Step has been bringing Business and Graduates Together since the mid 1980s. Originally set up as the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme, the aim has always been to create meaningful paid internship opportunities, removing barriers to opportunity for all students.
In 2024, 40 years since its inception, Step endures as a commercial graduate recruitment agency. As a female leader who bought the business in her 40th year in a management buyout, many people asked me why I didn’t just go it alone and start a new business. The answer is simple and was demonstrated when Caroline Storey popped up on my LinkedIn feed back in December. You can’t recreate the heritage of an organisation like Step.
Caroline studied Medieval and Modern History at the University of Birmingham in the mid 1990s. One day in 1995 she happened upon a talk about the Step programme. Back then there were a whole network of partners coordinating the programme, liaising between the smaller business host companies and the enterprising students up and down the country.
Caroline was matched with a manufacturing company based in Eastbourne. Her task was to review the company’s range of mobility scooter rain covers and make recommendations to improve the range. As a humanities student with very little understanding of what she might want to do on graduation, this may have seemed like a tall order. But her ability to conduct research gained from her degree and the skills to manage a project logically and efficiently meant that she was able to get stuck straight in. So much so that she was nominated for the regional finals and then later, the national finals where she won The Most Enterprising Student 1995 award.
Now a successful Business Coach, Caroline first had a prestigious career in marketing starting out as a Marketing trainee with Nestle before moving on to manage brands with GlaxoSmithKline. Difficult to believe that a humble 8 week paid internship with a small manufacturer in Eastbourne turned in a clear career path in Marketing for a History graduate.
If you have a project which could be suitable for a student, consider turning this into a valuable paid internship opportunity. Whilst the funded Step programme no longer exists, Step Recruitment maintains excellent links with most UK universities and can do the leg work to match you to the right student for your business. We can help you shape your project, craft an advert to attract the best, fairly screen the response and submit a shortlist together with an Alvalabs aptitude and personality test to help you choose the best for your business.
Step Summer Internship Programme – Step
