Student Opportunities Hub

What is an internship?

Internships are time-bound, project based opportunities for UofG students to work alongside UofG staff and can take place in all areas of the university (Schools/Colleges/Departments). They should be no less than 6 weeks in length and can last as long as your project dictates. We can offer further guidance on this where needed. If the internship is taking place during term-time, the maximum hours per week a student can work is 20, so any internship project would need to reflect that. If the internship is taking place over the summer, students can work more than 20 hours.

How does it work?

The Student Opportunities team work alongside the central HR team to support you throughout the recruitment process when hiring a student intern. This is a streamlined and efficient process, following university guidelines, to find you the best candidate for your role through a fair and equal process.

Below is a short guide as to how this process works, please get in touch with us to discuss further if you have any questions, or check out our FAQs. You can also view these steps on this Student Opportunities Hub process flowchart (downloads automatically when clicked).

• Contact the Student Opportunities team (SOT) to discuss your internship idea
• Fill out your role specific details and send to your Local Resourcing Coordinator (LRC) to start the new staff checklist process
• Once the new staff checklist is complete, your internship will be passed to the SOT by your LRC
• SOT will add your role to the Student Opportunities Hub (SOH) and begin advertising
• Students apply directly on the SOH, once advertising period closes, SOT will conduct basic quality and screening checks before sending over eligible applications for you to shortlist for interview
• Complete the SOH shortlisting/interview request form and return to the SOT, who will coordinate interviews with students and issue your final interview schedule
• Conduct your interviews on confirmed date(s). Please note interview panels should be made up of 2 people, ideally with a gender balance, who have both completed the Recruitment and Selection training in full
• Once interviews are complete, email SOT with your completed interview assessment form and nominate your preferred candidate, SOT will send out an official offer
• After student accepts, SOT pass the candidate details back to your LRC who will progress with onboarding and confirm start date

 The Student Opportunities Hub supports a fair and equal recruitment and cannot process direct appointments for internships.

What is a part-time job?

For the purposes of the Student Opportunities Hub (SOH), a part-time job should be less than 20 hours a week and should be a role that the general student population can fulfill. This is where it differs to internships, which are more project and skills based. Part-time jobs can either be temporary, fixed term or permanent contracts.

How does it work?

Compared to internships, part-time jobs operate slightly differently within the SOH. We can support the promotion of your role, to attract more students to apply and help you find the best candidate. We can do this through placing the job advert on the SOH, advertising on social media and in our weekly student newsletter.

The recruitment process for these roles will follow the central HR processes, contact your Local Resourcing Coordinator (LRC) to get started. Once your role has been approved and is at advert, let the Student Opportunities team know and we can pick up the promotion for you.

Recruiting Casual Workers?

Casual workers are paid an hourly rate and are not legally defined as employees of the university. These roles suit short term, ad-hoc recruitment needs. For full details on what a casual worker is and the policies around recruiting this way, visit the Extended Workforce policy.

If you currently recruit students as Casual Workers, please also let us know and we can help promote your opportunity and get you the best pool of candidates to hire from.

It is your responsibility, when hiring a student intern or part-time worker, to ensure they will be paid correctly.

If you are paying your student via timesheets, please ensure you have set this up ahead of their employment starting. This will include having the correct timesheet approvers registered on HR Core as well as confirming your relevant budget and pay codes.

More information and resources can be found on the Finance Pay & Pensions webpages. Please note the payroll cut off for timesheets is usually around the 10th of the month. Timesheets submitted after the 10th will be processed and paid the following month.

What is a casual worker?

Casual workers are paid an hourly rate and are not legally defined as employees of the university. These roles suit short term, adhoc recrutment needs. For full details on what a casual worker is and the policies around recruiting this way, visit the Extended Workforce policy.

How does it work?

Similar to part-time jobs, we can support the promotion of your role, to attract more students to apply and help you find the best candidate. We can do this through placing the job advert on the Student Opportunities Hub (SOH), advertising on social media and in our weekly student newsletter.

The recruitment process for these roles is different to internships and part-time jobs, as it does not involve the central HR team. Casual workers are handled at local levels but can still benefit from interacting with the Student Opportunities team (SOT). Before looking to recruit a casual worker, you should read through the full policy. Once your role is at advert, let the SOT know and we can pick up the promotion for you.

If you need any additional support with the recruitment of your casual workers (including application receiving and interview arrangements), please do contact us and we'll be happy to discuss how we may be able to further assist.

These FAQs have been designed to help UofG staff further understand the internship recruitment process. If you have any questions that are not answered by the below, please contact us.

Creating an internship

What is an internship?

An internship is a paid, part-time position (full-time over the summer is an option) for a student to work in a specific project area for your department. The role will be for a set duration or number of hours (as opposed to casual or ‘zero-hour’ type roles) and have clear start and end dates.

How do I write a job description?

If you need help writing an internship job description, we have this folder which has a range of previously approved job descriptions to help you. The folder is organised by job area and grade, and you can use any of these that are relevant, to help you get started (tailoring to your own needs). If you need further assistance, you can contact us. Please note, you must get your job description graded and approved by your HR Business Partner before it can be advertised via our platform.

How do I determine pay grade?

This is determined based on your budget and the level of duties and responsibilities the intern will have. The folder of previous job descriptions should help you. You can also speak to your HR Business Partner about grading.

Which students are eligible to apply?

This is up to you, at the time of advertising we will ask you if you want to ring-fence the applications to certain cohorts of students. This can sometimes be dependent on funding or specific role requirements. We can restrict roles by year group, UG/PG, College, School, or degree programme. If desired, this will be led by you and your requirements/preferences for the role. As part of our screening process, we will ensure that applicants meet any eligibility criteria before we send them to you to shortlist.

Who is my Local Resourcing Coordinator (LRC)?

Your LRC is who you need to meet with to officially raise a Staff Request for your internship and who will support your recruitment, along with us, from a local level. Your LRC can be found on the People & Organisational Development web pages by expanding on the relevant drop down for your area.

What do I need to submit to my LRC?

Your internship job description (please note this also needs to be approved by your HR Business Partner as above). You will also then need to complete the Staff Request and provide information on, but not limited to;

• Start and end dates for the internship
• Hours per week (if fixed or flexible)
• Budget code for the internship salary
• Payment method (i.e. Timesheets or not)
• Line manager

Do you have any funding?

The Student Opportunities Hub has had limited funding in the past that has helped support internships. However, this is not always the case so you will need to have your own funding/budget to pay your intern. There are occasionally different funding streams at the University that can be used for internships (see above).

How will my intern be paid?

This is up to you and depends how you want to manage the weekly hours. The most common method is via timesheets and this gives you flexibility on how many hours the intern works week to week. If you are going to use timesheets, you need to ensure you as the line manager are set up as a timesheet approver on HR Core (you will need 2 approvers for this). If you are not set up, or unsure, then you must raise a Helpdesk request with the Payroll & Pensions team. There are clear instructions for employees and line managers on how to use timesheets on the finance web pages. If they will be working a set amount of hours consistently each week, you don't need to use timesheets. Please discuss this with your LRC during the Staff Request process. 

Internship advertising

How long will my internship be advertised?

As standard, we advertise internships for two weeks. If you wish to advertise for shorter/longer, we will discuss this with you at the point of adding your role to our platform.

Can the Student Opportunities Hub promote my internship?

Yes. As part of our service, we include wide promotion of your role through our student newsletter and social media. We’ll also promote to specific cohorts of students, where relevant, through our Academic Partnerships Team and their contacts. We will provide you with a unique link to your internship advert if you wish to also promote.

Can my role be extended if there aren’t enough applicants?

Yes. If you are not satisfied with the number or quality of applications, we can extend the closing date by one week in the first instance. We will then do further/targeted promotion where possible.

Can I see my advert?

Yes. You can create a UofG staff login to the Glasgow Careers platform which will let you see the advert from a student perspective, via the link we send you. We can also send you a PDF version if requested. Note, as opposed to University recruitment that is done via Core, you will not be able to see the applications that have been submitted whilst your role is still live. If you have any questions or want to check on how many applications you have, please contact us.

Screening & shortlisting

What are screening and quality checks?

Once your application has closed, the Student Opportunities Hub will conduct some basic quality and eligibility checks before we send you the applications to review and shortlist. We will first check that all candidates are eligible based on the criteria you gave us at the time of advertising (i.e. if they’re from the correct school/college/degree programme, are in the correct year of study, or relevant student type i.e. UG/PGT/PGR), removing any application that doesn't meet this criteria. These are all specific to each role and will be discussed with you before advertising. We will then scan the application for basic quality, looking at whether the student has actually completed the application and whether they have at least made an attempt to answer the questions and address the essential criteria (again removing any of generally poor quality or incomplete applications). Note we will not check the actual content of how students have said they meet the essential criteria. This is done by you at the shortlisting stage.

When will I receive the applications for my internship?

We aim to send your applications and shortlisting document within 1-2 working days of the closing date, following the above process. Please note at peak times, we may have multiple roles closing on the same date and therefore have more checks to get through, which could delay you receiving your applications by another day or so. You will receive your applications via the UofG File Transfer system.

How long do I have to open the File Transfer?

You will have access to the applications sent via File Transfer for 2 weeks. Please save these to ensure that you can access them throughout the recruitment process and then safely destroy afterwards in line with GDPR.

How do I shortlist?

As per the above, when we send you your applications we will also attach a link to a live shortlisting and interview details spreadsheet. You would fill this out following the University's recruitment and selection training process for shortlisting applications. Instead of downloading and uploading different versions of the spreadsheet, you just fill out the information via the link we share and then email us when you're done and we can go and pick up the details from there.

Interviews

Do I have to complete Recruitment & Selection training to hire an intern?

Yes. Per central recruitment guidelines, any staff member reviewing applications and being part of an interview panel must have completed the Recruitment & Selection training. For more information, please contact your LRC. If you are unable to complete the training, you will need to select a member of staff who can do this on your behalf. In this case, you can attend the interviews as an observer.

How much time do candidates need to prepare for their interviews?

We ask that you give candidates at least five working days to prepare for their interviews. If you’re interviewing outside of term-time, we ask that you allow at least 7 working days (this is to allow students time to make suitable arrangements as they may not be in Glasgow).

Do I have to shortlist all candidates who meet the essential criteria?

You are not required to interview all candidates who meet the criteria - this is at your discretion. You can base your shortlisting on how well a student addresses the essential and desirable criteria as some applicants may give more concrete or in-depth examples than others. Overall, it's important to be consistent across the board and be able to explain your decisions if asked.

Can I send questions in advance?

Yes. When we invite your candidates to their interviews, we can include the interview questions to assist in their preparation.

Can I set a pre-interview task?

Yes. We can send out a pre-interview task for your candidates to complete by a specific time and date. They can either send the completed task back to us or directly to you.  

Can I ask candidates to prepare a presentation?

Yes. We recommended that presentations are 5-10 minutes in length and that students either bring USB to the interview or send presentations to you ahead of time. We can include this information when we send invites to interview.

Can I conduct interviews online?

Yes. Often candidates who cannot attend in-person will request an online interview. It is important to ensure that all interviews include the same panel members and questions and are conducted fairly and equitably for each candidate. Where possible, all interviews should be conducted in the same environment and while online is an option, we do recommend face to face interviews.

Am I required to reschedule interviews for candidates who are unable to attend?

As students often have lectures, meetings with supervisors, caring responsibilities, or other commitments, it is important to ensure that we can accommodate a request to reschedule. In these scenarios, we will contact you to see if you can offer an alternative interview slot. If a reasonable effort is made and candidates still can’t attend a slot they’ve been offered and the delays will affect the project timelines, then the candidate may need to withdraw.

Do I need to fill in the interview assessment forms?

Yes. Per central recruitment guidelines, one copy of the interview assessment form needs to be submitted once a preferred candidate has been selected. These forms are live documents, and we will send these on your behalf.

Offer stage

When will you make the offer to our preferred candidate?

We will make the offer to your preferred candidate on the same day or the next day after receiving your interview outcomes.

Do I need to select reserve candidates?

It is a good idea to select one to two reserve candidates in case your preferred candidate is unable to accept the role.

Onboarding

When does onboarding begin and what happens?

Once we hear back from your preferred candidate and they've accepted the role, we will pass relevant details on to your LRC (copying you in) who will then progress the appointment with the Onboarding team. This will include issuing a formal contract for the internship as well as starting background and right to work checks. The candidate will need to sign and return the contract along with Equal Opportunities Monitoring and Criminal Background check forms. They will be given clear instructions at this stage.

How long does onboarding take?

Typically onboarding takes 10 days, providing the candidate completes the above steps in a timely manner (i.e. returning contracts and forms).

When will I know the start date?

Once the onboarding process starts, your LRC will be able to confirm what start date is achievable for your intern based on the above being complete on time. If you want to delay the start date, please let your LRC know asap (this will also be discussed in the Staff Request process).

Will they be given a staff account and equipment i.e. laptop?

As part of the onboarding process, your intern will be given a staff account and email address, along with instructions on how to obtain a staff card. However, it is your responsibility as the line manager, at a local level, to organise what equipment they will need for their internship.

During the internship

How do I report any changes during the internship?

Depending on what you need to change/report, the majority of updates will need to be done via a Helpdesk request or Manager Request on Core. Once your internship has begun, the role of the Student Opportunities Hub is largely done. If you need to enquire about any pay related issues, contract extensions, etc you will need to do this via the Helpdesk and assign to the relevant team. If you do extend the end date, please let us know.

What support does the intern get from the Student Opportunities Hub?

When your intern has accepted the role, we will send them an email with a checklist of tasks to go through/think about to help them succeed in their role. This includes information on timesheets and contracts amongst other things. We will send your intern (and you as a line manager) an email about midway through the internship to check on how things are going and to give you the option to let us know any issues/questions.

Apart from that, any other support should be led by the line manager for this role and should include regular check-in meetings. 

Feedback

Do I need to provide feedback to candidates at the application stage?

Per central recruitment guidelines, feedback at the application stage is not required. We send an email that includes links to our resources including Masterclasses, Peer Career Support, and Careers Pathways to help students with future applications.

Do I need to provide feedback to candidates at the interview stage?

Per central recruitment guidelines, feedback at the interview stage is recommended. We will email you with the names of any candidates who request feedback. This is best done verbally, either in person or over the phone.

When can I provide feedback on my experience with the Student Opportunities Hub?

We welcome your suggestions and feedback any time throughout the process, and you can contact us at studentopportunitieshub@glasgow.ac.uk. At the end of the internship, we will send you an email with a link to our full feedback form.