Follow us on Twitter
Let's be friendsOur Internships are respected throughout the NGO and charity sectors as a great way to gain the skills and experience you need for a career in charity work or campaigning.
During the eleven-month paid Internship you will learn what makes campaigning and youth organisations effective. Through experience, intensive training and ongoing support you will develop your skills, including time and project management, public speaking, facilitation, training others, communication, campaign group support, events and campaign action organisation, IT and skills specific to the role you take on.
You will be working for one of the leading grassroots campaign organisations in the UK, supporting a truly amazing network of students. In recent years our Interns have gone on to work for: Action Aid, Christian Aid, CAFOD, Comic Relief, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Rising Tide, the Samaritans, VSO, YWCA, and for People & Planet itself among many others.
- Interns run August through June. Recruitment usually begins in April/May.
“I suspect I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if I hadn’t done the P&P internship. I’m certain that I wouldn’t be doing it as effectively.”
David Babbs, Founder of 38 degrees
- Update Since this testimony was written, David has gone on to set up the incredibly successful online campaigning organisation, 38 Degrees.
“I joined People and planet as an intern straight after leaving university in June 2002. Since then I’ve been working for Friends of the Earth, where I’ve focussed on supporting grassroots activism. I’m currently Head of Capacity Building, which involves managing a team of 14 people and overseeing the support and development of a network of 230 local campaigning groups across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. I’ve also continued to be involved in other social change activism in my personal capacity, for example sitting on the Steering Committee of Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
“My year as an intern at P&P was a hugely important part of my development as a campaigner. I arrived with passion and commitment, but with campaigning experience largely limited to small, and often non-strategic student campaigning groups. I left with a whole range of skills in the areas of project management, training and facilitation, campaign planning , and a growing understanding of the importance of strategy in movement building and organisational development. I developed a strong commitment to a grassroots and participative approach to social change, which has informed everything I have done since.
“I suspect I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if I hadn’t done the P&P internship. I’m certain that I wouldn’t be doing it as effectively.”
David Babbs, ex-intern
“P&P is the most effective training ground for clever campaigners I have come across, and the fact that ex-P&Pers now occupy an almost embarrassing proportion of the campaigning posts in the UK today is testament to its success.”
Image © Sara Jackson 2007
Jess Worth, Editor New Internationalist
“After my year as a People and Planet intern, I did a Masters in International Relations at Sussex. I was then lucky enough to get a job back at P&P as a full-time Campaigns Officer. I stayed at P&P for 5 years, first running the ground breaking ‘Ethics for USS’ campaign which persuaded the £20bn university pension fund to be the first to adopt a comprehensive ethical investment policy before moving on to develop the Aids Treatment campaign. In 2006 my campaigning career took an enjoyable twist when I got a job as co-editor of the New Internationalist, where I continue to write and agitate for a just and sustainable world.
“The P&P internship was the perfect first step; it taught me that campaigning can deliver real change in the world, but only if it’s done thoughtfully as well as passionately. You have to understand the political terrain you are operating in; you have to know your issue inside out and identify weak points in the arguments of your campaign targets; you have to know who the players are and build strategic alliances; you have to do things differently, creatively, sometimes audaciously.
“P&P is the most effective training ground for clever campaigners I have come across, and the fact that ex-P&Pers now occupy an almost embarrassing proportion of the campaigning posts in the UK today is testament to its success.”
Jess Worth, ex-intern
And there’s many more!
- Staff profile of Graham Craig, intern 2007-08.
- Staff profile of Silje Vold, intern 2006-07.
- Where are they now: Jennie Bailey intern 2004-05.
- Where are they now: David Babbs, intern 2002-03.
- Where are they now: Lucy Russel, intern 2001-02.
