REPRESENTATIVES of more than 40 York businesses met for breakfast to launch the University of York's 2014 Summer Internship Programme.

Last summer 117 University of York students secured placements working for eight to 12 weeks with a variety of businesses across the city.

The interns worked on projects ranging from setting up social media marketing campaigns to establishing a new ‘China Desk’ to help Garbutt and Elliot, the York based accounting firm, extend its services overseas.

Hosting the launch of this year's programme was Professor Colin Mellors, the University’s Pro Vice Chancellor for Business and the Community.

He said: “Summer internships offer wins for everyone. Businesses gain from the skills and enthusiasm of a current student to tackle a project that they wouldn’t normally have the time or resource to address; the student gains excellent work experience and the University helps both parties to get the most from the scheme.

"We are hoping that we can extend the number of organisations we work with this year to serve existing partners and encourage new ones to gain the benefits a student intern can achieve for them with just a few weeks of concentrated effort."

Also speaking at the launch was Carrie Mulligan, marcomms manager for IT services firm Trustmarque Technology Solutions, who noted that she had found the scheme easy to use and that interns had contributed significantly to the business in a range of ways.

Any businesses interested in having a University of York student tackle a business problem over the summer months is invtied to careers-sib@york.ac.uk