York celebrates local intern success

Posted on 3 November 2015

The University of York’s Student Internship Bureau marked the close of its annual summer scheme with an awards event naming their ‘Intern of the Year’.

Student Internship Bureau Awards (left to right: Lucio Longo; Alex Hall; Sarah Birkett; Jenny Bunga)

Launched in March at York Explore Library, student interns were placed with 32 different local businesses over the summer to tackle projects designed to produce real business benefits.

A judging panel, including representatives from Santander Bank and Make it York, shortlisted four students for demonstrating outstanding personal development during their placements and making a significant impact on their host businesses.

Lucio Longo, a Global Marketing student, received the top award of ‘Intern of the Year’ for his Consumer Survey and Market Analysis project completed with TSYS, a global leader in payments processing based in Fulford.

Lucio’s project looked at consumer attitudes in using mobile phones to make credit card payments. His work was so useful that TSYS have adopted the survey methodology for use in other EU countries.

Other shortlisted candidates include: Jenny Bunga, a final year Economics student, for building a market-testing economic model for SACCADE, an Aberdeen-based company working in the health sector; Sarah Birkett, a Social Policy student, for developing new HR procedures for York CVS; and Alex Hall, an English and Linguistics student, who worked with Network Rail to develop a model railway to show passengers the benefits of engineering works at King’s Cross station.

All host employers were thanked at the event, including Gradintel, Bettys & Taylors, Trustmarque, Garbutt & Elliott LLP, and those new to the scheme this summer, including York Cocoa House, Tissue Regenix, the Heritage Crafts Association and NDL Software. Special recognition was also given to Network Rail for the outstanding support and imaginative projects they provided to York students this summer.

Andrew Ferguson, Assistant Director of Careers at the University of York, said: “Student interns bring immediate and tangible benefits to local businesses engaging with the University. The year on year growth in the number and quality of the projects involved really illustrates the value that business, students and the University put into the scheme.”

Further information:

The Student Internship Bureau (SIB), based in Careers at the University of York, sources paid, project-based work experience for local employers and University departments looking to utilise the skills and enthusiasm of York students. They run a rolling programme of internships throughout the year and can provide businesses with a cost-effective and flexible way of accessing the talents of students from one of the UK’s leading universities. Student internships form an integral part of the University’s employability plan, with projects delivered as self-contained pieces of work with specific outputs agreed by the employer.

In the academic year 2014-15 the Internship Bureau brokered 238 internship projects with businesses based in the local community, and with the University’s own departments and services (140 over the summer vacation, with a further 73 part-time internships during term-time).

Thanks to a generous gift from Santander, Careers is also able to offer:

£1500 towards the cost of SMEs (under 250 employees) recruiting a full-time graduate or student for 12 weeks.
£1000 towards the cost of start-up businesses (operating for less than 2 years) recruiting a part-time student intern for a minimum of 148 hours over 12 weeks.

For more information visit http://www.york.ac.uk/careers/employers or contact careers-sib@york.ac.uk / 01904 322492.