What’s the difference between an apprenticeship and an internship?

Being an Apprentice or an Intern are both valid ways of getting valuable experience within a specific industry and extremely useful for employers to fill skill or staffing shortages. They both however differ greatly in the benefit to employer and trainee, but, what is the difference? Below we look at key differences and advantages of both:

1. How long do they last?

An internship usually only lasts for a few months but can be longer whereas an apprenticeship will last for a minimum of a year and in some cases up to 5 or 6 years, depending on the qualification and industry. An internship is usually regarded as a short work experience stint where an intern will put existing skills into use and gain experience. An Apprentice however is a long term qualification where you teach an appropriate person new skills and knowledge to ensure they are of most value to the company long term.

2. Apprenticeships are qualifications, internships are work experience.

An apprentice will receive training from an apprenticeship provider, college or university and work towards a nationally recognised qualification at an appropriate level. This will be achieved through a combination of training, shadowing, coursework and mentoring and they are required to spend a minimum of 6 hours a week of their time developing in this way. The apprenticeship is a combination of training from the provider and the employer so it is imperative that the company has the skills to teach and develop the new hire apprentice.

An intern on the other hand will only receive training from their employer and will not gain any form of qualification from the process. They will also usually only be putting existing skills into use and gaining experience rather than new skills from the process. Due to this it is not unheard of for an intern to be hired and given a project outside of the companies skillset or knowledge. Apprentices will be looking for their first step on the career ladder whereas an intern is collecting practical experience.

3. Apprenticeships are always paid whereas Internships are often not.

Internships are more regularly called work placements or work experience and these terms have no legal status on their own. Apprenticeships on the other hand are heavily regulated and although minimum wage for apprenticeships is £5.28 an hour, the majority are paid at a much higher rate. At Professional Apprenticeships, apprentices will earn anywhere from £12,000 – £20,000pa starting salary.

4. The BIG one, an apprenticeship is more likely to end as a full time role.