Careers and Employability Service

How to Develop your Skills at Home

Virtual Internships and Experiences

What is a virtual internship?

Virtual internships are flexible, online opportunities, giving you the opportunity to undertake remote experience. Many virtual internships exist in the fields of IT, sales, journalism, marketing, and software development.

Some employers will give you project work/tasks to complete over a period of time, and you may have regular catch-ups and support from the employer during your virtual internship.

Depending on the sector and nature of the role, you may not be able to undertake all the elements of a real internship, due to client / patient confidentiality. For example, handling client casefiles for a law firm. However, you are still able to experience some of the work of a trainee and the function of the business.
https://www.indeed.co.uk/Internship-Remote-Working-jobs - Indeed advertises remote internships

University of Kent Virtual Experiences brought to you by Forage

A number of experiences you can apply for in different sectors. Find out more

Bright Network

Bright Network run virtual internships each year, find out more.

Applications are now open for Internship Experience UK,which is taking place on 20-22 June.

Created to help you explore a new sector and upskill, this is the no.1 virtual internship experience to supercharge your CV ahead of the autumn application season. Better yet, you’ll also be able to hear from top employers who have renowned internship, placement and graduate programmes and ask them your questions on how to secure a role.

What is Internship Experience UK?

Internship Experience UK is a three-day virtual internship programme which takes place every summer – each year is a completely new programme designed to support you with your career. So far, over 140,000 students and graduates have taken part and reaped the rewards of spending a few days of their summer with the world’s top employers. 10,000 of them have even secured roles with the firms they met on the experience. Now it’s your turn!

You can join any one of the following streams, with no experience or prior knowledge required:

  • Business, Operations & Marketing
  • Commercial Law
  • Financial Services & Consulting
  • Investment Banking & Asset Management
  • Public Sector, Policy & Charity
  • Technology
Can’t make the live experiences or want to take more than one stream? You can always catch up and take multiple streams with Internship Experience UK On-Demand.

Rate my Placement: Work Ready Virtual Experience

RateMyPlacement.co.uk has teamed up with Inside Sherpa and Development Beyond Learning (DBL), to launch a FREE work ready virtual experience. The work ready virtual experience consists of three modules. Each one allows you to build specific skills that translate into the workplace - Wellbeing and resilience under lockdown, virtual first impressions and remote networking.
https://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/blog/work-ready-virtual-experience-free/

Online Courses

Study Plus We offer free courses through Study Plus! Offering a variety of online workshops, covering a range of topics, including: meditation, resilience, project management and photography! View courses and book via Target Connect: https://careers.kent.ac.uk/

Resources provided by MTD Training

Over the years, The MTD Training Group have provided several courses as part of the employability points programmes.

These have included Management Training Courses(https://www.mtdtraining.com/), Sales Training Courses (https://www.mtdsalestraining.com/) and also access to an Online Learning Platform(https://www.skillshub.com/online-learning-platform/).

They are now giving all our students access to several FREE resources to help them with their studies and to also help prepare them for the working world.

Leadership Test - http://www.mtdtraining.com/leaderdna

Benchmarks your management and leadership skills against 12 competencies and 96 key skills. Learners receive a personalised report with the findings and tips on how to improve.

Coaching Skills Assessment - https://www.mtdtraining.com/coaching-skills-assessment

Just how good are you at coaching? Answer 36 questions and receive a personalised report of the results and areas to work on.

EQ Test - https://www.mtdtraining.com/free-eq-test

How emotional intelligent are you? We’re talking EQ not IQ here. How good are you are recognising and then managing your emotions? This 50-question diagnostic will reveal all.

Wellbeing At Work Survey - https://www.mtdtraining.com/wellbeing-at-work-survey

Just how engaged are you with your work and what you do? Are you motivated? Do you know what motivates you or will motivate you in the workplace? This assessment will let you know.

Sales Skills Test - http://www.mtdsalestraining.com/sales-assessment/salesdna

Answer 64 questions and receive a personalised report on your sales and influencing skills.

Management Apprenticeships - https://www.mtdtraining.com/apprenticeships/programmes/leadership-management-apprenticeships

Further information on management and leadership apprenticeships.

Management Blog - https://www.mtdtraining.com/blog

Over 1,000 quality articles and blogs on leadership and management theories and models.

Sales Blog - https://www.mtdsalestraining.com/mtdblog

Over 1,000 tips and techniques on how to improve your sales and marketing.

Sales Techniques & Free Sales Training Material - https://www.mtdsalestraining.com/resources/sales-techniques

Videos, audios, and cheat sheets to help you improve your sales and sales management skills.

MOOC courses: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online courses available for anyone to enrol. Visit here: https://www.mooc.org/ 

Subjects covered:

  • Architecture, Art & Culture
  • Biology & Life Sciences, Business & Management
  • Chemistry, Communication, Computer Science
  • Data Analysis & Statistics, Design
  • Economics & Finance, Education & Teacher Training, Electronics, Energy & Earth Sciences
  • Engineering, Environmental Studies, Ethics, Food & Nutrition
  • Health & Safety, History, Humanities
  • Language, Law, Literature
  • Math, Medicine, Music
  • Philanthropy, Philosophy & Ethics, Physics, Science, Social Sciences

Other online course sites

Learn to Code

Microsoft 
 Learn a language
  • Duolingo - This service takes a game-like approach to learning and offers apps for iOS, Windows Phone and Android.
  • Open Culture - can help you learn one a popular language like English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, or Mandarin. But there are a total of 48 language options listed on this portal to free language course downloads.
  • Livemocha - gives you access to free lessons for 35 languages, but also offers a vibrant community of native language speakers from 190 countries you can connect with to practice your speech.
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Build your Commercial Awareness

Commercial awareness is having a good understanding of an organisation / company (how it works, how it makes a profit, it’s client, objectives, services, products) and the industry in which it sits (understanding how current news can impact the sector). You should have an overview of what’s going on in the market sector - Are there legal or regulatory changes on the way, or does the economic situation have a larger-than-usual impact?
Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/commercial-awareness.html and https://www.brightnetwork.co.uk/graduate-career-advice/commercial-awareness/an-overview/
Below, are a few links for building commercial awareness in some sectors:

Finance and Business
www.prospects.ac.uk  - The Graduate Prospects website contains information on a range of job sectors, with useful links to further resources and information
www.berr.gov.uk  – The Department of Business Innovation and Skills provides a wide range of industry reports.
www.ft.com/home/uk  - this website allows you to search within the sections News, Markets, Industries and Companies. News searched can be drawn from the FT archives or global news resources.
www.reuters.com  – Read the latest news stories from around the world. Sections dedicated to business, technology, international news etc.
www.bbc.co.uk  - The BBC provides business news
The World of Business podcast - Insights into the business world from Radio 4’s in Business programme.
Business Daily podcast - BBC World Service’s daily podcast on the world of money and work from across the globe.
Today programme on BBC R4 - Today is the most influential news programme in the United Kingdom and sets the day’s political agenda each morning. If you want to quickly build awareness of current affairs in politics, business and society, then listen to this.

Actuarial Science
https://www.actuarialcareers.co.uk/career-advice/how-to-develop-commercial-awareness/ - overview of commercial awareness in this sector
https://www.theactuary.com/ - news
STEM Women are holding virtual careers fairs every Wednesday

Legal
https://www.legalcheek.com/ - market news
https://www.legalweekjobs.com/ - jobs and news
https://www.thelawyer.com/news/ - UK and international news
https://www.youtube.com/user/LawCareersNet - insights from recruiters, lawyers and the LCN team

Politics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics
https://www.economist.com/
https://www.politicshome.com/<
https://www.huffpost.com/US and world news>

Psychology
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb - group of renowned psychologists, academics, psychiatrists and writers to contribute their thoughts and ideas
https://www.bps.org.uk/ - The British Psychological Society
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/psychology/ - latest research news
https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Psychology
https://www.newscientist.com/article-topic/psychology/ - weekly science and technology magazine

Volunteer

Specific Organisations

  • Do it.org: https://doit.life/ours
  • Age UK: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/neighbourly-volunteering/
  • The Prince’s Trust: Volunteer with the Prince's Trust
  • Zooniverse - take part in real cutting edge research in many fields across the sciences, humanities, and more
  • Project Implicit - non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition
  • Be My Eyes - a free app that connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers and company representatives for visual assistance through a live video call.
  • Translators without Borders - Translators without Borders depends on volunteers to translate millions of words, but also to help us run the organization.
  • Librivox  - LibriVox volunteers read and record chapters of books in the public domain (books no longer under copyright), and make them available for free on the Internet
  • Missing Maps - Missing Maps is an open, collaborative project in which you can help to map areas where humanitarian organisations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable people.
  • Smithsonian Transcription Center - Become a Smithsonian Digital Volunteer and help us make historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible.
  • UN Volunteering - The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Online volunteering allows organizations and volunteers to team up to address sustainable development challenges – anywhere in the world.
  • ZSL- Instant Wild - ZSL’s Instant Wild empowers you to take part in vital conservation work, bringing you LIVE images and videos from amazing locations all around the world. By identifying the animals in each image, you are contributing to conservation and making a positive impact on the future for wildlife.
  • Child.org Indoor Corps - Join the Indoor Corps - volunteer from your sofa and help Child.org tackle the coronavirus crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Work Remotely
  • Prospects have created a page specifically around the impact of Covid-19 on graduates searching for work experience and jobs.
  • Linkedin article around remote working and how to use LinkedIn to find remote roles.
  • Reed and various online recruitment firms have dedicated work from home/remote working pages.
  • Employment 4 Students have a dedicated page for online freelance jobs for students.
  • There are several blog posts (largely aimed at stay at home parents) that list different forms of remote working that are flexible.
  • Upwork is an international website with many UK jobs listed. As the work is being done online, clients can take jobs from anywhere in the world.
  • People per hour has a wide range of jobs on offer, with a good selection in creative arts, and employers’ pay rates seem reasonable. Freelancers can also sell their services for either an hourly rate or a fixed price for the entire project. Offers a full range of services.

Update your CV and LinkedIn Profile
  • Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to update your CV or LinkedIn profile, but if you have some time to spare now, use it to create a standout CV or profile!
  • Reflect on your recent experiences, such as a part-time job, a previous internship or placement, a voluntary role, an insight day you attended or involvement with a society, and start adding these.
  • https://www.kent.ac.uk/ces/student/cvs.html - Our tips on style, format and content
  • https://moodle.kent.ac.uk/2021/course/view.php?id=349#section-2 – Review our ‘CV and Cover Letter’ talk on our CES Moodle page
  • Visit careers.kent.ac.uk – Book a 15-minute Quick Advice appointment, to have your CV reviewed by an Adviser.

LinkedIn

Disclaimer: The links provided to external websites are not under the control of the CES or the University of Kent. The Careers and Employability Service has no control over and will accept no responsibility or liability for the material on other websites.

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Last Updated: 10/06/2022