Methodology
The aim of the Top Intern Programs list is to recognise those organisations which provide the most positive experience for their interns as determined by the interns themselves.
The Top Intern Programs lists were determined based on responses captured in the 2024 AAGE Intern Survey conducted across January and February of 2024.
The survey received over 2,400 responses from students who were engaged in an internship program at sometime across March 2023 – February 2024.
The survey is completed anonymously and interns are asked to rate their employer on around 15 different categories including:
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Induction and training
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Content of work
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Ability to work on different projects or in different areas of the organisation
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Quality of supervision provided by manager
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Amount of responsibility
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Access to senior management
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Feedback on performance
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Social life
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Organisation's culture and values
All the individual responses from interns at a particular employer are combined and used to determine an overall average rating for that organisation. This same process is followed for each separate employer to produce an overall average rating for each organisation based on the responses of its own interns. This year, employers have been ranked in one of three lists of 20 based on their intake size, enabling improved comparability and usability. The three lists are:
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Top 20 Intern Programs (Small: intake of 20 or less)
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Top 20 Intern Programs (Medium: intake of 21-50)
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Top 20 Intern Programs (Large: intake of 51 or more)
A total of 60 employers are featured across these three lists and offer the Top Intern Programs for 2024.
This analysis of responses from interns in relation to 15 different categories provides a comprehensive measurement of each employer's performance across a broad range of criteria.
The use of overall average ratings (subject to a minimum number of responses) and lists categorised by intake size, results in a fair and objective list and enables improved comparability and useability.
The Top Intern Program lists does not include every employer that offers an intern program in the Australian market. Some employers did not participate in the intern survey and therefore we have no data to determine a rating. Other employers did participate in this survey but didn't have a sufficiently high response rate to be included in the analysis.
The survey is conducted by the Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE), the peak industry body for the graduate recruitment and development market.
Definition
An 'intern' is broadly defined as someone pursuing a course of study who has been engaged by an employer in a formal work experience program, practically applying and developing skills learned through their study.
Such programs go by a variety of names including vacation work, clerkship, internship, practicum, industry placement and work integrated learning.
We use 'internship' to describe all of these types of programs and 'intern' to describe all participants.