Internship applications are now open! Hear from our current interns

Exciting news! We’ve just launched applications for next year's internships within the Sustainability Service.  There are currently two internships available; a Communications and Engagement Assistant and a Projects Assistant. The roles are open to penultimate undergraduate students who are taking a year in industry as part of their degree. 

We know applying for a job can feel daunting, so we chatted with this year’s interns Alice and Emma to reflect on their placement years and give a bit of advice.

An interview with our current interns

Hi both! Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

Alice: I’m Alice, I study BA Liberal Arts, specialising in Cultural Studies and am this year's Sustainability Communications and Engagement Assistant. I love the outdoors, especially climbing and enjoy making things on my sewing machine.   

Emma: Hi, I’m Emma. I’m the 2024/25 Sustainability Projects Assistant and I study BSc Environmental Science. Outside of work I love to be active, especially running and hiking.

Can you tell me about why you decided to apply for this role?

Alice: I knew I wanted to work in a field that had a positive impact on the planet but was struggling to find internships in the 3rd Sector. When I saw this internship advertised, I thought it was a great opportunity to get experience in Sustainability.  

Emma: Initially I considered going on a year abroad but opted to swap to do a placement year as I wanted to gain professional experience ahead of graduating. This placement interested me as there seemed to be such a variety of things to work on and was very relevant to my future prospects.

What kind of things do you do as Communications and Engagement Assistant?

Alice: All sorts! I support sustainability communications and engagement, so that means I get to work across all areas of the Sustainability Service.  My role is to create engaging and informative content across our various social media and internal channels, website and newsletters. As well as that I support on in-person engagement events such as the Student Sustainability Research Conference, Climate Week and the Staff Sustainability Celebration. I also help with the strategic side – inputting into processes, measuring KPIs and campaign planning.

What kind of things do you do as Projects Assistant?

Emma: As Projects Assistant I provide data and admin support on a range of projects across the Service. A large project I work on is the Universities’ Scope 3 Travel Emissions, in which I collate data and calculate carbon emissions for Business Travel, Staff and Student Commuting and the University Fleet. My other main area is providing admin support on the award winning Blueprint programme, which helps Schools and Services to formulate and develop their own sustainability plans. Other projects include Fairtrade, Living Labs and carbon tracking for the Student Sustainability Research Conference.

What have you got out of this internship?

Alice: I think the largest benefit is figuring out the world of work in such a supportive environment. I now know the sorts of things I would like to do in future and more importantly what I do not want to do. It’s also been useful to understand what life is like after uni, it is a massive change, and having this experience early I think will make the transition post-graduation easier.  

Emma: It sounds obvious but hands on experience. Through my job I have learnt and applied many practical skills such as emissions calculations, public speaking as well as developing my interpersonal skills. Through my work on Blueprint, I have learnt the importance of a people-led approach to embedding sustainability, though facilitating conversations and extracting potential goals for the different faculties, schools, and services.

What’s been your highlight of working for the Sustainability Service?

Alice: Working in such a lovely and dynamic team! I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but the team really are a brilliant group of people who all care deeply about the work they are doing. It’s been great learning about the diverse array of work that falls under sustainability.  

Emma: My highlight is probably the Wild Work volunteering day at Sherburn Willows Nature Reserve that Alice and I went on. It was great to get involved in hands-on action and I loved being able to meet and chat to other students and staff. There’s so much opportunity in this job to go along to things like this which is amazing!

What would you say to someone thinking of applying to this role?

Alice: Just go for it! I was quite unsure when I applied for the role as I didn’t ever see myself doing social media, but as I have found the job is so much more than that. The team is so supportive, and as they keep telling me it’s your placement year, so don’t hesitate to ask if there are particular things you would like to do!   

Emma: I’d probably stress how important it is that you are competent using excel before you start the job. Data is a massive part of the job and even coming from an Environmental Science background I found its challenging at first, so would highly recommend scratching up on it before you apply.

Interested in applying?

We’d love to hear from you, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions. You can get in touch via email:  sustainability@leeds.ac.uk.  

For more information, a job description and candidate brief see the vacancies online:  

FDSUS1070: Sustainability Projects Assistant  

FDSUS1071: Sustainability Communications and Engagement Assistant