Pathways to Marketing

Pathways to Marketing 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 Marketing sector.

“Having a Marketing Intern from the University of Exeter's Professional Pathways team join Global English TESOL for a week was an enriching experience. This programme demonstrates the immense value of collaborative learning and practical exposure. Thank you!” (Annine Siddall, Global English TESOL)

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 our Pathways to Marketing student page.)

Could you offer an internship opportunity?

Applications to submit an internship opportunity via next year's Pathways to Marketing 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 marketing sector or if your company is not within the marketing sector, the role must be supporting the marketing function of your organisation
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 marketing 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 Marketing 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:
Digital Marketing	Bigwave Marketing
How brand drives business success	Alder and Alder
Exeter Grad to Business Owner	Optix Solutions
Marketing Planning and Strategy	Starshipit
Market Research and Analysis	University of Exeter Market Research and Insight Team
A Career in PR and Marketing	One Voice Media
Why Personal Brand is important in B2B marketing	Program Agency
Online Events and Video Marketing	Bitpod
Understanding Consumer Behaviour	Marketing Professional
Insights I wish I could have shared with my younger marketing self plus In-house vs Agency?	Wall to Wall Sunshine

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 Marketing 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 Marketing programme:

“The Professional Pathways programme has been a great way of introducing talented students to our business. Being fully funded and with training offered to the students beforehand, the programme supports small businesses well with both parties to benefiting.” (Amber Probyn, PEEQUAL LTD)

“I can't recommend this enough to people. It does take some of your time to plan for them and ensure they get your attention while with you, but this can really help you if you focus the work and get the best out of everyone's time. We had things we wanted to create but just could not get to it, but having the interns meant that we were able to create and use their ideas and skills. We got great work from our lovely interns and it is great to feel that you are offering opportunity to expand someone's skills and experience that might help them grow and get further opportunities in the future. Everyone is helping each other.” (Vics Brown, UoE Residence Life – Wellbeing Team)

“Sonali provided tremendous value to Martec. We now have a clear plan for improving our go to market activities and making the most of some channels we had previously not used. She was very knowledgeable and had some previous work experience in our sector.” (Brian Hume, Martec International Ltd)

“We enjoy taking part with the programme each year and working with the students. It is great to have young eyes take a look at our business and share with us current trends.” (Tracey Smith, Ashmira Botanica Ltd)

“Our intern did an outstanding job and I would highly recommend her for future employment as well as the programme in general. It is fantastic to connect students into real-world work opportunities that facilitate learning, contribution and connections.” (Roxanne Reeder, Navigate CIO)

"The two interns who worked for me on a research project around engagement with climate change were great - full of ideas, hard working and a pleasure to work with. The research they did was genuinely useful and will feed into an engagement strategy around climate change." (Victoria Patch, Environment and Climate Emergency Team, University of Exeter)

"For anyone considering offering a position to an intern from the Professional Pathways programme, my advice is to do it! The additional resource added to our team added real value, with the work undertaken influencing a significant project for the business this year." (Laura Thomas, Doddl)

"Such a valuable opportunity to work with students to gain their perspective on our projects. Incredibly refreshing and helpful." (Kate Durward-Akhurst, Commercial Marketing Team, University of Exeter)