By Anna & Edie

Are you looking to explore your future beyond university? Are placement applications approaching, or are you looking to enhance your CV with grad applications around the corner? We’ve got you covered! This is the University of Bath’s best kept secret to exploring your future dream job, gaining confidence in real business situations, and learning new skills outside the classroom– all while getting paid for your hard work.

We are Edie and Anna, 2023 graduates of the University of Bath and the co-founders of Edie.One, digital marketing with a personal touch. We worked with the Enterprise team to create an IKEEP internship opportunity for students at our company during our final year of university. We will answer all of your questions from what IKEEP is about, to how you can apply as a business or a student intern.

Let's get started!

What is the IKEEP programme?

The University of Bath’s Enterprise team (part of the SETSquared) runs an internship programme (known as IKEEP) every semester, where students like yourself have the opportunity to apply for real-life internships (with companies partnering with SETSquared, to student and graduate start-ups) to explore your life’s calling. This is an opportunity for businesses to get support from young and driven students to work on a new or existing project in their company, with the support of the University's funding to reward students for their commitment and contribution. Why’s this project worthwhile? Other than gaining valuable industry skills and building your CV, this is your chance to cash in £450 after successfully completing your IKEEP project! What’s not to love?

The first semester of projects begin shortly, on 25th October 2023, and the placement opportunity runs from 12th February to 8th March 2024. Make sure to sign up ASAP and don’t miss out!

What kind of internships can you apply for?

In our experience, as a marketing start-up, we offered marketing internships; however, this can range from business to business. You choose your top businesses and projects and are matched according to your skills and interests. The IKEEP programme enabled us to offer internships to three University of Bath students at our company, Edie.One, during term-time. The students helped us analyse our target market, understand the problem presented to our audience (UK SMEs) and uncover how we could provide a solution. If you don’t have your own business, you can get involved by signing up as an intern and working with start-ups to gain first-hand entrepreneurial experience (links at the end of this article!).

What was our experience as business owners running the internship?

As university students running our own business during our final year of studies, we saw IKEEP as an incredible opportunity to provide opportunities to students who were excited about working with us, while enabling our business to develop through the support of our interns. When we were designing our internship, the most important aspect was that the work had purpose, created value and the students could create impact for Edie.One.

Our internship was focused on uncovering our ideal target client, so that we could niche our expertise and work towards attracting a specific type of clients. The students completed a mix of independent and team work, dividing tasks between themselves. This included desk work, such as researching different industries to size up their relevance for Edie.One, and hands-on work, such as approaching local Bath businesses in-person with a tailored questionnaire to determine their fit for Edie.One. The students then worked as a team to qualify and present their findings on the various industries, helping us to guide our next business steps.

We met our interns three times a week, once in person and twice online. Meeting frequency was agreed between us and the students, at times that worked with our different schedules. The students then could choose how and when they worked, so long as they completed the tasks by the dates set out in our roadmap. For us, it was important that the students felt they could ask questions, learn and build confidence, so we worked hard to create this environment for them.

What were the students’ experiences working with Edie.One on the IKEEP Internship Programme?

We aren’t in a position to speak for our excellent students, so take it from them. Here’s what they had to say:

Hannah, second year International Management Student and 2022 Edie.One Intern, shares her favourite part of working with Edie.One on the IKEEP internship: “communicating and learning from local businesses understanding their passion for serving the community”

Dan, first year Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Student and 2022 Edie.One intern shares his favoruite part of the IKEEP internship: “I've thoroughly enjoyed learning and developing my skills in a domain that is very different from my degree (business and management) but have loved the fact I've been able to bring in the tech skills I do have to consolidate and enhance these other, newer skills.”

As a result of their achievements and success with the internship programme, we were so impressed with their work that even to this day, we work with one of our IKEEP interns (now as a freelancer) as we continue to grow our business.

Wrapping it Up

Discovering and being involved in IKEEP in our final year of University was like finding a goldmine. The legacy of this internship still carries into the work we do today. If you want to create impact and value, while exploring your curiosities and gaining experience, make sure to sign up for semester one’s first round of internships!

If you’re a student looking to apply for a role, apply here. If you’re a business looking to offer an internship, apply here.

If you’d like to ask us more questions about our personal experience or are just curious about following our journey, we’d love to connect!

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A big thank you to Edie and Anna for their valuable contributions to this blog! Your assistance is greatly appreciated. 🙏✨

IKEEP - The University’s Paid Internship Opportunity