Supported Internships

Why are Supported Internships Important?

East Durham College is committed to improving the everyday lives of disabled people. We have high aspirations and ambitions for all our learners, no matter what their special educational needs or disability, to be able to reach their full potential and receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

Supported Internships are a great opportunity to improve the life chances of young people with SEND, by supporting them into paid sustained employment.

Achieving paid employment not only brings the young person to financial independence, but it is also key to:

Building confidence and self-esteem increasing health and well-being
Gaining friendships and social experiences
You will be benefiting the local economy. employers, community and wider society.

What is a Supported Internship?

A supported internship is a study programme aimed at young people, aged between 16 to 24, who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and would like to move into employment but may need extra support to do so.

The overwhelming majority of young people with SEND are capable of sustainable employment. Supported Internships are aimed to equip learners with the skills and experience to achieve employment after college.

Our programme includes maths, English and career development skills which are tailored to the young person to remove any barriers to employment, along with a work placement with an employer.

The supported internship is for learners who are at the end of their educational journey and ready to move into employment with support. On completion of the supported internship, your EHCP will usually cease.

Supported Intern working in garden centre

What a Supported Internship Can Do for a Young Person

The aim of a supported internship is to help young people to achieve future employment.

The supported internship will support learners to understand what it’s like to have a real job role and what the employer expects from them.
A job coach from the college will support the learner throughout their work experience placement.
They will help identify any reasonable adjustments that the employer may need to make. Students can contact them at any time if you have any issues during their time at work.
It will help break down any barriers learners have to gaining employment, such as travelling independently, managing their own money, etc.
It will give learners valuable skills and experience to put on their CV.
And improve those all important maths and English skills employers value so highly.

Tom Allen's Internship at Locomotion, Shildon

Check out the video below.

Northumbrian Water Supported Internships

EDC and Northumbrian Water have been working closely together to offer a wide variety of fantastic opportunities for young people with SEND.

In this video, Northumbrian Water's interns showcase what they get up to at work!

Typical Week for Students Completing a Supported Internship

Students on a supported internship can expect to generally do the following during the week:

The Supported Internship will start at two days per week building up to three days per week.
In addition, students will attend maths, English and employability lessons for one day per week at college
Supported internships last for a minimum of 36 weeks
Supported internships are unpaid. However, after successful completion the employer may take the learner on as a paid employee. Otherwise, they can provide a reference and the learner will be in a much better position to find paid work elsewhere

If you would like more details on the supported internship programme, our specialist staff are on hand to guide you through every stage of the process.

Check out our Supported Internship Programme Brochure - A guide for learners, parents and carers >>

To discuss more details, please call Lauren Carr, the College’s Supported Internship Coordinator, on 0191 375 4768 or email lauren.carr@eastdurham.ac.uk.

Employer Information

Two young male students in a garden centre, one pushing a trolley of plants, the other carrying plants

Are You a Local Employer? Work with EDC to Help Deliver Supported Internships and Change a Young Person's Life!

At East Durham College, we are always looking to work closely with local employers who can help us deliver supported internships.

With your support, you could help a young person to grow and adapt to the world of work. The overall aims of supported internships are:

To achieve sustainable paid employment for the intern is the key aim of a supported internship.
To support the intern to develop the skills valued by employers and to enable them to demonstrate their value in the workplace.
To develop the intern’s confidence in their own abilities to perform successfully at work
To build up their experience for a CV, demonstrating that the young person has the skills and willingness to work.
To change the perception of employers about employing people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
To change the perception of the young person’s family, demonstrating that they can work
To improve the intern’s skills in English and maths, ensuring the young person is better prepared for the world of work, gaining skills such as handling money, interacting with the public and practising interview skill.
To help the young person become a confident independent traveller who can commute to work.

Employer Partners

The college has already partnered with several prestigious organisations to help provide these amazing opportunities to our students. These include:

Northumbria Water
Locomotion: Shildon
Radisson Hotel, Durham

The Radisson has recently offered a permanent position to their EDC supported intern, so impressed they were with him.

What is an Education Health Care Plan (ECHP)?

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) describes a child or young person’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) and identifies educational, health and social needs as well as setting out the additional support required to meet those needs.

An EHCP also includes any health and care provision that is needed. It is a legal document, written by the local authority, and is intended to ensure that children and young people (up to the age of 25) with an EHCP receive the support they need.

This will also include any career aspirations, goals and ambitions the person may wish to achieve in the future. EHCPs are for children and young people who have a special educational need or disability that cannot be met by the standard support that is available at their school or college.

Benefits to Employers Taking on Supported Interns

There are many reasons why you could consider supporting a young person with an internship programme, including:

Supported internships are high on the Government's agenda.
Building confidence in appropriate language and supporting disabled customers and employees.
By offering a Supported Internship employers can become a Disability Confident employer.
Disability Awareness Training to help build confidence and understanding.
Access to a suite of online learning materials including Understanding Autism Level 2 & Level 3.
Ongoing support and advice from the College on diverse recruitment.
The purple pound is the spending power of disabled people and their families. The purple pound is worth £212 billion per year in the UK. By offering a Supported Internship employers will gain insight into ways to engage with disabled clients/customers. Research indicates that organisations are losing an estimated £2 billion due to accessibility of their services.
In-work training provided by job coach.
It acts as an extended working interview which gives you an increased chance of getting the right person for the job.
Contribution to society and helps meet a business’s corporate responsibility.
Helps with achieving equality and diversity targets.
Improved staff retention (evidence of lower staff turnover amongst people with a disability).
Potential supervisory or mentoring opportunities for junior staff which can improve motivation and morale.
Your competition is offering internships!

Induction & Settling In

It is important for an intern to be offered an induction to the workplace and for the job coach to negotiate with the employer some form of settling in period, where both intern and employer are offered extensive support.

It is often appropriate to begin the induction period before an intern formally starts in their role.

Useful activities can include:

A visit by the intern with a job coach to show them around the work environment
Face-to-face meetings between the employer, college staff and job coach to discuss the structure of the programme and the needs of the individual intern (with or without the intern present)
The intern to attend the workplace to shadow a colleague in a similar job role for one or two day
Induction might also include an employer’s standard induction processes for all staff, with the job coach adjusting elements to ensure accessibility and/or providing additional information.

Training Needs Analysis and Role of the Job Coach

The job coach will work very closely with both the employer and the intern during the initial training period. In particular, the job coach will need to understand the tasks and responsibilities of the intern’s role and the standards expected.

The job coach may then support the intern through a training programme led either by the employer, or in discussion with the employer, or undertake the training requirements themselves and devise an approach to deliver the training to match both the employer’s needs and the intern’s preferred learning style.

Cross-referencing the information about the job, gained from job analysis, with details about the learner’s abilities, which are acquired through vocational profiling, gives the job coach an idea of the skills gap they will need to address during the internship placement.

As the young person adjusts to a new environment and new responsibilities, ‘teething problems’ may occur (e.g. an intern struggling with punctuality or wearing the incorrect clothing). During this period, the job coach may need to apply their negotiation skills to ensure that the employer allows the intern the time required to adapt to the job role, whilst impressing on the intern the need to meet the basic requirements of the role and supporting them to do so within agreed timescales.

Whilst determining any reasonable adjustments needed, is likely to be a factor at the job matching stage, in the first few weeks of a placement, that the job coach may need to provide the employer with support in implementing these adjustments in a way that works for both intern and employer. This initial period in the workplace also provides an opportunity for the job coach to support the intern’s colleagues and line manager to understand the specific needs and abilities of the intern.

Working in Partnership with EDC