At The Big Idea, we're exploring whether we should be more active in facilitating creative internships that deliver a high value experience for employer and intern alike.

We have put together this quick guide to establishing meaningful and mutually beneficial internship opportunities in your organisation.

What is an internship?

For starters, an intern is not a replacement for a paid employee. It is a short term position with a genuine offering of a career development opportunity. An internship offers a defined role with real goals that contribute to the work of your organisation. The individual should complete the internship having gained relevant skills and experience that will contribute to their ability to find advanced opportunities within the sector.

Top 5 tips for building a high-quality internship

1. Make it official:
   Create a policy that supports your internship programme. Make clear expectations and responsibilities of both the intern and your organisation.  Set goals for what you expect to be achieved by the end of the programme.
    
2. Spread your net wide:
   Make your recruitment process fair, open and transparent so you can provide opportunities to a diverse range of people across the arts sector.
    
3. Lay the groundwork:
   Create a contract that clearly outlines the length of the internship, their working hours, goals and the outcomes they are expected to meet.
    
4. Make it awesome:
   Provide training and assign a mentor who is responsible for supporting the individual throughout the internship. Include them in brainstorm sessions and encourage them to speak up. They will offer a fresh perspective and alternative ways of approaching ideas, and this will build their confidence.
    
5. Give them a good send off:
   Offer a performance appraisal at the end so that they can learn from their experience. Provide any support and assistance you can to help them seek further opportunities within the sector.

As an employer, what’s in it for you?

Connect with young creatives: An internship programme is a fantastic opportunity to connect with young cultural entrepreneurs at the beginning stages of their career. You will find that they bring fresh ideas and interesting perspectives to your organisation, as well as the energy needed to reach goals or projects that you might be struggling to complete.

Provide leadership opportunities within your organisation: Creating an internship programme provides mentoring opportunities for other staff members, building leadership capability within your team.

Contribute to the strengthening of the arts sector: By gifting the resource of time, guidance and shared knowledge you build the pillars of the sector at large, providing opportunity for those who are dedicated and driven by their creative energies to build a viable career as an arts entrepreneur.

Have you got internship opportunities? Register your interest today:

We’ll update you with more information about the programme as it comes to hand.