Innovative Placements Scheme

The iMayflower Innovative Placements team are focused on the development of new, mutually beneficial models of knowledge exchange, facilitating collaboration with our capable, skilled and knowledgeable students and graduates.

Designed in direct response to the pandemic, the iMayflower Virtual Internship Scheme sees our current students and recent graduates being paid to deliver a project for a business over the course of 38 hours.

Over the past two years, businesses with a clear idea of what might help them to move forward post-pandemic, but who lacked the creative resources in-house to make it happen, have been busy applying for internship funding and we have now delivered over 200 projects.

The scheme was developed in the face of uniquely challenging circumstances and designed to deliver mutual benefits – much needed additional capacity to businesses and a unique learning experience through which our students and graduates can demonstrate and develop their capabilities.

Many of our students and graduates have gone on to secure permanent paid roles with the businesses they’ve interned with, or to work with them on a freelance basis as a direct result of the scheme. Others have found that the experience they’ve gained, which is also recognised with a City & Guilds endorsed digital badge, has given them the competitive edge and helped them to stand out from the crowd in graduate recruitment processes.

Our iMayflower Masters R&D Studentship Scheme pairs postgraduate design, art, heritage, digital and built environment students with innovative organisations, to contribute to the development of a new product, service or experiential offering.

Our studentships are unique collaborations designed to increase the innovation capacity of the partner organisation, whilst at the same time offering our postgraduate students an unprecedented learning experience and bringing external perspectives and experiences back into the University to inform future delivery.

The latest round of studentships has supported a wide range of projects, from exploring how XR technologies could enhance rehabilitation in clinical environments, to bringing together ancient Dartmoor architecture with advanced laser scanning and videogame design to explore ways of engaging new and varied audiences with our National Parks.

Thank you to all of our iMayflower Masters R&D Studentship partner organisations: