From 2026/27 entry, every University of Kent undergraduate will have access to a meaningful work-based internship, or equivalent work experience opportunity, during their studies. This will be available for postgraduate students for 2027/28 entry
These opportunities will give you the chance to:
Many of these opportunities will be delivered as flexible virtual projects, making them accessible alongside your studies and other commitments and will ordinarily take place in either your second or third year of study.
You'll receive dedicated support to explore transformational opportunities that can enhance your degree and your future prospects.
These may include:
These experiences can help you develop independence, confidence, cultural awareness, professional skills, and valuable industry experience.
Our goal is to ensure every graduate leaves university with the knowledge, skills, experiences, and confidence to succeed in their chosen future. Throughout your time at Kent, you'll have access to support from the Careers and Employability team, including:
The internship programme is being launched from September 2027, and will take some time to be able to meet the needs of all students. This means that the programme will not be up and running before then. We will, however, be able to offer a large number of internships in 2026/27, and these will be made available to current students, prioritising those who started before 2026/27. We anticipate making up to 2,000 internships available in the academic year 2026/27 - details of how to access these will be made available soon
Internships will be available from a wide range of businesses and sectors. It is not possible to provide a full list of organisations, and the list will change from year to year. What we can promise is that the internship will be meaningful, and provide you with a great experience you can add to your CV.
The Kent Employability Promise is the University's commitment to ensuring every student has access to meaningful opportunities to develop the skills, experiences and confidence needed to succeed after graduation. It brings together guaranteed work experience opportunities, career-ready learning within courses, and support to undertake transformational experiences such as placements and study abroad.
Graduate employers increasingly look for candidates who can demonstrate practical experience alongside academic achievement. The Promise helps ensure all Kent students can access opportunities that develop employability skills, workplace experience and professional confidence.
The full offer is expected to be available from the 2027/28 academic year. A pilot programme will run during 2026/27.
The University will guarantee every eligible student access to a work-based internship or equivalent work experience opportunity during their studies. This could be through a placement year, through an internship in-person, or through a virtual internship with a trusted organisation.
We are rolling the Kent Employability Promise out over the next couple of years. It applies to undergraduates starting in 2026/27, and to Postgraduate Taught students from 2027/28
No, the guaranteed internships are an exciting offer being made available to students to help develop employability skills and build your CV. If you already have a great CV, have access to other opportunities, or would rather not do an internship, then you do not have to.
All work experience/internships will be with a real employer, working with you and giving feedback on your work. Some will be delivered in person, and some will be delivered online. Most opportunities will involve employer-led projects where students work on real-world challenges and gain practical workplace experience.
Students will be presented with a range of options, including group internships or solo internships. We will try to accommodate preferences where possible, but regardless of the type, you will have exciting opportunities to develop skills, and experiences that will help build your CV.
There will be a range of options available, and more details will be released closer to the time. We understand is that students have many demands on their time alongside studies, and we want to ensure we are not exacerbating disadvantage. This means that there will be flexible opportunities available, delivered online, part-time, as well as more intensive options. Our ambition is that whoever you are, there will be an internship that will benefit you.
There may well be some paid options available, but the majority of the internships will be for gaining experience rather than gaining financially. We understand that finances are a challenging factor in being a student, which is why we are providing part-time, online, and flexible options, to enable as many students to participate as possible.
We will do everything we can to make the internships as relevant and useful to you as possible. This means that we will have a wide range of opportunities available, but we cannot always guarantee an exact match with your career ambitions. We are also unable to guarantee specific companies. Regardless of sector or company, you will have the opportunity to develop skills that employers seek, and build something truly meaningful for your CV - and this is the ambition of the Kent Employability Promise.
Every undergraduate programme will provide at least 100 hours of structured employability-related and industry-informed activity throughout the degree. How this is delivered will be subject and context specific, but you could expect to see things like employers in the curriculum, authentic assessment that tests you through real-world scenarios, teaching based in the realities of the world of work with theories contextualised to make them accessible and relatable when you are applying for jobs, or the use of industry-standard equipment or software, preparing you for the world of work.
No. This commitment is about ensuring the relevancy of your degree to the world of work, and so much of this activity will be within Kent programmes, integrated into teaching, learning and assessment.
