Preparing to host an intern in Scotland
Partnering with Career Ready
Thank you for your continued support in helping Scotland’s young people to develop their skills, confidence and career ambitions.
This guidance outlines the key steps for delivering a four week paid internship in summer 2026.
Key dates:
Internship start dates:
Monday 22 June – Friday 17 July 2026: East Lothian, Midlothian, Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian.
Monday 29 June – Friday 24 July: Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Fife, Inverclyde, Moray, Perth & Kinross, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire
By 13 March 2026
By 31 March 2026
Preparing to host an intern in Scotland
Partnering with Career Ready
Partnering with Career Ready
Thank you for your tremendous commitment to supporting Scotland’s young talent at a time when young people really need support to develop and flourish.
We have prepared this guidance to support you in the delivery of your four-week paid internship(s).
Key dates:
Internship start dates:
Monday 22 June – Friday 17 July 2026: East Lothian, Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian.
Monday 29 June – Friday 24 July 2026: Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Fife, Inverclyde, Moray, Perth & Kinross, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire
By 8 March (as soon as possible if you haven’t already completed)
By end March 2024 (as soon as possible if you haven’t already completed)
Key milestones & actions
Any unavoidable variation to internship start/end dates has implications which must be discussed with your Career Ready Regional Manager.
Please ensure the actions starting with the green icon (🟢) are completed by the date specified. supporting information for all aspects of the internships can be found in the ‘everything you need to know’ section.
ACTIONS TO COMPLETE
🟢 13 March – Submit the Employer onboarding and Health & Safety requirements for internships form (ensures Local Authority Health & Safety checks can commence)
🟢 By 31 March – Internship job description is visible on employer portal. You may update it at any time, but young people are not automatically notified. Please communicate any changes directly to young people and mentors.
🟢 By 31 March – Share your onboarding requirements with young people and mentors, using the Employer Checklist for Internship Onboarding & Planning.
We know that onboarding is better enabled when a mentor supports their young person to collate the information required. Please schedule time with young people and your mentors to explain what onboarding information and processes will be required before the end of March 2026.
Easter holidays begin 27 March – 21 April 2026, followed by exams from 22 April to 2 June 2026.
🟢 26 Feb, 3 and 5 March – Employer led onboarding conversation. Join a short virtual session to hear from employers about what works best when onboarding young people to internships. Ideal for employers new to Career Ready internships, or anyone looking for practical tips to improve pre-employment processes.
Date: Thursday 26 February, Tuesday 3 March, Thursday 5 March
Time: 4pm – 4.45pm
- Use this link to join the meeting through Teams
- Meeting ID: 323 136 487 411 27
- Passcode: rT9ax7E2
During this period:
- Finalise onboarding & payroll
- Confirm logistics (travel, induction, equipment)
- Maintain regular communication with your student(s)young people and you’re your mentor(s)
- Local Authorities will carry out H&S checks and visits as required
ACTIONS TO COMPLETE
🟢 Internship week 1: First week check-in by school staff
🟢 Internship week 4: Final week student presentations
Everything you need to know
The following guidance has been prepared to help support you in the delivery of your four-week paid internship(s). Thank you to all of you who have worked with us to shape this.
The session will include guidance on preparing for and supporting a positive, productive, and valuable internship experience for young people, your people, and your organisation.
Dates: Every Thursday from 19 March 2026.
Time: 4pm-4.45pm
The joining link for each session is the same:
We’ll add a link to sign up and join these sessions (on Teams) soon.
Ronnie’s internship with CBRE helped her develop new confidence and communication skills:
Ola and Mentor Erin share their experience of Career Ready in this video from our partners, the Student Loans Company:
We’ve produced examples of projects and workload suggestions from employers who have delivered Career Ready internships:
The Employer Checklist for Internship Onboarding & Planning is designed to support you in planning your internship and communicating arrangements with your student(s) and mentor(s).
Working hours
Working hours regulation states that under 18s cannot work more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week. Further guidance can be found on the ACAS website.
We anticipate that internships will follow your organisation’s working day, taking account of working hours regulations for under 18s. We recommend a mix of participating in meetings and delivering tasks and projects.
Career Ready is committed to the safeguarding of young people and keeping them safe from harm. Please take the time to read our guidance on Safeguarding on pages 10 & 11 of the Internship Handbook. We will also cover in our internship planning sessions.
Code of good practice
One-to-one working
When meeting face to face in the workplace, plan for this to take place in an open environment within sight of others. Be mindful of an individual’s one to one workload. Involve other colleagues or have interns work in small groups instead of one to one where possible.
When meeting one-to-one virtually, ensure you are both in an open environment / space, with no closed doors.
Virtual meetings should be conducted via an appropriate platform e.g Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Facetime, taking into account any Career Ready, School, Local Authority or employer guidance.
Please note: Most Local Authorities will not permit the use of Zoom on Local Authority provided devices (which many young people have). If you use Zoom you may have to provide a device for the young person to access Zoom. Microsoft Teams is the platform used by most schools (not all).
For online group sessions, please ensure meetings are secure and that waiting room/lobby functionality is utilised to ensure attendees are as anticipated.
Never travel alone in a private vehicle with a young person. Always make sure there are at least three people travelling together, two of whom are adults. Try to make use of public transport as much as possible. Remember that young people are entitled to free bus travel.
Further good practice
- Treat everyone fairly. Don’tshow favouritism – every young person deserves equal respect.
- Respect privacy. Everyone has a right to keep personal things private.
- Listen. Make space for young people to share any worries or concerns.
- Stay professional. Don’tget involved in behaviour that’s inappropriate or just attention-seeking.
- Use respectful language and actions. Avoid anything that could be seen as rude, offensive, or inappropriate.
- Keep it safe. Never make suggestive jokes or comments – even if you thinkit’s just for fun.
- Think about how things might look. Even well-meaning actions can be misunderstood, so always be mindful.
- Don’tignore bullying or harmful behaviour. Speak up and take it seriously.
- Keep boundaries clear. Don’tform relationships that could break trust or cross professional lines
What to do if you suspect any harm to the welfare of a young person
If a young person confides in you or if a complaint is made about any adult or about yourself, it is your duty to report the concern as soon as you are able. DO NOT let allegations, suspicions, or concerns go unreported. In such cases:
- Allow the young person to speak without interruption; accept what is said.
- Offer immediate understanding and reassurance; pass no judgement.
- Advise that you will try to offer support but that you must pass the information on – you cannot promise confidentiality.
- Immediately contact the young person’s school coordinator or, if school holidays have already started, your Career Ready Regional Manager who will have emergency contact details for the Local Authority safeguarding contact.
- Write careful notes of what you witnessed, heard or were told. Use the actual words where possible.
- Sign, date and pass your notes to the young person’s Career Ready school coordinator / Local Authority or Career Ready Safeguarding contact via an email marked confidential (the school coordinator may ask you to send this to the nominated “safe from harm” person where this is not them).
- Make a written note of when this information was reported and to whom it was given.
- Notify your manager that an issue has arisen but do not disclose the nature.
- Try to ensure no one is placed in a position that could cause further concern or compromise.
- For urgent safeguarding concerns please contact Janine.mcfarland@careerready.org.uk or via mobile 07717281930
This is based on the 2026 minimum wage for under 18s of £8.00 per hour, calculated at 35 hours per week over four weeks.
Payment is made directly from the employer to the young person.
Where an employer has a Real Living Wage Policy, that rate should be applied.
Using the current Real Living Wage of £13.45 per hour, a young person working 35 hours per week for four weeks would receive £1,883.
To minimise complications relating to differing work patterns, and to ensure fairness, we kindly request that employers maintain a minimum internship payment of £1,120 for any young person (based on the 2026 statutory under 18 minimum wage of £8.00 per hour for 35 hours per week for four weeks).
In very exceptional circumstances, Career Ready can manage payroll on your behalf. We charge an administration fee of £165 + VAT per young person.
All employment is directly between you and the young person and is not subcontracted to Career Ready.
2026 Pay Rates (effective 1 April 2026)
| Real Living Wage (outside London)* | National Living Wage** | 18-20 Year Old Minimum Wage Rate** | 16-17 Year Old Minimum Wage Rate** | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | £13.45 | £12.71 | £10.85 | £8.00 |
| Pay for four weeks (35 hrs / wk) | £1,883 | £1,779.40 | £1,519 | £1,120 |
Sources:
– UK Government & Low Pay Commission confirmed 2026 rates (April 2026 implementation)
– Real Living Wage from the Living Wage Foundation
We will contact your organisation’s internship point of contact at the beginning of March 2026 to ensure they can access the Employer Portal and review your prefilled internship job description. This can be edited as needed, with guidance available in the Employer Portal Guidance.
If you update the job description, please notify us at Scotland.enquiries@careerready.org.uk, as changes are not automatically flagged. Young people are also not automatically notified, so please share any updates directly with young people and your mentor(s). Internship start and end dates must not be changed without discussion with your Career Ready Regional Manager.
Your job description helps young people understand the role, tasks, and key skills they will develop. A PDF version has already been shared with young people, schools and mentors. Please also use the Employer Checklist for Internship Onboarding & Planning to support your communications with young people and your mentor(s).
The information you provide in the Internship Onboarding and Health & Safety Form (emailed in February and due Friday 13 March 2026) is essential for Local Authority Health & Safety checks. After submitting the form, your nominated H&S contact may be contacted by the Local Authority team if further checks are required, depending on your organisation’s location, recency of checks, and the nature of work the intern will undertake.
Please share the Internship Handbook with your supervisors/line managers as soon as it becomes available. They play a key role in shaping a positive, meaningful internship experience — and for many, it’s a great development opportunity.
Many employers also assign a day to day buddy, giving the intern a friendly “go to” person for quick questions and support.
Once you’ve identified your supervisors/line managers, please ensure they’re briefed on how to:
- Welcome and induct the intern, providing all necessary resources
- Set clear learning goals together
- Prepare colleagues to support the intern’s experience
- Give regular feedback and check progress
- Help the young person prepare their endofinternship presentation
Please share details of our internship planning sessions with your identified line mangers, which will cover their role and expectations within the Career Ready programme.
Young people end their internship by giving a short presentation about what they’ve learned, the skills they’ve developed, and the contribution they’ve made. It’s also a great way for your organisation to gather feedback and highlight the impact you’ve had on a young person.
Some employers choose to extend employment with an intern, but this is entirely optional and at the employer’s discretion.
Young people will also share their internship experience at a Celebration of Success event when they return to school, which helps them reconnect with their mentor after the summer.
As a Career Ready ambassador, we’d love you to celebrate your involvement — whether through internal newsletters, intranets, press releases, networking conversations, or on social media (tag @CareerReadyUK so we can share your posts too). Use our celebrating your internships guide for tips.
A reference from your organisation, along with support to update their CV for college, UCAS, apprenticeships or job applications, is hugely appreciated and can be refined further with their mentor.
We will send a feedback survey to you and your internship supervisors/line managers. Feedback previous years’ internships has already helped shape the programme for this year.
Resource library
FAQs
The young people on the Career Ready programme undertake the internship in the summer between S5 and S6 and are aged 16/17 years old. After the internship students will return to S6 at school or, for some, move into work or onto college.
Each young person should have a line manager (who may also be their mentor) as their main point of contact throughout the internship. The exact remit will depend on how your organisation structures the internship — for example, whether you work closely with the young person each day or they move between departments.
It can also be helpful to assign a team ‘buddy’. This may be someone early in their career who may have recently been through education themselves, as this can support their development while offering the young person an additional informal support contact.
The Real Living Wage is a voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation. Accredited employers must pay all directly employed staff the Real Living Wage and have a plan to extend this to regular subcontracted staff. (£13.45 per hour from 1 April 2026)
The National Living Wage is the UK Government’s statutory minimum for workers aged 21 and over (with National Minimum Wage rates applying to those aged 16–20). It is separate from the Real Living Wage, which is calculated independently. (£12.71 per hour from 1 April 2026)
Career Ready is committed to the safeguarding of young people, in line with our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy published on our website. For further information on our safeguarding principles for internships see pages 10 and 11 of the internship handbook.
During the first week of the internship school coordinators will be in school and are the best first point of contact for any concerns around student attendance. For the remainder of the internship once schools have closed for summer, please contact your Career Ready Regional Manager, or Local Authority Coordinator (contact details for whom are shared at the internship supervisor briefing).
For a four week internship, statutory holiday accrual is two days based on a five day / 35 hour week. If a young person works fewer hours, holiday accrual is pro-rata and may be absorbed into their reduced hours arrangement.
The internship dates are carefully planned to ensure young people can be supported by their school in the first few days before summer holidays begin, and families commit to keeping these dates free.
Any changes to the planned start or end dates cannot be guaranteed and would require the employer to manage all associated arrangements.
Young people return to school from 13 August 2025.
An internship gives a young person the chance to experience your workplace. If your organisation works in a hybrid way, some remote time is possible.
However, to give young people the best chance of success and to fully immerse them in the working environment, we ask that most of their time is spent in the workplace.
