Intern Agreement - contract template

An intern is someone who works with a business or company to gain work experience for a specified amount of time – this is called an ‘internship’.

An internship gives someone, often a student, the opportunity to learn while they’re working, train towards their chosen career and develop new skills. An intern will usually look for a position that’s related to their area of study or interest.

An intern may be paid, partially paid, or unpaid. Our Intern Agreement template is designed to be used for a paid internship.

To protect your company, you should sign an Intern Agreement with interns.

The contract is important because it sets out what both sides can expect from the relationship, and includes clauses covering non-disclosure and IP assignment.

An Intern Agreement is a contract that sets out the arrangement between an employer and someone joining the company on an internship.

An Intern Agreement:

• forms the basis of the working relationship between the company and the intern
• details the duties, rights and responsibilities on both sides
• sets out the terms, including how much the intern will be paid, where the work should be carried out and how long the agreement will last for

An Intern Agreement can also be called:

• Internship Agreement
• Work Experience Contract
• Training Agreement
• Intern Contract

Take a look at our checklist to help you decide:

• Are you employing an intern?
• Will they be working for you for a fixed amount of time?
• Are you paying them?
• Do you want to make clear the rights, expectations and obligations on both sides?
• Are you based in England, Wales or Scotland?

If all of these apply, then you should create and sign an Intern Agreement with your intern.

Intern Agreements are similar to Employment Agreements but contain terms specific to the role of an intern.

You can include standard employment terms such as:

• location of the work
• working hours
• duties and responsibilities
• pay and expenses
• termination of the internship
• how intellectual property and confidential information should be treated

And terms specific to the intern:

• when the internship will finish or be reviewed
• what their induction programme will include
• what they can expect from their mentor
• how and when you’ll provide a reference

Interns are covered by different legal protection to employees. They aren’t automatically protected against dismissal or entitled to a minimum wage.

Someone joining your company on an internship can expect to expand their knowledge, and to learn and develop new skills. They might join your team only to observe and shadow existing members of staff – or you might expect them to carry out tasks of their own.

If an intern is set tasks to complete (rather than simply observing or shadowing), then they’re classed as a worker. This means they’re entitled to some standard employment rights, such as the right to be paid the National Minimum Wage.

The terms of an Intern Agreement are different to an Employment Agreement.

Some of the terms will be the same as an Employment Agreement (see FAQ: What should I include in an Intern Agreement?) but some are specific to interns.

At SeedLegals, our Intern Agreements have terms about inductions, mentoring and when they can expect you to provide a reference for them. You wouldn’t find these terms in a standard Employment Contract.

The easiest way to create Intern Agreements is to start with a template and customise it so that it’s exactly what you need.

You can start with a SeedLegals Intern Agreement template and choose the terms you need. To get started, log into SeedLegals then go to Agreements. It’s fast and incredibly simple. If you need any help, chat online with our experts.

When your document is ready, send it via SeedLegals to your new intern to sign online.

Best of all, we store your documents securely for as long as you need, so you can access them in My Documents anytime. And if you need to create a new Intern Agreement in the future, you can replicate the terms you’ve used before – you don’t have to start from scratch.

No, you don’t need a separate NDA if your team member has already signed a contract with your company that includes confidentiality terms.

The SeedLegals Intern Agreement template includes terms that protect your company’s confidential information. You can customise the template to suit your company. To get started, log into SeedLegals and go to Agreements. If you need any help, chat online with our experts.

It depends how the team member is working for you:

• Employees
  The law changed in April 2020. An employee must now receive a contract or agreement by the end of their first working day and the contract must list all paid benefits (statutory or otherwise).
  It’s good practice to provide a written Employment Agreement to employees as soon as possible after they begin working for you.
• Contractors, consultants, freelancers
  You can use the SeedLegals Consultancy Agreement.
• Interns
  You can use the SeedLegals Intern Agreement.
• Advisors
  You can use the SeedLegals Advisor Agreement.
• Unpaid helpers
  If you have people volunteering for your company unpaid (friends, family or anyone else), you should ask them to sign an NDA and IP Assignment Agreement.