Our interns are a mixture of undergraduate students, postgraduate students and recent graduates. Their aim is to gain real-world experience in their sector of interest, develop new skills and put their theoretical knowledge into practice.

The programme is free for interns and there are no restrictions on nationality or a student’s subject of study. This inclusive approach means that we can conduct a competitive application process and recruit interns based on their motivation and ability.

We have worked closely with a large number of universities for over 12 years, primarily in the UK, Mainland Europe, North America and Australasia. Most of our applicants are students or recent graduates from universities in these countries/regions.

We run flexible start dates for online internships all year round. However, we have more interns available from June to September and from November to February.

Our minimum internship duration is 160 hours. The internship schedule is flexible to fit both your business and your interns. Some example internship schedules could be:

Full-time internship – 35 hours/week for 6 weeks. This could work well for a more intense project and fit in with a student’s summer or Easter break, or immediately after graduation.

Full-time Internship – 25 hours/week for 8 to 12 weeks. These weekly hours might allow for a small amount of part-time work or light study alongside a student’s internship.

Part-time Internship – 10 to 20 hours/week for 12 weeks. This format fits perfectly into one academic semester, allowing students to align the internship with their studies.

If you are at all concerned about the feasibility of hosting interns, please contact us.

We established this online internship programme to give companies of all types, sizes and locations access to our interns. In the past we have worked with startups, SMEs, national and multinational organisations, as well as public-sector organisations and NGOs. Some of our partners have one intern at any time, some have 3-4 across various departments.

To host in-person interns in your offices, you will need to have free desk space and staff located in one of the following cities: Berlin, Chengdu, Ho Chi Minh City, Lisbon, Madrid, Manchester, Mexico City, Paris, Taipei, Qingdao OR Zhuhai.

We continue to offer our in-person internship programmes in these cities free-of-charge as part of our university-funded programmes from June to August and November to January.

If you would like to upgrade to hire online interns as well, we would love to talk to you about this option!

Amazing! This is the perfect outcome for us, the intern and their university. We do not charge any recruitment fees in this scenario. We’ll celebrate with you each time you hire a graduate as a result of our internship programme.

Many members use the internship as a trial period for potential new hires.

Internships of 2 months (full-time) or 4 months (part-time) are expected to be unpaid. Many of the interns will be undertaking these internships as an accredited part of their university course. However, we highly encourage any bonuses or internship stipends that can be offered. It is important that interns who feel valued for the work they put in.

Full time internships that last longer than 3 months should be paid to the equivalent of a local graduate salary in your global location.

Interns work using their own laptops. The key considerations for your business in relation to your interns are:

• Purchase any necessary software that is needed for the role, which the intern does not already own.
• Provide a safe office or online working environment for your intern.
• Include your intern in your business’ professional environment and give them a platform to experience what life is like in your business day-to-day.
• Provide a suitable onboarding and regular feedback for your intern.
• Find a balance between generating positive outcomes for your business and giving interns a platform to put skills into practice and learn new things.

The cost of working with us are clear:

• No membership fee – our programmes are primarily funded by government student mobility funding or by our university partners
• Any salaries paid to longer-term interns (see ‘how much should I pay my interns?’ above)
• Any specialist software needed for your interns to complete their daily work for your business

You will receive an email from your Pagoda account manager outlining the next steps.

The Placements Team at Pagoda will contact you with any suitable CVs to consider.

You can contact us at any point to change or update the tasks and position descriptions if your intern needs change.

Yes, for the in-person internship programme we do expect you to provide a desk and any other necessary equipment for the intern in your office or co-working space.

However, for the online internship programme, this is not necessary. Interns are expected to work from home or from university using their own computer.

Online Internships

We sign a programme agreement with each interns, so this is not strictly necessary unless you prefer to sign one for your own internal processes. However, we do encourage you to sing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with any interns that will be handling sensitive data, Intellectual Property or client information. If you need any help with this, please let us know.

In-person Internships

Yes, for many reasons having an internship contract in place will be important for interns who are working in your offices. We will explain this process when the time comes.

The internship programme start dates are usually decided by the intern’s university who are funding the programme. This means that it can be difficult to change the internship start and end dates.

If you have a problem with the internship dates, please let us know.

You decide. It is best to discuss the intern’s time zone and availability during the interview process. You can explain how communication works and what meetings you will need the interns to attend.

We find it works best to set clear working hours from the beginning of the internship. These can always be adapted later on.

Careful planning and discussion of working hours, meetings and feedback sessions before the start of the internship can solve this problem.

If you have a project that the intern can work on autonomously and clearly set our your expectations from the beginning, the time difference can in fact become an asset. Feel free to book a call with us at any point to discuss possible projects that might work well in these situations.

There are many projects that online interns can contribute to, particularly when it comes to things like research and market exploration.

Having online interns also gives you greater flexibility and reduces the strain on office space.

No, we often have part-time interns available. Part-time interns may be available for longer periods of time if they are completing the internship alongside their studies.

Yes, please be aware that we always try to secure each candidate two interviews if possible. This is an important for the intern’s personal development and experience. We are also aware that a candidate is not likely to be accepted by every company.

It helps to provide the intern(s) with a clear outline of their project and tasks before the internship begins. Feel free to ask the intern(s) to research or read up on certain topics so they are prepared when the internship begins.

Inform the intern(s) when their weekly intern-supervisor check-in meeting will take place. Also mention any weekly calls or team meetings that will need to join.

Yes! We often find that interns work well together if whether they are working on similar or completely different projects.