The Highest Paid Internships & Placements

How do we work out the average salaries?

Over 80,000 students have submitted reviews on Higherin about their work experience, including internships, placements and insight days.

In each review, they responded to a series of questions about their role, the company they worked for and the perks of their scheme.

Students also revealed their salary information*, enabling their peers to discover how much they would be paid if they worked for a particular employer, or on a similar scheme.

Using the data from the reviews, we were able to work the average salaries for jobs in different industries, and in various regions across the UK.

*around 5-10% is taken off the top and bottom figures to make averages more realistic.

Highest Paid Internships and Placement Years

By industry

These are the highest-paying industries for placements and internships in the UK. Who knew that you could earn over £30k by getting work experience?

Just imagine what you could do with that sort of money… you could be very sensible and put it all in an ISA or book an all-expenses paid trip to Japan.

Highest-paid internships by industry

1. Banking - £44,227

2. Technology - £30,623

3. Financial Services - £28,965

4. HR and Recruitment - £23,640

5. Business - £23,369

6. Accountancy and Tax - £22,113

7. Engineering - £20,081

Highest-paid placement years by industry

1. Banking - £30,199

2. Accountancy and Tax - £22,432

3. Financial Services - £22,405

4. Construction and Property - £22,314

5. Marketing - £21,602

6. Technology - £21,584

7. Business - £21,549

By region

These are the average salaries for different regions in the UK. (Bear in mind that London tends to have higher average salaries because the cost of living is more expensive.)

1. London - £27,499

2. North East - £23,633

3. Scotland - £23,478

4. Northern Ireland - £20,515

5. North West - £20,480

6. East of England - £20,061

7. South East - £20,037

8. East Midlands - £19,159

9. South West - £18,922

10. West Midland - £18,866

11. Yorkshire and Humberside - £18,327

12. Wales - £18,054

We believe ALL internships should be paid

At Higherin, we believe that ALL interns and placement students should be paid a fair salary for their work.

During a work experience placement, you will effectively assume the responsibilities of a regular employee – so it’s only fair that you’re rewarded (and paid) like any other worker.

Most companies do now pay their interns a decent wage, and on our own jobs board, we don’t advertise any unpaid internships or placements in the UK.