Brussels: Editorial intern

The Economist newspaper's editorial department has no formal training scheme.

Interns, when they come, are treated as members of staff and are expected to join in accordingly. The competition is fierce. There is no guarantee of a job or anything else when the internship comes to an end.

We run three internships every year. The number of interns taken on within a year is different for each internship. In addition to these three, occasionally, but not every year at any set time, we advertise for interns in the foreign department of The Economist newspaper. We do the same for the Britain department.

1) Nico Colchester Internship
One internship place at The Economist per year

The Nico Colchester Prize is organised by The Economist and the Financial Times for citizens of the European Union. The prize takes the form of a three-month internship at either The Economist or the Financial Times, and is advertised in both papers around February/March. The internship was established in memory of Nico Colchester, who died in 1996, after an outstanding career at the Financial Times, The Economist and the Economist Intelligence Unit. Each year, the trustees of the Fellowship set a question for applicants to write an article about. The best two applications are selected for an internship offer.

To find out more about the internship, click here

To view this year’s question for applicants, click here

To view biographies of past interns, click here

2) The Richard Casement Internship
One internship placement at The Economist per year

This is an internship run solely by The Economist. It is named after a former science editor of The Economist who had an outstanding career with us. The internship is for a would-be journalist to spend three months writing about science and technology. Our aim is more to discover writing talent in a science student or scientist than scientific aptitude in a budding journalist. This internship is advertised in the science section of The Economist in February/March. Applicants are usually asked to write a letter introducing themselves, including an original article of about 600 words, that they think would be suitable for publication in the Science and Technology section.

To view the advert for the 2010 internship, click here:

3) The Marjorie Deane Internship
At least three internship placements at The Economist per year

The Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation offers an internship designed to provide work experience for a promising journalist or would-be journalist, spending three months of the summer at either The Economist or the Financial Times, writing about economics and finance. The Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation was set up in 1998 by Marjorie Deane, a former finance editor of The Economist. The formal purpose of the Foundation is to advance the education of the public in financial and monetary theory and institutions and financial journalism. The Economist helps by providing work experience for students and young people and financial support during such work experience. This internship is advertised annually in the finance section of The Economist print and online editions in March/April of each year. It is also advertised in our Asia and US editions at different times throughout the year. Applicants are usually asked to send a letter introducing themselves, with an original article of no more than 500 words that they think would be suitable for publication in this section of The Economist.

For more information about the Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation, click here:

To look at previous winning applications and view Marjorie Deane alumni pages, click here:

For details about all of our internships in editorial, please contact Anne Foley, Editorial Manager, at InternshipsEditorial@economist.com