How to set up an internship program as a games studio
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Long-term paid internships are still relatively rare in the games industry.
In 2021, we talked to The Chinese Room about its own internship program and how it can help drive diversity in games. A quick Google search into the topic tells us that Gram Games, EA, Tencent or Sports Interactive offer internships. So while these opportunities do exist, they still seem relatively uncommon and it's unclear what they offer at first glance.
One UK-based studio has doubled down on its own internship programme. Ustwo Games already had a short-term paid internship initiative, and has now expanded upon it and will be welcoming interns for nine months from September.
"We did short three-month or six-month internships and they were a little bit more ad hoc," Ustwo Games' HR director Julie Piedrabuena tells the GamesIndustry.biz Academy. "We have two internships that we're opening up this year, and they are going to be nine months – one in design and one in programming. They have all the same benefits as employees get."
The idea started around the time Piedrabuena joined Ustwo, a year and a half ago.
"We started thinking about trying to organise an internship program that can help people getting into the gaming industry, and how we can reach out to more people to give those opportunities to join a studio, and for us to be able to support them with their first experience in games," she explains.
"And how we can make sure that, when we're looking into this program, we look at this in the best way to try to make it inclusive. How can we reach out to more people? What is important to us? How can we put a plan in place that can facilitate those opportunities?
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
