Research and Policy Student Intern, Megan Sumners, shares her reflections on the importance of policy internships - not only for for shaping a competitive CV, but an understanding of the wider world too.
For many young people, including myself, finding valuable work experience is a double-edged sword. It is both expected from our future employers and seemingly impossible to secure. This is especially true for students aspiring to become policy professionals. While some career paths have clearly defined entry-level routes, the policy sector can feel difficult to navigate from the outside. It is not one of those careers you spend your whole life hearing about, it is not something that typically comes up when teachers ask children what they want to be when they grow up, yet, it is, at the same time, something that shapes everyday life behind the scenes.
For this reason, amongst others, opportunities within this sector are incredibly important, as they give students the chance to understand how policy works in practice and enable them to build crucial transferable skills. I speak from experience. During my time as a Policy and Research intern at NYAS, I have been given invaluable opportunities that taught me how to analyse evidence, communicate complex ideas accessibly, research effectively and think critically about problems affecting our society. Though my internship secured my decision to pursue policy, it has also given me a skill set that would be applicable to a wider range of career paths, like law, journalism, business, research, and more.
For a young person, the world of policy may feel miles away from the comfort of a classroom. It is imagined as something that happens in government offices or international institutions, an intimidating prospect to someone who is used to a routine of lectures and student life. However, with the growing political interests of young people today, policy is the silent backbone that affects nearly every issue they care about. University campuses are rife with conversation about the education system, healthcare, climate change, housing and public health, just to name a few. In this sense, work experience in policy is not only a useful addition to a student's CV, but a chance to really understand how knowledge and passion can translate into action and impact. Yet, at present, the limited amount of these opportunities offered to students can make policy feel inaccessible, particularly for first-generation students who lack the personal networks in policy-related fields. Expanding access to policy internships would, therefore, provide many young people with the mentorship, connections and professional confidence that may otherwise be out of reach.
It is important to note that the benefits of increasing opportunities in the policy field do not end with the students themselves, as young people, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds,
offer a unique perspective built upon lived experiences that produce new ideas. In other words, policy internships are mechanisms of development, for both the student and the wider policy sector itself. More broadly, they encourage the current generation to become more informed citizens and effective advocates, ensuring that the future decision-makers have a better understanding of the communities they work on behalf of.
Furthermore, when I first heard about policy, I had already completed my first year as an English Literature undergraduate. While, after some research, I knew this was the field I wanted to pursue, I felt unsure about how I was going to get there as a first-generation student myself. Like many other students, I found myself discouraged, questioning whether I had chosen the “right” degree. I had created this idea that policy careers followed a linear trajectory, one in which my degree did not quite fit. It was not politics or law; I had never studied the subjects I assumed policy employers would require, and I worried that I could not become a viable candidate with the degree I was working towards.
Upon reflection, studying English Literature has given me the skills that I use most frequently when conducting policy work. Despite the recent debate on whether humanities degrees are useful in the workplace, I have come to understand just how instrumental they are in developing the skills that policy work, and many other fields, depend on. The ability to read critically, interpret complex material and develop nuanced arguments informed each task I have completed over the course of my internship, from consultation writing to campaign researching. This made it clear to me that a degree does not gain value from indicating an obvious career path, but from the way it teaches you to think. As a recent graduate, I understand why so many students feel ill-prepared for the working world, left wondering where they fit professionally despite having built a strong set of skills and interests. However, this is where policy internships become invaluable, as they bridge the gap between education and employment, enabling students to see, in practice, how their academic abilities can be applied to a professional setting. For me, it grounded my ambitions as something realistic to attain and showed me just how many routes there are into this sector.
