Ten top tips for running your most successful work experience programme ever

The launch of the Government-funded work experience scheme got me thinking about the many placement schemes I have been involved with and what made some of them both successful and worthwhile. It can be a pain to arrange an internship/talent taster/work experience/incubator, but if you get it right, there are lots of benefits:

• The employees who run the programme will feel satisfaction, they’ll get a chance to manage others, and remind themselves that our business can be fun…
• The intern often becomes useful
• It can be a cost-effective way to feed your talent pipeline

So with that in mind, here are 10 top tips to help you get that from your internship programme, and run your most successful work experience programme ever.

1. Have a clear objective

Whether it is ‘We want to give increased employability to underrepresented talent’ and/or ‘feed our talent pipeline’ and/or ‘get some useful work out of them’ and/or ‘find some AI natives’… be very clear about what it is you are trying to achieve to maximise the chances that you’ll design it correctly.

Be realistic about how long some objectives take. For example, if you want them to be useful, they’ll need to stay longer than a week. Also think about all the knowledge, skills and behaviours you want them to build, e.g. timekeeping, prioritisation, resilience, persuasiveness...and how they can get these, e.g. by shadowing, attending a webinar, rotating between departments, etc.

2. Learn from others

Once you have your objective, take a look at and learn from what other agencies are doing via the IPA’s talent taster page. Famous examples include M&C Saatchi’s seven-week online training programme, BBH’s 10-month creative incubator The Barn and VCCP’s five-day AdSchool.

3. Map out the costs

Work out the costs of what you plan to do, taking account not just the minimum or living wage you’ll pay, but also the amount of time it takes to host them and to work out who to host and any health and safety implications.

You will need to justify the cost to your management. One agency told me recently that they received 400 applications and ran an assessment day for the 30 best, all just to hire two interns. Faster and cheaper is the new Government scheme, which finds you candidates (but only from among those who have been on universal credit for 18 months or more) and covers their minimum wage.

A great way could be to advertise to nearby schools coming into your agency for the IPA Advertising Unlocked 2026. Here is a toolkit of games you can play on assessment days to find out if they have got what it takes!

4. Make sure your application process fits your objective

Again, depending on your objective, you need to have an application process. The Gen Z recruitment app for the creative industries, ERIC, reminded me to make sure the form can be done on a phone! For maximum diversity, some agencies now deliberately don’t ask for any qualifications but instead ask for opinions on how to tackle a problem.

5. Be clear about your expectations

Communicate your objective and your expectations to the successful interns clearly in advance - many young people don’t have a clue about professional environments and take things literally. (Futures For All’s Work Experience Guide notes that if you say to a teenager, ‘we hope you’ll stay til 5.30 pm every day,’ they’ll take it as optional.)

6. You don't need to reinvent the wheel

Involve your interns in any welcome scheme or relevant training you are already doing. This could include briefings from department heads, mandatory GDPR training, agency cultural events such as a Diwali pot roast, lunch and learns and a test/exam of some kind at the end. This will make them pay attention throughout and will help them with their employability because it is a concrete talking point.) The IPA have a host of induction resources and case studies that you can use.

7. Involve your junior staff

Run a session on business etiquette on day one and share a jargon buster with your interns. It is also worth having a staff member nearer their age be hands-on in the programme. It can help your current employees develop and they can also act as a ‘relatable role model’.

8. Kickstart their learning through the IPA

Once they have an agency email, get them to register on the IPA website. It will give them access to hordes of free learning, including the IPA Commercial Essentials Certificate. They can earn a qualification, the agency benefits from their growing knowledge, and they also have something to do when they aren’t being kept busy with agency work.

9. Help them help the agency

Give your interns a project that is useful for the agency, and they can present back at the end of their stay. This could be anything from research into a new trend, a potential new business sector, or comparing AI tools.

10. Ask their opinion

When they finish their time with you, make sure to ask their opinion about how the programme can be better. Youngsters are not held back by years of grinding experience or a prefrontal cortex, so they will doubtless have some refreshing ideas.

Give them positive feedback (growth mindset!) and tell them pathways into employment - reference the IPA Career’s Hub, Discover Creative Careers or ERIC. Brixton Finishing School also has a myriad of in-person and online courses. You will also want to review your intern scheme regularly to check it meets the set objective, for example, ‘are we managing to recruit a diverse cohort?’ or ‘are some of our interns getting permanent positions?’

A bonus tip: here is a handy CIPD checklist for best practice, and please do reach out for any extra advice on entry-level careers.

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and were submitted in accordance with the IPA terms and conditions regarding the uploading and contribution of content to the IPA newsletters, IPA website, or other IPA media, and should not be interpreted as representing the opinion of the IPA.