How To Make The Most Of An Internship

As the UK’s largest leisure operator and charitable social enterprise, we offer internships for anyone looking to gain experience in our local communities across the UK.

Whether your ambitions lie in leisure, sport, libraries, events & catering, culture, health & beauty, corporate support or working with children, we have internships and training programmes to suit all. It doesn’t matter what your skill level is, or your professional niche – with our programmes, you can develop wider skills and get to learn how all of our teams operate.

In addition to this, we also offer unrivalled and award-winning industry training and development programmes, such as Kickstart, Apprenticeships, Trainee Manager Programmes and sponsored qualifications to enable people to develop a career with us.

In this article, we explore how to make the most of your internship, including general internship advice, internship interview tips, as well as guidance on how to learn and develop during your internship.

Internship Advice and Tips

An internship is a great opportunity to explore a career you’re interested in, gain experience, develop key skills and acquire mentorship under someone already working in your chosen field. Alongside the soft and hard skills you’ll learn on the job, it’s your chance to impress, build your professional network, and develop yourself through training. In some cases, interns can even go on to receive a job offer if they perform well and an opportunity arises.

Here are some of our top tips for interns for succeeding in, and enjoying, an internship :

Set goals for yourself

Much like any other role, it’s important to set yourself goals and to understand what you’ll be expected to achieve during the course of your internship.

This will ensure your work experience remains structured and will mean you’re really making the most of your internship. In the first instance, it’s a good idea to discuss:

The specific skills you want to work on
If there are any projects you can help out with
Where to find resources and support
How your performance will be measured, and how often you’ll catch up with your manager
How to communicate any work-related issues
What training is available to you
What happens after your internship finishes

You might also like to keep notes on where you’re at with your goals, in order to monitor your progress and see where you might need more support or training.

Try to find solutions to issues

It’s only natural that you may come up against some work-related challenges during the course of your internship, as you would in any job. The key is to address them head on, take ownership, and try to find a solution. By explaining the issue to your manager and then offering up a solution, you are showing a mature and professional mindset whereby you not only understand what went wrong, but how you can help the business solve it.

Find a mentor – and ask lots of questions

During your internship, it’s a good idea to find a co-worker that can mentor you. This doesn’t have to be your direct manager, but could be someone whose role interests you, and you’d like to learn more from them. You could shadow this person for a day, allowing you to gain an insight into their role and how they do things. At the very least, be sure to ask lots of questions – from internship advice, to task-related questions, and general career advice.

Network with any new connections

An internship provides a great opportunity to start networking and building up a book of contacts in your desired industry. This could be helpful further down the line, as contacts you meet early on could become mentors, friends, or even employers. Take the time to get to know those you meet through your internship, ideally both inside of and outside of work, and be sure to ask questions about not only the field of work, but any other useful tips and advice they might have.

Take advantage of any training

An internship is a time for learning and soaking up new skills. Don’t be afraid to make the most of any training you’re being offered, or request specific training if you already have something in mind. No matter what comes of your internship, you’ll gain valuable skills and experiences that you can take forward with you in your future career.

Be proactive

Succeeding in, and making the most of your internship is all about being proactive. Whether it be proactively getting ahead with your work, making suggestions or bringing new ideas to your manager, or proactively asking for more training opportunities. Being proactive shows a great attitude, an eagerness to learn, and a passion for your work.

Stay organised and keep track of your work

If there’s one piece of internship advice we can give, it’s that being organised will really help you. Organisation during an internship is really important as it will help you keep projects on-track, as well as help you to manage your time effectively. Be sure to make notes on specific tasks and projects and keep them up to date - that way, you’ll be able to report back to colleagues when required, as well as have a record of your progress.

Join us with an internship at Better UK

To do an internship programme with Better UK, you don’t need any specific qualifications - just be sure to highlight any relevant skills and experience you may have in your intern application, and let us know why you’d love to join us.

If you’re interested in learning more or would like to apply for an internship or training programme with us, check out our current openings for graduates, and apprentices below.

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