Internships, Part-Time work or Volunteering
Short-term or casual work is easy to fit in with your studies, but still packs a punch in giving you valuable workplace experience and skills. You can also do several short-term roles during your time at University, which will enable you to trial different job roles, in the UK and abroad, all the time building up your CV.
Short-term work in the UK
Short-term work experiences typically last for a few weeks and can include a range of opportunities such as internships, consultancy projects or mentor schemes. Loughborough University runs an exclusive programme called Talent Match, which provides a range of these work types, plus there are a good selection of job sites to look at for alternative internship and placement opportunities.
Talent Match programme
Our Talent Match programmes are designed to support you throughout your time at university, whatever year you are in. They are short-term opportunities in the UK and abroad, created exclusively for Loughborough students with several offering payment.
Early Futures Opportunities: Part A and B students
Internships:
Designed to support our first- and second-year students gain meaningful work experience. These micro-internships are paid professional work opportunities with employers between February and March 2027, and typically last 50 hours in length spread across 4-6 weeks so you can manage the work around other commitments.
Join us for our Launch event! Come along to Stewart Mason on Monday 26th October at 12noon to find out how Talent Match works and how to apply.
PLUS look out on Target Connect for the Talent Match Early Futures internships roles available from Monday 26th October onwards..
Industry projects:
We also run a Talent Match Project programme where you are partnered with an employer and, working in a team, apply your knowledge to a real-world industry scenario, gaining valuable insights, skills and professional feedback. See below for further details.
Additional Opportunities:
You can also search for other internship opportunities on a number of websites - take a look at our 'Where to look for opportunities' pages - and don't forget to book your Careers Advice appointment to boost your success.
Finalist Futures Opportunities: Final year students and recent graduates
Internships:
Designed to support our current final year students and previous year graduates who are keen to secure some graduate-level work in person or remotely. These micro-internships are paid professional work opportunities with employers between February and March 2027. Internships last 50 hours in length spread across 4-6 weeks so you can manage the work around other commitments.
Join us for our Launch event! Come along to Stewart Mason on Monday 26th October at 12noon to find out how Talent Match works and how to apply.
PLUS look out on Target Connect for the Talent Match Finalist Futures internships roles available from Monday 26th October onwards..
Industry projects:
We also run a Talent Match Project programme where you are partnered with an employer and, working in a team, apply your knowledge to a real-world industry scenario, gaining valuable insights, skills and professional feedback. See below for further details.
Additional Opportunities:
You can also search for other internship opportunities on a number of websites - take a look at our 'Where to look for opportunities' pages - and don't forget to book your Careers Advice appointment to boost your success.
Master’s Futures Opportunities: Master's (Postgraduate taught) students
Internships:
Designed to support master's students gain access to internship opportunities with UK organisations and build work-place experience that boosts your CV with transferable, professional employability skills that will help you on your career journey. These internships are paid professional work opportunities taking place between February and April 2027. Internships last 100 hours in length spread across 4-6 weeks so you can manage the work around other commitments.
Join us for our Launch event! Come along to Stewart Mason on Monday 26th October at 12noon to find out how Talent Match works and how to apply.
PLUS look out on Target Connect for the Talent Match Master's Futures internships roles available from Monday 26th October onwards..
Industry Projects:
We also run a Talent Match Project programme where you are partnered with an employer and, working in a team, apply your knowledge to a real-world industry scenario, gaining valuable insights, skills and professional feedback. See below for further details.
Master's Mentor Programme:
Our Master's Futures programme also includes a Master's Mentor scheme, designed to connect current international students with international alumni working in the UK, to benefit from sharing their lived experiences.
This programme is a series of four mandatory group mentor sessions throughout March 2027 that focus on navigating the theme ‘How to improve your chances of getting a job as an international student.”
International alumni, who are now working in the UK, will lead these sessions and provide a framework to discuss and share their lived experiences, as well as a forum to network with international peers.
This programme is now closed, but look out for communications regarding other opportunities, and see below.
Additional Opportunities:
You can also search for other internship and work opportunities on a number of websites - take a look at our 'Where to look for opportunities' pages - and don't forget to book your Careers Advice appointment to boost your success.
Employer Consultancy project experiences
Our Talent Match Project Briefs are open to all disciplines and year groups – undergraduates and postgraduates - and provide an opportunity to enhance your employability by developing professional skills, gaining commercial insight, and expanding your professional networks.
Working in multidisciplinary consultancy teams, you will collaborate with an employer to tackle real business challenges and deliver genuine value to businesses in the UK and globally. You will analyse industry scenarios, develop evidence-based recommendations and present practical solutions. Throughout the process you will be liaising with the employer to gain valuable insights, skills and professional feedback.
These projects are undertaken remotely and last approx. 30 hours spread across three weeks in April 2027.
This programme is now closed but look out for communications or sign up to Target Connect notifications to see these opportunities.
Summer Internships: All year groups
Our Talent Match Summer Internships all take place within the University, in schools or in professional services departments, and are designed to offer students the opportunity to gain valuable employability skills and increased confidence in entering a professional work environment.
Lasting approximately 8 weeks full time, these paid work opportunities take place from July to September. They may involve a hybrid work model or be entirely in-person based in internal departments within the University.
This programme is now closed, but look out for communications regarding other upcoming work opportunities.
ADDITIONAL INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
You can also search for other internship opportunities on a number of websites - take a look at our 'Where to look for opportunities' pages - and don't forget to book your Careers Advice appointment to boost your success.
Talent Match Global Opportunities
Short-term work experiences abroad are a little harder to find but can be a great way to pick up knowledge of other countries and cultures. Loughborough University offers a Talent Match Global programme and there are a number of websites which provide opportunities.
Internships:
Our Talent Match Global internships are paid professional work opportunities with employers, designed to give you access to work experiences with organisations located around the world. These are paid professional work opportunities undertaken remotely and last 60 hours in length spread across several weeks in Summer so you can manage the work around other commitments.
This programme is now closed but look out for communications or sign up to Target Connect notifications to see these opportunities.
Additional Opportunities:
There are also a good range of websites to look at for additional international internship and placement opportunities and, for even more opportunities abroad, see also our section on Interested in working abroad?
Don't forget to book your Careers Advice appointment for more support, guidance and practical help to boost your success.
Additional Internship opportunities and Insight weeks
There are many other ways to find an internship, whether in-person or virtual, during the summer or throughout the year. Our section Where to look for opportunities has some fantastic websites to get you started in your search for an internship.
Insight weeks are also worth considering as a way to gain an understanding of different industries or job roles. Generally aimed at 1st and 2nd year students, they are often unpaid and typically last between one to ten days, usually during the Easter or Summer vacations. Insight weeks are heavily biased towards Finance, Accountancy, Investment Banking, with a few in Engineering and Law. You can also try our where to look for opportunities to search for these.
Part-Time Work / Freelancing
Casual weekend or vacation work, with flexible hours to fit alongside your studies, can be a financial bonus whilst at university and give you an insight into working life.
Freelancing, where you are an independent worker and can provide expertise in your chosen area to any company - for example design, programming, data analysis - can also be an excellent way to earn while you gain experience.
We recommend you make yourself familiar with your working rights and always research the company advertising the part-time role to ensure they offer suitable working conditions and pay.
The Student Advice and Support Service advises students on practical issues that might affect their time at University including student money matters (student finance, hardship funds, budgeting, dealing with debts) and housing rights (contracts, deposits, repairs).
To find part time opportunities, see our section about Where to look for opportunities.
Volunteering
Volunteering is about offering your time to do something useful e.g. helping a group, a charity, or an individual, but without receiving payment. These types of opportunities can be some of the most rewarding work you will do and are still valuable in gaining transferable skills.
Try these links to find out more about opportunities and advice: