Pathways to Arts, Culture and Heritage

Pathways to Arts, Culture and Heritage offers employers the opportunity to work with University of Exeter students keen to start their careers in this sector.

In June 2025, a total of approximately 25 successful students, selected from a range of disciplines and year groups, will undertake four days of experiential learning delivered by industry experts, followed by completing a 35 hour fully-funded internship with a UK organisation in the Arts, Culture and Heritage sector.

“This placement is a wonderful opportunity for a student to get their foot in the door and give them a taste of the vast and exciting roles there are within the creative industries. The placement gives students the opportunity to gain experience and build their knowledge, and has allowed us to inspire future generations to work in the creative industries. I only wish something like this was available to me when I graduated!” (Katherine Hoskins, The Octagon Theatre)

Employers can get involved in a Professional Pathway programme by:

delivering a 1-hour training session
providing a business project for students to work on during the training
offering a 35 hour internship

If you are a current student, please see the Pathways to Arts, Culture and Heritage student page.

Could you offer an internship opportunity?

Applications to submit an internship opportunity via next year's Pathways to Arts, Culture & Heritage programme will open in January 2025. To register your interest in the programme, please complete the short form here and we'll be in touch.

If you have any questions please email the team at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.

Internship eligibility

The role or project must:

Be within the arts, culture and/or heritage sector
Use undergraduate level skills, knowledge and/or experience
Aid career development
Include tasks and responsibilities normally associated with a graduate level position
Provide training and support
Be a total of 35 hours and be undertaken either part-time or full-time between 23 June - 4 July 2025.

Training programme

We will be delivering the training element of the programme on our Streatham Campus in Exeter between 16 - 19 June 2025. The training is designed to give students an insight into the sector, covering as many areas as possible while also providing them with the opportunity to meet professionals working in the arts, culture and heritage sector.

We regularly work with a number of organisations who deliver a 1 hour session for us each year. For reference, please see below the schedule from our 2024 Pathways to Arts, Culture & Heritage training programme. If you would be interested in delivering a session and have a suggestion for a different topic not covered below, we would be happy to hear from you at: professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.

Schedule from our 2024 programme:

Training session topic:	Organisation delivering training:
Marketing and Communications	Northcott Theatre
Creating and funding a project vision	Devon and Exeter Institution
Curation	The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum
Education Programming in the Cultural Sector	University of Exeter Arts & Culture
How to get into the museum sector and what is involved with being a disability champion	Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)
Working in Archives	University of Exeter Special Collections
Visitor Experience	Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)
From Pathways Student to a Career in the Sector	Barker Langham Recruitment
Planning an event in cinema exhibition	Exeter Phoenix

Could you provide a group project?

During the training days (16 – 19 June 2025), students will engage in a group project based on a sector-related business challenge provided by an employer. This opportunity allows students to apply the knowledge and skills gained in their training to a set task, which could be particularly of benefit to organisations with under-resourced projects. Students will collaborate for 2-3 hours daily from Monday to Wednesday and present their findings on Thursday 19 June between 10am - 1pm on our Streatham Campus in Exeter. We encourage employers who submit projects to attend the presentations, providing valuable feedback and engaging with the students directly.

Ideally, employers will be offering a project alongside hosting an intern, as your matched student intern(s) would then also be allocated your group project, allowing them to gain insights into the organisation before starting their internship. The project task must differ from the submitted internship but can complement it. Interested employers should contact the team at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk or indicate their interest through the employer vacancy form when submitting internship opportunities.

Selecting your intern

All students will go through a rigorous recruitment and selection process conducted by the University, to ensure we select the best candidates.

Students successful in gaining a place on the programme, will be presented with all the internships opportunities on offer and asked to identify their preferences. We will make the final decision of who will be matched to your opportunity and as such, your organisation will not need to undertake any recruitment or selection process of our students.

Once we have identified the most suitable intern for you, we will send you their details in May 2025. We very much hope that you will be satisfied with our selection, however if for any reason this is not the case, you will have the opportunity to withdraw from the scheme. Unfortunately, at this stage of the recruitment process, we will not be able to find a replacement intern.

Internship training and support

We ask that all employer hosts work through a basic induction with their new intern(s). You are welcome to complete your own induction or you may wish to use the Professional Pathways Internship induction checklist we have put together. You can download this checklist here: Pathways induction checklist.‌

We have also put together some notes of guidance for employers hosting an intern via the Professional Pathway programme. You can view these here.

We ask employers to set clear objectives for their intern(s) and be available to provide information and guidance throughout the 35 hour internship.

The Professional Pathways Team will be available during the internship to support you and your intern(s) should this be required.

Internship feedback

At the end of the internship, we ask that you please complete the Employer Feedback Form. This will be emailed to you shortly after the end of the internship and your comments will be taken into account during our evaluation exercise.

Internship terms and conditions

All parties (the employer, the University and the student), must adhere to the Student Secondment Agreement. This agreement ensures the student is committed to the internship and both the employer and the University understand the remit of their duty of care for the student. This document must be signed by all three parties before the internship can begin.

Employer Case Studies

If you would like to hear from previous employers who have participated in the Pathways to Arts, Culture and Heritage programme, you can read our employers case studies below:

To find out more about the programme, please email the team at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.

Feedback from previous employers

Hear from employers who have previously hosted an intern via our Pathways to Arts, Culture and Heritage programme:

“This programme brings vast benefits to both the interns and the organisations and employers they are matched with. Working with the Professional Pathways programme is hugely rewarding and something that i would highly recommend.” (Robert Meakings, National Trust - Killerton House)

“This placement is a wonderful opportunity for a student to get their foot in the door and give them a taste of the vast and exciting roles there are within the creative industries. The placement gives students the opportunity to gain experience and build their knowledge, and has allowed us to inspire future generations to work in the creative industries. I only wish something like this was available to me when I graduated!” (Katherine Hoskins, The Octagon Theatre)

“I have been continually impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm of the interns we have received through the Professional Pathways programme. They are a real asset to the team and their curiosity about the profession and our work makes them a pleasure to work.” (Caroline Walter, University of Exeter - Special Collections)

“The programme provides our SME with new eyes to look afresh at the impact we make.” (Ruth Purdy Make it Better (Mitber) CIC)

“Being part of this programme is just as beneficial for us as an organisation as I hope it is for the students involved. We were able to gain insight from young people which can help shape our plans going forward - it is truly worth its weight in gold.” (Paula Clarke - National Trust - Castle Drogo, Dartmoor)

“The Professional Pathways Internship Placement programme enabled us to extend our work experience offer for local young people in partnership with Exeter University. As an arts organisation and charity we benefited from working in collaboration with our intern to achieve an ambitious brief for arts, culture and heritage in our area: an interactive digital trail using our photographic archive. Her external perspective enabled us to trial and test both local and tourist interpretations, and we couldn't have achieved this in the time available without this opportunity.” (Caroline Preston - Beaford Arts)

"The programme has been fantastic. Our interns were proactive in working independently on their tasks but also asking questions or for support when needed. This allowed our team to crack on with important project deadlines, while overseeing the interns flourish in the work that they produced for us. We are so glad that they enjoyed the experience as much as we enjoyed getting to know them and reading their work." (Kate Debling, The Charles Causley Trust)

"The Professional Pathways program is easily one of the best schemes at the University to get involved in. The team make the onboarding process so easy and enjoyable. The impact from both the interns and the feedback from the group projects has been astounding. I would thoroughly recommend the scheme to all employers!" (Abigail Smith, Exeter Historic Buildings Trust)

"I was so impressed with the calibre of the students on the Professional Pathways scheme, the quality of the work they produced was excellent, and the whole experience from start to finish was really positive." (Andrea Bartlett, Trowbridge Museum)

"The programme is an amazing opportunity to inject new ideas into the way we do things. Bright minds lead to bright ideas." (Annette, Museum of Cornish Life)