What Is an Internship? Types, Pay and How Students Can Get One

“Internship” is one of those words that’s thrown around a lot without anyone properly explaining what it actually means. Is it the same as a placement? Is it paid? Do you need experience to get one? And why does every job advert seem to want three years of experience before you’ve even graduated?! Here’s the full breakdown:

What is an internship?

An internship is a fixed-term work placement, usually somewhere between four weeks and 12 months. You work within a company in a defined role, with tasks, objectives, and a manager. That means, legally, you’re almost certainly entitled to pay.

Internship vs placement vs work experience

People use these terms interchangeably, and it can get confusing. Here’s how they differ:

• Internship: structured, time-limited and often paid. Most common in finance, consulting, tech, law, and marketing. It can be during uni or after graduation
• Placement year (or sandwich year): a year-long role embedded in your degree, usually between the second and final year. Because it’s a compulsory course requirement, you’re not automatically entitled to minimum wage. However, most employers pay you anyway
• Work experience: shorter, less structured and typically unpaid. Can be more observation than contribution, and carries fewer legal protections than an internship
• Virtual internship: same as a regular internship but remote. Grew massively post-pandemic and is now a legitimate route into competitive industries. Especially useful for students who can’t relocate to larger cities full time, during the summer

The label doesn’t actually determine your rights; what you’re doing does. If you’re turning up, doing set tasks, and the employer is benefiting from your work, you’re pretty much a worker in the legal sense.

Are internships paid?

Most of the time, yes. And if they’re not paid, that’s generally illegal. If an intern is classed as a “worker” under UK employment law, they’re entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW). Employers cannot get around this by calling you a volunteer or asking you to sign something waiving your rights.

Current NMW rates (from April 2025):

• Aged 21 and over: £12.21 per hour
• Aged 18-20: £10.00 per hour
• Under 18: £7.55 per hour

Unpaid internships are legal for mandatory placements, charity volunteer work or shadowing. Everything else? You should be getting paid. Check your rights before you accept anything.

For a little context, paid internship salaries in the UK sit between £24,000 and £39,000 per year, though finance and tech tend to pay the higher end. Creative industries are more likely to pay closer to minimum wage.

Which type of internship is right for you?

Summer internship

This is the most common type of internship, usually running from June to August, for six to 12 weeks. It’s also the main route into more competitive graduate schemes, with the biggest employers recruiting almost a year in advance.

Industrial placement

Also known as a ‘sandwich placement’, this is a year-long role embedded in your degree. Students who do one are much more likely to walk into graduate employment or a direct offer from the same company.

Spring week

Aimed at first and second year students, a spring week or insight programme is a short taster. It’s less about the work and more about getting seen before you apply for a summer internship the following year. Competitive, but worth doing early.

Graduate internship

This one is for recent graduates rather than current students. It’s a route into organisations and useful for getting sector experience.

Prospects and TargetJobs are handy resources for finding student internships by sector.

How to get an internship

The approach to getting an internship varies by sector, but a few things hold across the board:

• Start earlier than you think! Competitive summer internships at big firms open applications 9-12 months before the start date
• Adapt your CV to the role. Although it’s more time-consuming (sorry), one generic CV sent to 50 companies simply isn’t going to get you anywhere. Our guide to writing a CV covers exactly this
• Use your uni careers service. Exclusive employer partnerships mean some roles are not publicly posted
• Don’t rule out cold calling. Emailing a company directly occasionally works. It’s worth a shot, right?
• Apply broadly, first. Early on, any experience beats holding out for the perfect one

What happens after your internship placement?

A well-executed internship placement opens more doors than almost anything else on a graduate CV. Many companies use internships as a channel for graduate hires. If you do well, a job offer at the end is a realistic outcome, not an optimistic one.

If that’s the goal, go in with a plan from day one. Really think about how you can turn your internship into a job offer.

Career = sorted. Student life, too!

An internship is one of the most valuable things you can do as a student to set yourself up for future success. But student life costs money long before you land a placement. Join UNiDAYS now or log in to save on food, tech, travel, and everything in between!