The UCL NEXT-STEP Experience Internship (NXI) programme matches skilled computer scientists with cutting edge industry-projects.
The NXI is a structured internships programme that matches organisations looking for tech talent and innovative perspectives with skilled and motivated students looking for experience.
The programme builds on the IXN, which started at University College London in 2011, and has now rolled out across 8 universities, providing over 20,000 students with multiple outstanding experiences uniquely matched to their skills and interests.
We work with participating companies to understand project needs, and identify the most talented students to apply for the opportunity. This provides host companies with early sight of the rich talent coming out of UCL degree programmes.
(Case Studies – big company, start up, charity)
- What is the format?
Internships are between 2-8 weeks, over university holidays, and can be voluntary or salaried experiences. These internships provide valuable experience to our students, although paid experiences are the most popular, some firms have unique access that students are looking for.
We group projects into three experience levels: Shadow, Apprentice and Partner levels. These levels are appointed to student candidates by a dedicated University manager, who selects them by motivation, experience factors, grade levels and general professional conduct. Shadow internships do not engage on any live system and are there to observe and assist workflow, provide utilisation and build experimental solutions. Apprentice levels work and contribute to experimental and live solutions with the observed check-ins by the company mentor. Partner level interns are already experienced at developing and testing pre-sign-off solutions. Each of the three levels awards the student with a “Practitioner in training” certificate from the university, for professional conduct and successful completion of the internship.
In all levels, the IP and materials belong to the company unless otherwise agreed with the intern.
- Timelines/process
Internships take place over university holidays.
Internship outlines must be submitted at least 6 weeks before the holiday date.
Internships are set up following the IXN pedagogical approach, which takes into account both the students interests and motivations, and the skills identified as appropriate for the work. Our team is available to discuss proposals and suggest ways to scope the opportunity. We will examine it with you in terms of timescales and complexity to further discuss which cohort would provide the most suitable match.
We will then review the internship outline and identify potential candidates. You will need to sign an agreement with UCL before we introduce you to the students. You will be able to interview them, but you must agree a contract with the selected intern(s) before work begins.
- Costs/resources
The UCL NXI is a matching programme; the contract for the internship is between you and the matched student. You will be expected to apply your own best practice towards the management of the intern(s).
The UCL NXI team will take a “Finders Fee” to cover the administration of the matching process.
Each client should provide a briefing to the intern, and authorise the use of data and methods. We suggest you provide a named technical mentor with the materials and supportive infrastructure required to facilitate the internship from the client side. UCL NXI interns are matched by our unique motivation tracking system and professorial staff who know the candidates.
- How to get involved
If you have an internship opportunity: [Microsoft form]
For the coming year, we especially welcome projects that are interdisciplinary in engineering, from clients all around the world. We will continue to engage with our neighbours far and wide, and to share our experiences of practical and scientific endeavour.
We maintain a vision of long lasting partnerships with strong return on investments for our partners, and we welcome discussions on sponsorship models of varying types to invest in the education of our students.
For further information, please contact [Graham, Graca, Dean, Wei]