gained in their training to a set task, which could be particularly of benefit to organisations with under-resourced projects. Students will collaborate for 2-3 hours daily from Monday to Wednesday and present their findings on Thursday 18 June between 10am - 1pm on our Streatham Campus in Exeter. We encourage employers who submit projects to attend the presentations, providing valuable feedback and engaging with the students directly.

Ideally, employers will be offering a project alongside hosting an intern, as your matched student intern(s) would then also be allocated your group project, allowing them to gain insights into the organisation before starting their internship. The project task must differ from the submitted internship but can complement it. Interested employers should contact the team at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk or indicate their interest through the employer vacancy form when submitting internship opportunities.

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 2026. 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. Download the Pathways induction checklist.

We have also put together some notes of guidance for employers hosting an intern via the Professional Pathway programme.  

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.

If you would like to hear from previous employers who have participated in the Pathways to Charity and Development programme, you can read some case studies below: 

• The Mare and Foal Sanctuary
• Space Youth Services
• Exeter Leukaemia Fund
• Turning Heads
• Goodwill in Action To Prevent Suicide
• Devon Community Foundation
• Working Options
• Wild Futures
• Supershoes
• Exeter City Community Trust

To find out more about the programme, please email the team at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.

Hear from employers who have previously hosted an intern via our Pathways to Charity and Development programme: 

"Being part of this programme has had a hugely positively impact on Turning Heads. The students offer us a deeper dive into what we do, measure impact and provide us with data and feedback in an objective and detailed way. We actually build this programme into our year planner and it forms part of our evaluative process." (Alan Tilley, Turning Heads)

"We have benefitted across multiple years of the Professional Pathways Programme. Each intern we have had arrives with enthusiasm and a desire to make an impact. It's a brilliant opportunity to engage with exceptional students, providing invaluable support in our mission to help Exeter start well, live well, and age well." (Ed Leppard, Exeter City Community Trust) 

"It was great to be a part of the Professional Pathways programme. The team were fantastic and really understood our work when matching us with our intern. Our intern showed incredible passion for what we do, and we took the time to understand what they wanted from the experience." (Mark Lucking, First Light)

"The Professional Pathways Programme was a joy to be apart of! From the group work to our individual intern, we were blown away by the calibre of the students in the programme and their initiative and drive. As a charity with a small fundraising and marketing team, it was so helpful to have our intern complete some of the tasks we just simply didn't have the time to get around to - and even better was the high standard to which they were completed." (Harry Fishwick, Space Youth Services)

"We highly recommend the Professional Pathways programme to other employers. Our interns played a key role in supporting efforts to expand and market our training and professional development services—an essential income stream that supports their charitable mission of trauma and abuse recovery." (Rachel Jones, CLEAR Emotional Trauma & Therapy Specialists)

“This focused internship has really added value to our work, data review, strategy creation, content production...I am amazed at what high quality work can be outputted in such a short period of time (all while giving the students training, feedback and hopefully the opportunity to learn new skills and tackle real-world challenges).” (Susanna Plummer, Working Options)

"We find the interns hardworking, competent and able to deliver in a short timescale. It is a useful challenge for us to design a piece of worthwhile work that can be engaged with and completed in a working week. It is also interesting for us to have the perspective of a fresh set of eyes, this year with a tight focus on our partners' evaluations of our impact." (Ben Rose, Farms for City Children) 

"The professional pathways is an excellent programme for both the employer and the student. As an employer I was very pleased with the student I was matched with, she fitted in with our team very well and was interested in the kind of work we do. Short-term internships/roles can often feel like a burden to an employer but I felt our intern was prepared and had good knowledge and understanding of what she would be doing when she came to our charity. She took everything in her stride and was a very hard worker. This made it very easy for us as the employer - we will be applying again!" (Chloe Richardson, FORCE Cancer Charity)

 “Our intern Sophie was incredibly motivated. She successfully completed our agreed project to a very high standard. Sophie drafted our new fundraising pack to inspire supporters to fundraise for Step One, and additionally created further supporting materials to help our mission. I would highly recommend the programme to any charity that has a one-off project they need to kickstart or complete. I am confident Sophie will go on to have a great career in the charity sector.” (Victoria Lewis, Step One Charity) 

 "Our intern brought bags of energy and put a smile on everyone's face. We found his approach refreshing and inspiring and were really happy to be part of his personal development.” (Molly Southwood, Exeter Leukaemia Fund)