A unique opportunity for Imperial students to gain a valuable insight into not for profit careers has launched.

Charity Insights, an initiative from the College’s Careers Advisory Service, provides a bursary to allow students a taste of life in the charity sector.

Developed for students who will be continuing their studies at Imperial in the 2013-14 academic year, the bursary scheme is designed to help undergraduate and PhD students build up their employability skills and gain experience of not for profit organisations. Lasting for four weeks (or a part-time equivalent) the internship can be taken at any point over the summer.

The scheme requires eligible students to find their own internship and devise a graduate-level project to complete during the four week placement. Once a placement has been arranged, students are invited to submit an application to the Charity Insights programme. As well as training before the placement starts and  ongoing support from the Careers Advisory Service, students who are accepted  onto the scheme will be given a bursary of £245 per week.

Two students who took part last year, Peter Quicke and Hannah Ralston, offered an insight into their experiences on the scheme:

Peter, a third year physics student, decided to apply having already made plans to work at St Giles Trust. The Trust, which aims to help break the cycle of prison, crime and disadvantage, provides practical support to people who have offended, both in prison and in the community.

Peter’s main task at the charity involved preparing a report for its Board on the viability of another organisation merging with the Trust. “On my first day I was given all the documentation and was told to find out if the merger would be a good idea or a bad idea. I had no idea!” But Peter was given lots of support and information on how to complete the task, “it took me time to learn how to do it but I knew I had support” he said.

Peter Quicke at St Giles Trust

Peter was involved in compiling financial reports and liaising with magistrates associations. He also visited some prisons, including Wandsworth, the biggest prison in Western Europe, to see first hand the work the charity was doing to support people. “It was quite a scary place; it’s very Victorian, with big landings and obviously, lots of security.” But the experience of seeing how the charity worked to support people in prison, brought home to Peter “how much St Giles Trust’s service is needed”.

Hannah is in her final year studying biology and spent last summer working at Friends of the Earth. She was inspired to work at the environmental organisation after studying resource management and global change as part of her degree. “I was supposed to be revising at the time and I happened to have look at the College website and saw Charity Insights. It seemed really interesting and I thought I’d give it a go”, said Hannah.

Having been accepted onto the scheme, Hannah spent much of her time working on a bee conversation campaign called the ‘Bee Cause’. Working to raise awareness of the impact of a dwindling bee population in her local community, Hannah organised an information stall as part of an event in her area. As well as bee conservation, Hannah became involved in work to support renewable wind power developments, liaising with ecologists, people from industry and key community stakeholders about a development in her area. “I’d never done anything like that before but once I got into it, it wasn’t daunting at all.”

The Careers Advisory Service first piloted Charity Insights last summer, with 15 students taking part. The initiative will now take place every year.

Elspeth Farrar, Director of the Careers Advisory Service said: “we were delighted at the success of last year’s Charity Insight Bursary Scheme with the undergraduates and PhDs who took part engaging in some really interesting and challenging projects. Whether or not they decide to continue with a career in the charity sector their summer internships will have given them an opportunity to develop their skills and experience a different working environment. We hope to increase the number of bursaries we are able to offer this coming summer”

For both Hannah and Peter, Charity Insights was an illuminating and challenging experience.  “I would definitely recommend it, said Hannah. “In that month I got so much out of the placement, not just on the biology and ecology side but also in developing organisational skills” she added.  

For Peter it was a chance to work in a different sector to those he had experienced. “Charity Insights does live up to its name. Your insight depends upon who you work for and what you do. The most important thing is to find a charity you’re really passionate about. You’ll fit in much better if you care about it. And you’ll find that everything follows after that.”

As well giving students an opportunity to develop skills and experience working life in the not for profit sector, the initiative  also aims to benefit charities who accept Imperial students, as  Rob Owen, Chief Executive at St Giles Trust explains: “It was a huge help to our organisation to have support. Peter fitted in brilliantly with our very diverse workforce. He took on a huge bit of challenging work that would have taken our senior management team away from their normal workload. We would definitely take another intern from Imperial in the future.”

Applications are now open for students to apply to take part in Charity Insights this summer. To be eligible to apply you must be a current Imperial undergraduate or PhD student who will be continuing your studies at the College in the 2013-14 academic year. The deadline for applications to the scheme closes on 17 May at 12.00.