Internships

The Young Britons’ Foundation operates a Job Bank for students and graduates, whereby young people can be matched with and apply for work experience and employment opportunities in the offices of MPs, MEPs, AMs, MSPs, MLAs and Peers, as well as journalists and many other public figures. We also offer students opportunities to gain experience and employment in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Brussels and the United States.

This is the first Job Bank of its kind for conservatives in Britain, providing politicians with access to the most talented and gifted activists, and activists with employment opportunities and experience.

The Job Bank application forms can be accessed here.  Please complete and send back to donal@ybf.org.uk

Our Partners

After developing relationships over the past decade, YBF is able to offer the brightest and best activists in Britain the chance to intern with the following US-based organisations:

  • The Leadership Institute – The LI is based in Arlington, Virginia. Founded in 1979, it identifies, recruits, trains and places conservatives in the public policy process. Its President, Morton Blackwell, is acknowledged as the godfather of conservative movement, having trained a number of Senators, Congressmen, Governors and even Karl Rove himself. The LI also houses a state-of-the-art television studio to which YBF activists are given access each summer so that they can learn how to become effective communicators of conservative ideas.
  • The Heritage Foundation – Heritage is the pre-eminent conservative think-tank in the United States. Founded in 1973, Heritage has been at the forefront of much of the conservative revolution that has swept America since President Reagan’s victory in 1980. It is home to The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a project dedicated to advancing and preserving the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.
  • The Young America’s Foundation – YAF is the sister organisation of the Young Britons’ Foundation. Based just outside Washington DC, YAF is the gateway to the conservative movement to thousands of activists each year. It is renowned for its nationwide Speakers Panel, its annual High School Leadership Conference and Conservative Student Conference (to which YBF activists are invited each summer) and for saving Ronald Reagan’s Western White House – the breathtaking Rancho del Cielo.
  • The Jesse Helms Center – The Helms Center, based in North Carolina, promotes the vision of the late US Senator for North Carolina, Jesse Helms: free enterprise, representative democracy, traditional values and a strong national defence. The Helms Center has a particular interest in promoting a moral foreign policy. Interns who have been placed in North Carolina have also worked on the Center’s Free Enterprise Leadership Challenge, a schools-focused project aimed at encouraging tomorrow’s business leaders and entrepreneurs.
  • The Competitive Enterprise Institute – The CEI, based in Washington DC, vigorously promotes principles of free enterprise and limited government. The CEI has a particular expertise in the realm of environmental policy and regulatory matters. It is particularly proactive in the media and in adopting memorable campaign tactics to advance its agenda. It has become renowned for standing up to liberal bullying over climate change.
  • The Independent Women’s Forum – The Independent Women’s Forum focuses on issues of particular concern to women and families. It seeks to rebuild civil society by advancing economic liberty, personal responsibility and political freedom. Based in Washington DC, IWF works closely with other conservative think-tanks to help produce and advocate policies that promote true equality under the law. Eschewing the traditional focus on “women’s issues” advocated by leftists, the IWF instead concentrates on empowering women throughout the world – and in particular in the Middle East.
  • The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute - The CBLPI is based just outside Washington DC. It mentors and trains young women for effective leadership on their campuses, at their workplaces and in their communities and homes. Its programmes, resources and role models provide a strong voice for modern women who want fair treatment and equal opportunities but who are offended by the radical, liberal agenda they encounter in schools, colleges and popular culture.
  • The Weekly Standard – The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative political magazine based in Washington DC, owned by Rupert Murdoch. Edited by Fox News’ Fred Barnes and William Kristol, it takes a provocative stance on a number of foreign policy and social issues – hoping to shake conservatives out of their current malaise in the US.

For further information about these US-based internship opportunities, please contact Matthew Richardson, YBF Executive Director, at matthew@ybf.org.uk.

Terms and conditions of internships

1. The decision as to whom internships with the Young Britons’ Foundation are offered is entirely a matter for the discretion of the Young Britons’ Foundation and is not open to appeal or review. Internships may be revoked at any time for any reason.

2. The decision as to whom internships with other individuals or organisations are offered by those individuals or organisations is likewise entirely a matter for the discretion of those individuals or organisations and is likewise not open to appeal or review. Internships may be revoked at any time for any reason.

3. Any applicant for an internship, whether with the Young Britons’ Foundation or any individual or organisation to whom the Young Britons’ Foundation refers that applicant and which may subsequently offer that applicant an internship, agrees to hold harmless the Young Britons’ Foundation, its directors, officers, staff and/or agents and not to hold the Young Britons’ Foundation, its directors, officers, staff and/or agents liable in any way whatsoever in the event that that applicant suffers any loss, damage or costs arising from any decision made to offer (or not to offer) or withdraw any offer an internship to that applicant.

4. The responsibility for obtaining any work permit, visa or other legal or regulatory approval to enable an applicant to undertake an internship, whether in the United Kingdom, the United States or elsewhere, is entirely the responsibility of the applicant who shall be solely responsible for meetings the costs thereof.

5. Any applicant who obtains an internship with the Young Britons’ Foundation (or through the Young Britons’ Foundation with another individual or organisation) agrees to keep confidential all or any dealings that applicant may have had with the Young Britons’ Foundation and undertakes at all times not to say or do anything that may impact negatively on the reputation of the Young Britons’ Foundation, its directors, officers, staff and/or agents.