The Student Business Partnership Scheme (SBP)

Working Hours for Students

Students are available to work between 6-15 hours per week, during term-time, and if they remain in the South West up to 36.5 hours per week during vacation for undergraduates. 

Advertising Your Vacancy

To discuss your vacancy please contact the Internships Team at internships@exeter.ac.uk or call the office on 01392 722617.  Phone lines are monitored 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday.

If you are ready to advertise your role, you can complete the External Internship Vacancy Form and send it to the Internships Team at internships@exeter.ac.uk. The team will review your vacancy and place it to advert within 2 working days.

Promoting Your Vacancy

The team will advertise and promote your vacancy by using:

• Handshake - the universities dedicated careers portal
• Targeted emails to students by career sector; occupation; and discipline
• Social media - Career Zone; Internships: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
• Weekly Jobs Bulletin sent to hundreds of students
• Employability Officers throughout the university who can promote to students
• People of influence e.g. academics 
• Targeting students who have applied for similar roles
• 'What's On' weekly employability e-newsletter sent to all students (term time only with ad-hoc sending during vacations)
• Events e.g. Jobs Fairs

Applications

• Applications will be made using the Internship Application Form and sent to internships@exeter.ac.uk
• On average you can expect to receive between 5-20 applications.
• We check all applications meet the SBP scheme eligibility criteria and highlight any issues i.e. disability; right to work; and restrictions on working hours.
• We send all the applications by email the following working day after the closing date.

 Shortlisting

• The employer shortlists the applications. You may wish to use our Shortlisting Scoring Grid.
• As the University of Exeter is a 'Disability Confident' organisation we ask that you interview all applicants who have declared a disability and who meet the essential criteria for the role.

 Inviting to Interview

• If you can, we suggest inviting 5-6 candidates to interview.
• The employer invites the shortlisted candidates to interview as soon as possible. We tell students to expect to hear if they have been shortlisted 5 days before the scheduled interview date. We recommend you call candidates to book an interview time and date and follow this up with a confirmation email. You may wish to use this invitation to interview email.
• When inviting your candidates to interview please ask them to share the Right to Work evidence with you, To read more about this please see the Guidance to Verify Right to Work (RTW) Evidence for UoE Interns. 
• For the candidates you do not wish to call to interview we ask you let them know as soon as possible by email. You may wish to use this Not called to interview emaill‌. Alternatively the Internship Team can do this for you, if you send us the names of the rejected candidates.

Conducting the interview

• You may wish to interview by video. Please see our Guidance for interviews via video call.
• Assess each candidate against the selection criteria published in the Internship Vacancy Form. You may wish to use the Interview Scoring Grid for this purpose.
• You may wish to use these Interview Questions or these Strengths based interview questions.
• You may also wish to conduct a short test e.g. manipulating data in a spreadsheet or writing a short communication with a client.
• We ask that you respond to candidates who have not been successful at interview and be willing to provide constructive feedback if requested by them.
• Please check all interviewees' right to work (see below)

Right to work

• All students are required to provide  Right to Work evidence to employers.
• For more details please read the Employer Guidance - Verifying RTW in the UK‌‌‌
  

Informing interviewees the outcome of their interview

• At the end of the interview please let the interviewees know when you will be in touch to let them know the outcome of the interview. We require this to take place within 3 days of the interview and that you make all efforts to speak to the candidates.
• When you contact the successful candidate to offer them the job, please ask them to confirm they would like to accept the job and agree a start date. 
• For the unsuccessful candidate we ask that you offer feedback. Inexperienced students really benefit from learning what they did well on in interview and what and how they could improve. If you thought they were appointable (just not the top candidate), please let them know!
• For further information please view our Guidance on Informing Candidates of Interview Outcome. 

References

• As the employer, it is at your discretion if you decide to take up references.  If you wish to do so, you may like to use the ‌Reference Template 
• Please ensure that any references not required after appointment, are destroyed or retained, as applicable, in accordance with GDPR

Retaining Interview Evidence

We recommend you retain evidence of scoring and selection for all the candidates you interview for 6 months, after which please destroy or delete. 

Once your chosen candidate has been identified and has accepted the position, we will ask you to complete the SBP Appointment Form. You will issue the Contract of Employment. Please note: interns are required to be employed, not self employed. For more information, please go to the HMRC website.

The Internship Induction Checklist is a tick list of some of the areas you may wish to cover with your intern during their induction period, including:

• Personnel documentation and information
• Health and Safety (includes COVID-19 issues)
• IT  
• Getting to know your organisation
• Getting to know who the intern will be working with
• Expectations of how the intern will work
• Support and Training

This guide, Making the Most of Your Intern explains how you can manage and develop your intern. 

The intern can expect to have regular 1:1 sessions with their line manager. We recommend daily catch-ups during the induction period or if working remotely.

If in the workplace with other team members, 1:1 catch-ups with line mangers can reduce in frequency, depending on the intern’s need for direction, decision making and information. This can range between once a week to once every 4 weeks.

We will be in regular email communication to check the internships progressing well and offer support to you or your intern if needed. 

We ask employers to set clear objectives, and review and evaluate progress with your intern. You have the option to use our Internship PDR form‌ paperwork, or use your current internal performance indicators.

We rarely hear that employers are experiencing problems with their interns. However, in the unusual situation that this does occur we ask you inform your HR team if necessary. The Employment Schemes Manager is also available to offer advice and guidance to you and the intern at every stage.  If your organisation has its own HR department or staff member we would also advise consultation with them. We recommend using performance management techniques, for example:

Meeting 1

Present concerns, discuss reasons and agree action with support and training, where relevant.

Meeting 2

After at least one week, review the agreed action. Has the support and training made a difference? Is there anything else that can improve the situation? If performance has not improved you can provide the intern with a week’s notice of terminiatuion of their contract.

Meeting 3

After at least one week, review performance again. If it has not improved you can terminate contract. 

If your intern is leaving, here are a few actions to undertake to end their internship:

1. If resigning forward the resignation to internships@exeter.ac.uk, we will update our records.
2. Ensure all provided property and equipment is returned e.g. laptops, mobile phones, keys to buildings/offices etc. 
3. If required, provide summary of training undertake for intern’s CV. 
4. Complete an evaluation of the Internship: 
   Internship Feedback Form - Employer Submission
   Internship Feedback Form - Intern Submission
5. If your intern has had access to any company systems or shared drives please ensure this access is removed.
6. Ensure Ensure you issue your intern with a P45.

We really appreciate your feedback on the internship. Please complete and return this Case Study Form, with a picture of your intern in the workplace. We would like to use these Case Studies for marketing purposes, please contact us if you would prefer for your case study not to be used in our marketing material. 

We would welcome the opportunity to help you recruit another intern via our Student Business Partnership do please get in touch with the Employment Schemes Manager at internships@exeter.ac.uk to discuss.

We ask that you please complete the Internship Feedback Form - Employer Submission and also encourage your intern to complete the  Internship Feedback Form - Intern Submission.

If you would like to read feedback from previous SBP employers, take a look at our case studies.

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