Form questions

Internship application questions for student placements

Ask 12 to 15. Never skip availability for the weeks the internship runs, a short answer on why this team, and one document such as a CV. Add the right to work question for any paid placement, and ask whether the placement counts toward the student's course, because that changes how it must be run.

An internship application has to find out whether a student can actually do the placement, in the weeks it runs, and whether they will get something real from it. These questions ask about course, timing and motivation before the uploads, so a panel opens the CV already knowing the applicant is available and eligible.

The questions

About you

  1. Your nameNameRequired

  2. EmailShort textRequired

    Short text, since the email component renders nothing on a published classic form.

  3. MobileShort text

  4. Do you have the right to work in this country for the whole placement?Single choiceRequired

    Citizen or permanent resident; a visa with work rights; not yet, a visa change would be needed.

Your study

  1. Where are you studying?DropdownRequired

    The usual institutions plus somewhere else, or overseas.

  2. Degree or courseShort text

  3. Year of studyDropdown

  4. Expected completionDate

  5. Is this placement a required part of your course?Single choice

    Fair Work treats a placement required by a course differently from an internship that is not.

  6. Will your institution need to sign a placement agreement?Single choice

Availability

  1. Which days could you work in each block?Rating gridRequired

    Placement blocks as rows, Monday to Friday as columns, several ticks per row.

  2. How many days a week could you commit?Single choice

  3. Could you work on site, remotely or either?Single choice

  4. Is anything in your study timetable scheduled during those weeks?Short text

Your application

  1. Which team are you applying for?Dropdown

  2. Second choice, if you would take oneDropdown

  3. Why this team, in about 200 wordsLong textRequired

    State the limit in the label, where the applicant reads it before typing.

  4. Describe a project you built, researched or organisedLong text

  5. Portfolio, code or writing sample linkShort text

  6. Your CVFile uploadRequired

    One PDF, two pages is plenty. Uploads accept images and PDF only, so a Word file must be saved as PDF.

  7. Your academic transcriptFile upload

    An unofficial copy is fine at this stage.

  8. Adjustments you would need for an interview or for the placementLong text

Before you submit

  1. Referee's nameName

  2. Referee's emailShort text

  3. How did you hear about the internship?Dropdown

  4. I confirmMultiple choiceRequired

    The application is my own work and true; I can attend at least one block I ticked.

Which questions to make required

Eight questions are required: name, email, where the student is studying, the right to work, the availability grid, why this team, the CV and the confirmation. Availability and right to work rule people in or out, the written answer and CV are what the panel scores, and the rest make contact and accountability possible. The transcript, portfolio and referee stay optional, since they matter only once someone is shortlisted.

The form built from these questions

A static copy of the finished form, from its own example page.

Northreef summer internship 2027

Twelve paid places across four streams, six weeks each, based at the Northreef field station. Applications close 5pm on 30 September and interviews run in the last fortnight of October.

About you

Your study

There is no cut off mark. The panel reads the whole application, and a middling average with a season of field work behind it has beaten a high one without, more than once. Put the number in anyway, because leaving it blank is read as worse than whatever it is.

The placement

You can put yourself forward for a second stream and it does not weaken the first. Roughly a third of offers each year go to somebody's second choice, usually because a stream was oversubscribed rather than because the applicant was.
The next question decides how the placement is paid, so it is worth getting right. A placement that your course requires you to complete is treated differently from one you have chosen to do, and the difference is settled by your course rules rather than by anything we prefer.
The next three are about field work rather than about you. Reef monitoring puts interns on a boat four days a week, and the answers below decide which stream can actually take you rather than whether you are any good.
YesNot yet
Can you swim 200 metres in open water and tread water for five minutes?
Do you hold a current driver licence?
Do you hold a recreational boat licence?
Do you hold a current first aid certificate?
Have you spent a full day on a small boat before?

Your application

One PDF, under 10 MB. Two pages is plenty. Put field work, boat time, laboratory hours and anything you have volunteered for above your casual jobs, because that is the half the panel reads first.

One PDF. An unofficial transcript downloaded from your student portal is fine at this stage. An official one is only asked for if you are offered a place.

Two referees

One academic and one from any kind of work. Tell them before you list them. Referees are only contacted for shortlisted applicants, in the week beginning 13 October, and never without telling you first.
#NameRole and organisationEmailHow they know you
1
2

Before you send it

Applications close at 5pm on 30 September and the form closes with them. There is no late window and no partial save, so send what you have rather than perfecting it on the last afternoon.

Three ways to change this bank

For a graduate program, replace year of study with the completion date and final results, add location preferences and the rotations the applicant is most interested in, and make two referees required, since the offer is a permanent job. For an unpaid vocational placement arranged through a university, add the course code, the number of placement hours the course requires and the academic supervisor's contact, and make the required part of your course question required, because Fair Work's test for a lawfully unpaid placement depends on it. For a school work experience week, ask for the student's school and year, the school coordinator's contact, a parent or guardian's consent as a separate question and any medical information, and drop the CV entirely.

Questions people ask

Does an internship have to be paid in Australia?

Not always. The Fair Work Ombudsman says unpaid work experience or an internship can be lawful if it is a student or vocational placement, or if there is no employment relationship. If there is an employment relationship, the intern is an employee and must be paid at least the minimum wage. Check the placement against Fair Work's guidance first.

What is a vocational placement?

Under the Fair Work Act, it is a placement a student undertakes as a required part of an education or training course, with no entitlement to be paid for the work. Placements that meet that definition are lawfully unpaid. That is why the form asks whether the internship is a required part of the applicant's course.

Why ask for availability as a grid rather than dates?

Students juggle classes, exams and casual work, so a single yes to a date range hides the Tuesday they cannot do. A grid with placement blocks as rows and weekdays as columns shows exactly which days each applicant can work, which makes rostering several interns across a team far easier than reading free text.

Should an internship application ask for a cover letter?

A focused written question does the same job better. A cover letter upload invites a generic page written for twenty employers, while why this team, in about 200 words, gets an answer written for one. Panels also compare short answers more fairly than letters of different lengths and formats.

How long should the written answers be?

One answer of about 200 words, and a second optional one at most. Students applying for several internships at once drop out of forms with long essays. State the limit in the question label, where every applicant sees it before writing, and ask the panel to stop reading at the limit so nobody gains by ignoring it.

Should applicants upload a transcript at the first stage?

Make it optional, or ask only shortlisted applicants. A transcript helps a panel choose between close candidates, but downloading and uploading one adds a step that loses applicants. If marks matter, a short question asking for the average mark gives the panel enough to sort applications before anyone requests the document.

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