IMA in collaboration with the University of Sussex

At IMA we take our values, Innovative, Inclusive and Inspiring Change very seriously and when it comes to supporting individuals to start their career journey, we are proud to collaborate with the University of Sussex.

We provide early career opportunities for young professionals to build their skill set in programme management & organisational capacity building in the international development sector through our Summer Internships and Placement Year opportunities. We also engage with students who are part of the University`s Student Consultancy Programme.

Each of these seek to help students, coming from a variety of academic backgrounds, with different level of experience to gain confidence and practice. Summer internships last normally for 6-8 weeks during the June-August period and our intern will engage with a range of activities including training administration, marketing content creation and analysis, research and networking.

As an exciting addition in 2023 to the support we can offer we have teamed up with Ambitious About Autism via the University, to provide opportunities for those students who may need this extra support, understanding and a gentle introduction to the working environment.
Placement Year students are coming to spend approximately 1 full-time year with IMA and are working in training administration or marketing as full time staff. They are also encouraged to learn alongside our consultants and support research to gain insight into consultancy and capacity building through training and guidance. The placement student is a valued member of the IMA team whose perspectives and opinions will be heard and valued. Students get the chance to learn how a small business operates and how to develop healthy working relationships.

The Student Consultancy projects focus on equipping students over a 2-4 weeks long period with transferrable skills through solving a business challenge for IMA through research and analytics.
These initiatives and the collaboration with the University of Sussex help our team to provide a space for young people to grow as professionals. We provide them with an opportunity to network with a range of different stakeholders in the development sector and to explore interests, and develop leadership skills. Within our team we focus on personal development plans as we believe that providing our employees with an opportunity to follow their own interests, we are able to remain agile and innovative to build capacity in other organisations.
Having students and young graduates encourages not only knowledge sharing from our highly experienced staff and consultants with them but also to integrate new, young perspectives in our day-to-day work.

Find out more about our Team Members or find out more about The University of Sussex.