Thomas Pocklington Trust (TPT) and RNIB are collaborating with charities in the sight loss sector to create new opportunities through internships for blind and partially sighted people to find employment through the Get Set Progress Internship programme. We are delighted to be offering an internship as part of the scheme.
Our Get Set Progress role, Grants and Administrative Assistant Intern, will join Vision Foundation’s Grants and Impact team, providing general administrative support across our grant-making process. They will work closely with other teams across the organisation to support effective stewardship of our funded partners and strengthening our grant making and management systems and processes.
About the scheme
Get Set Progress provides paid internships for blind and partially sighted people to secure that first rung on the career ladder or who are returning to work following a career break.
Thomas Pocklington Trust (TPT) has run a programme of paid internships since 2015 with 85% of interns going on to gain paid employment within six months.
In March 2022, TPT extended the programme to five other sight loss charities. Partner organisations in the programme were British Blind Sport, My Sight Nottinghamshire, MySight York, MyVision Oxfordshire and Sight Support West of England.
TPT, in partnership with RNIB, is extending the programme to 19 sight loss charities and creating 21 new roles. These are based in Sussex, West Midlands, Birmingham, London, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Paisley, Chester, Leicester and Hereford.
Most internships are full time (36 hours a week) for nine months and have a salary based on the real living wage from the Living Wage Foundation. This varies according to location.
Thomas Pocklington Trust asked former and current interns, Alex, Fiona and Peter, to share their internship experience. They share their top tips for a successful internship and how this internship with TPT helped them realise what career pathway they wanted to follow.
Alex:
Fiona:
