Third Sector Internships Scotland is celebrating its first anniversary, and reports a successful first year of making connections between university students with fresh ideas and third sector organisations looking to develop new projects.  

The programme is an innovative partnership between Scottish Universities and the third sector.  TSIS is a four-year programme developed by Queen Margaret University, The Open University in Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, and is funded by the Scottish Funding Council.

TSIS works with organisations to identify and develop pieces of work suitable for internships: the opportunities are then advertised to students currently studying at Scottish Universities.  All interns are paid at the lving wage rate, with the costs of an organisation's first internship fully funded by TSIS.  Over the past year 68 organisations have hosted 72 internships.  Interns have undertaken a variety of tasks such as developing social media strategies, event management, carrying out research studies and project development.  

The programme has given students valuable paid work experience, the opportunity to get direct insights into the voluntary sector and social enterprises and the chance to develop and apply skills and knowledge gained from their courses to real world situations.  For the third sector it provides the chance to take forward a specific project or piece of work that adds value to the organisation, access to skilled and motivated people, and the chance to showcase the sector as a graduate career option.

Altogether an interesting example of university community engagement.  There is more at www.3rdsectorintern.org.uk .