Micro-Internship Programme

Industry and Community Partner

Various

Micro-Placement

University

Oxford University

Innovative Features

Engaging multiple disciplines
Engagement of alumni
Geographically dispersed
Engages with SME’s

Enablers

Key enablers of the Oxford micro-internships include:

The scope of projects is clearly articulated with tangible outcomes.
Projects are carefully screened with focus on ensuring quality outcomes and learning opportunities for students.
There is a focus on ensuring good supervision is available for students during the WIL experience.
The Oxford Careers Service ensures quality communication and support for industry hosts.
Preparation for students including application workshops ensure students get the most out of their WIL experience.

For more information

Please refer to The University of Oxford Careers Service website http://www.careers.ox.ac.uk/micro-internships/

The Oxford University micro-internships provide students with the opportunity to undertake short-term non-credit bearing WIL opportunities mostly in Oxfordshire and Greater London, however the programme is being expanded in 2018 to include other cities across the UK and Germany, with key locations being Manchester, Bath, Bristol, Edinburgh and Munich.

All placements have a duration of 2-5 days, all take place in the 9th or 10th week of semester and are available for domestic and international students, and both undergraduate and postgraduate students. In 2018 142 students participated in the programme.

Each micro-internship gives students the opportunity to observe and assist with a notable project. The aim is to develop student’s professional skills, knowledge and experience in their field of interest and expand student’s professional networks. Placements can be research-based or professional, with industry hosts ranging from investment banks and consultancy firms to tech start-ups and heritage sites.

The process of securing WIL opportunities is highly structured with industry hosts being guided and supported to clearly define the scope of project, the tasks to be performed and the deliverables that the student will be required to achieve using templates provided by The University of Oxford Careers Service. The templates also include information about the strategic focus of the industry host, the supervisory arrangements and the skills and attributes the host is seeking in the students. Projects are screened to ensure suitability and marketed to students using industry sector information to assist students in seeing connections to future career paths.

Students are provided with information about the roles and responsibilities of the micro-internship prior to its commencement and provided with a checklist to help them prepare for their micro-internship. The Careers Service hosts ‘Making the Most of Your Internship’ sessions for students to ensure students are prepared prior to commencing their WIL opportunity.

Projects undertaken by students include:

The development of new marketing initiatives, or reviews of existing marketing strategies
Data collection and presentation: from creating, distributing and compiling surveys and survey responses, to the photographing and digitising of medieval manuscripts.
Fundraising and awareness campaigns.
Product development.
Programming and software development.
Writing educational articles for a specific audience.
Researching and creating business models.
Conducting audits within an organisation.
Cataloguing collections and research with archives.

Impact / Outcomes

Students: Students develop professional skills and knowledge and gain valuable experience in their field of interest as well as expanding their professional networks

Industry Partners: Due to the timetable of the micro-internship programme some companies are now organising their work flows around the availability of students undertaking micro internships to maximise benefits from the company engagement .

University: The micro internships are not part of the academic programme of the university however the students are positively representing Oxford during their placements.

Evaluation

The Oxford Careers Service regularly conducts evaluations of the programme to ensure continual improvement of services and outcomes for students and industry hosts.