In July 2007, the US Government revised its regulations governing exchange visitor programmes.  New eligibility categories have been established.  The Mountbatten Internship Programme has been redesignated to administer the new TRAINEE category.  This website uses the general term 'intern' to mean TRAINEE, and uses the specific term 'TRAINEE' (in caps) when dealing with eligibility and application details.

For the March 2010 intake, candidates for TRAINEE positions must have:

1. A degree or professional certificate from a post-secondary academic institution outside the United States.
2. At least one year of work experience in their occupational field acquired outside the United States.  This work experience can be accumulated in several positions, and may have been acquired before, during, and/or after the relevant academic studies.

In addition, a candidate for TRAINEE must be able to show a link between their prior acquired work experience or current occupational field and their anticipated training experience (i.e. internship) in New York.  The internship in NY must allow each participant to enhance existing skills in their occupational specialty through exposure to American techniques, methodologies and expertise.

Thus, candidates are asked to provide evidence that the training they wish to receive in the US will serve as a continuation of what they have learned already in the workplace.

In other words, it means that if you wish to apply for our New York Internship Programme and participate in a legal placement, for example, you need to demonstrate a minimum of 12 months work experience in law or RELATED to law. Same goes for events, finance, marketing etc . . .  It is down to the candidate to present to us evidence of this required level of work experience and we, then, determine whether or not the work carried out will satisfy the US State Department regulations.

Under the TRAINEE category, Mountbatten's approved occupational sub-category is the general field of Management, Business, Commerce and Finance.  Within this occupational sub-category, we have internship opportunities available in the following fields of industry:  Architecture, Event Management, Executive Search, Finance, Government, HR, IT, Law, Marketing, Non-Profit, Post-Production Services (media), and Real Estate.

All Mountbatten internships are office based and business related.  For example, an internship offered at an architectural firm will not focus on practicing architecture per se but rather on gaining experience on the business side of the firm.

If you fulfill the requirements listed under the TRAINEE category you may be eligible to take part in the Programme.  Please continue to read through the additional eligibility requirements listed below.

AGE RANGE:
You must be at least 21 at the time you propose to begin the Programme - specifically, by the Sunday at the beginning of orientation week at the official start of your Programme.  The New York Programme is geared for university graduates between the ages of 21 and 26.

We do accept applications from older graduates, however the design of the Programme, with its focus on post-university personal development, makes it generally unsuitable and unappealing to graduates with substantial work experience.  Further, our specific training remit (as licensed by the US Government) renders the Programme inappropriate for such graduates - consequently our US sponsor companies in subscribing to our Programme seek recent graduates, and tend to select them in preference to more experienced graduates with higher expectations.  Thus if you are more than 1 or 2 years older than our recommended upper age limit (26) you are advised to contact the London office to discuss the implications before you commit yourself.

EDUCATION:
All of our interns are university graduates.  We do not accept undergraduates, i.e. students in the middle of their degree.  However, you may apply (September intake only) while still an undergraduate in anticipation of being a graduate when you actually join the Programme.  The Admissions Team takes a holistic approach to each application, reviewing all aspects of a candidate’s experience, education, references and personal achievements.  Most applicants, however, should have an undergraduate degree classified at 2.2 and above.

TYPES OF PLACEMENTS:
Mountbatten has a wide variety of company Sponsors, each with its own approach to training.  You must be prepared to undertake entry level and office administrative work.  You should understand that the Programme is as much about personal and cultural development as career development, otherwise you are likely to be disappointed and the Programme will not be as rewarding as it should be.  In selecting Sponsors, Mountbatten seeks companies that will provide hands-on training in order to develop professional transferable skills and competencies.

SKILLS REQUIRED:
Most Sponsor Companies require a minimum typing speed of 45 words per minute.  A few Sponsor Companies will accept less, but this greatly reduces your chances of being placed.  You will also require a good working knowledge of MS Word and Excel.  Powerpoint, Access and Mac knowledge could be helpful.  You should be familiar with Email.  You should have good internet communication skills which must include experience with Microsoft Explorer and / or Netscape and the use of search engines to perform online research.

COMMITMENT:
You must be prepared to make a year-long commitment to every aspect of the Programme and the Certificate.  Specifically you will be required to attend orientation week followed by 52 or 53 weeks (depending on the cycle of your intake) with a sponsor company.  Interns will not be permitted to leave the Programme early to start new jobs, or new programmes or courses such as law conversion, or postgraduate courses.  Equally, interns who agree to join the Mountbatten Programme a week or so early to accommodate particular sponsor requirements will not be permitted to leave the Programme before its proper completion date.

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS:
Mountbatten does not offer any language training internships whatsoever.  In subscribing to our Programme, our American Sponsor companies expect high standards of educated English from their Mountbatten interns.  If your native language is NOT English your spoken and written English must be highly proficient, i.e. fluent with a comprehensive vocabulary and grammatically correct.  You should be able to pick up American workplace phraseology very quickly (within a week or two of arriving).  Foreign accents are very common in New York - our sponsor companies will expect you to cope easily with a variety of American and foreign accents spoken rapidly on the telephone.  And they will expect you yourself to speak with very clear diction.  Typically, if you have spent at least one year of your degree at an English-speaking university, and if you have a good ear and clear diction you should be able to cope with the spoken side.  Most internships also demand a professional standard of written English, as does the Certificate.  If English is not your native language, you may be asked to submit proof of proficiency e.g. TOEFL score of 650.

As we recruit from all over the UK, and from several other English speaking countries, our interns have a wide variety of regional and national accents.  All such native-English-speaking candidates will be expected to have clear diction, and to be able to converse without using slang or non-standard grammar.  Remember, it is our American Sponsor Companies who make the final selection from our candidate pool, and they do so following a telephone interview with you - if our Sponsors have trouble understanding your spoken English they will not offer you an internship in their company.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS:
The vast majority of successful applicants will be UK nationals.  Some will be other EC nationals and a few will be from outside the EC (e.g. Asia, South Africa, Australia).  If you are a non-UK or non-EC national, there may be difficulties in obtaining your visa.  You are advised to contact either Mountbatten's London Office or Bangkok Office before applying.  Australians and New Zealanders should contact the Sydney office.  Also see INTERVIEWS below.

Applicants must make (and pay for) their own travel and accommodation arrangements for attending interviews.  Thus applicants from outside Britain (or far from Sydney) should consider that there may be high costs involved in getting to the interview, with no guarantee of acceptance onto the Programme, and, if accepted, with no guarantee of placement in New York.  (see Financial Information)

HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS:
You should be in good health both physically and mentally.  The internship year can be a stressful one, with multiple changes in your environment, and for some, a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows.  Applicants with any form of medical condition are advised to discuss the matter with our London office before applying.  The Programme's medical insurance specifically excludes any pre-existing conditions and all mental and nervous disorders.  Treatment for such conditions can be extremely expensive, and, in our experience, generally uninsurable.  The Programme is not able to offer any financial assistance in such cases and may ask you to demonstrate proof of ability to pay.

In the past the Programme has tried with mixed success to find internships for interns with physical disabilities.  As a practical matter, Mountbatten's sponsoring companies are under no obligation to accept foreign interns with medical conditions that in their view would inhibit an intern's performance.  Furthermore, the Programme has limited resources for coping with special medical requirements.  Mountbatten generally reserves the right to terminate the internship of, and repatriate, any intern who is unable to comply with the rigors, demands and all of the requirements of the internship programme:  this would apply particularly to any intern who did not properly disclose a potentially disbarring medical condition prior to joining the Programme, if that condition subsequently became an issue during the internship.  However, interns who develop new medical conditions while in New York will of course receive the full sympathy and support of the Programme within the limits if its resources.

PRIOR J1 VISA RESTRICTIONS:
Some J1 visa programmes (such as those that receive US Government agency funding) are subject to a 2 year home residency requirement.  This means that if you have already participated on such a programme you may not subsequently participate in the Mountbatten Programme for a period of 2 years following the termination of your first J1 programme.

Other J1 visa programmes (including the Mountbatten Programme) are not subject to the 2 year residency requirement.  If you happen to have participated on one of these programmes you would still be eligible to apply for Mountbatten.

Mountbatten cannot advise you on whether other programmes are subject to this restriction or not.  If you have previously been to the USA on a J1 visa programme, you should contact that programme yourself to ascertain your status before applying to Mountbatten.  You can get an idea of your status by looking at your DS-2019.  However you should not rely solely on that document because a clerical error in this regard would have no bearing on your actual eligibility.

An important part of Mountbatten's philosophy is that all interns leave the USA after their internship to practice and develop what they have learned in the USA back in their home country.  Mountbatten does not encourage transfers within the USA to other J1 programmes or to any other type of US Visa.

MARITAL STATUS - OTHER RELATIONSHIPS:
The Programme is not suitable for married candidates (whether alone or with their spouse), partners who wish to live together, or active single parents.  Mountbatten stresses personal and independent development and so siblings and best friends should not apply as a unit or with a view to living in the same building, or attending classes together.

CORRESPONDENCE:
Candidates must have an active email account - most of our correspondence, including interview scheduling, uses this medium.

APPLICATION DEADLINES:
SEPTEMBER INTAKE - Applications are accepted from the preceding September 16th through to March 15th of the year of the programme start date.

MARCH INTAKE (2009 onwards) - Applications are accepted from March 16th through to September 15th in the year preceding the programme start date.

Your completed applications and all your references should be received by our London office by 5 pm on the deadline in question.  If the deadline falls on a weekend or public holiday, we will accept completed applications by 5 pm on the first business day after the deadline.

Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that we receive all your references by the deadline.

The Programme is usually oversubscribed and so deadlines for individual applicants are never extended beyond the published dates.  If the published deadline itself is extended (unusual), a large red-bordered notice will appear both here in this sub-section and at the top of HOW TO APPLY.

Applications take quite some time to organize - you are strongly advised not to leave your application to the last minute.