The transition from education into employment is one of the key challenges for young people with special education needs and learning disabilities.
 
Hereward College’s supported internship programme has been hugely successful over the past decade at securing work placements, which can lead to permanent paid employment.
 
We work with a wide range of employers in a variety of sectors, with our job coaches on site full-time to support interns in the workplace.
 
They include Premier Inn, which five years ago invested in a mini Premier Inn at the college’s Tile Hill campus in Coventry. The perfect replica includes three ensuite bedrooms, a reception area and a housekeeping room, allowing students to practice their skills in a safe and simulated way in preparation for a supported internship.
 
As well as the housekeeping internship at Premier Inn, Hereward also offers a hospitality internship in partnership with Holiday Inn.
 
Meanwhile University of Warwick (in partnership with Project Search and Warwickshire County Council) offers a range of internship roles including customer service, retail, business administration, hospitality and maintenance. For students interested in sport and leisure activities there’s a leisure assistant internship with CV Life, which operates high-quality leisure and culture venues across Coventry, and a maintenance role with Coventry and North Warwickshire Cricket Club.
 
Like Premier Inn, building services industry leader Prism Offsite Manufacturing has invested in the creation of a training facility on the college campus. Opened recently, the mini-engineering workshop offers opportunities to develop skills before starting work experience and potentially paid employment at Prism.
 
Other employer partners include Severn Trent Water, which offers internship programmes with its river rangers and in data analysis and IT, West Midlands Police, with a business administration internship, and childcare at Woodside Nursery.
 
Evtec Automotive, which sources components and turns them into finished assemblies –many of which go into MHEV, PHEV and fully electric vehicles – has been a long-term supporter of the internship programme and also offers short-term work experience placements.
 
Since 2021 it has had 120 work placements with Hereward and 11 interns have gone on to secure paid employment at its Coventry factory.

How supported internships work
 
Supported internships offer an opportunity to gain experience in the workplace within a supported environment. They provide a platform for young people to further develop their skills and experience in a structured way.
 
Students take part in the programme with one of our partner employers and spend up to 30 hours a week in different areas in the workplace to gain valuable experience with the support of an onsite Hereward job coach.
 
Interns spend one day a week in college studying for a City & Guilds Certificate in Employability Skills and can take maths and English qualifications suitable to their level.
 
Our Direct Entry Supported Internship programme enables young people who are not Hereward College students to become interns. All Direct Entry Supported Interns need to be aged 18+ and have an EHCP and will need to take part in an assessment at college to confirm suitability for a work programme.