Teaching and lecturing internships – a case study from a UK university

This case study outlines the delivery and evaluation of a teaching and lecturing internship on an undergraduate Health and Social Care degree at a UK-based university. Interns were recruited from the second and third years of the degree programme. Successful applicants were allocated an experienced academic mentor who they worked with on a module over a 12-week period. Following appropriate training interns completed 30-50 hours of teaching/teaching-related activities. There have been two cohorts to the internship; three students successfully completed from cohort one, and five from cohort two. Internship evaluation was positive. Interns emphasised the importance of preparation before starting the internship and ongoing training and support. The academic mentor role is key to develop confidence and personal growth for interns. A key strength of the internship was the breadth of teaching-related opportunities that it offered. Interns developed a wide range of transferrable teaching-related skills and feel more work-ready. This internship was delivered in a face-to-face teaching environment; in future the key features of the internship could be applied to a blended or online teaching environment. Given the success of this internship there is scope for its key features to be replicated across other degree courses both at the host university and at other higher education institutions. The completion of two cohorts of the internship has led to the development of the TRENT model. The model, Training, Reflection, Education, Nurturing and Teaching draws together key components which were identified by interns and academic mentors as contributing to the success of the internship.