Trinity Business School graduates Paddy Ryder and Rob Muldowney are connecting students seeking internships with small businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic through their platform Covid Interns.

Covid Interns connects small businesses facing the commercial challenges of Covid-19 with volunteer university students and graduates with specialised skills.

The platform offers students and graduates willing to help the opportunity to gain valuable experience in fields such as digital marketing, financial planning, consulting, web development, PR campaigns, content writing and social media management.

The venture has placed over 150 students from over 30 universities and business schools, and has supported over 100 businesses across 25 industries.

Having placed students from every recognised Irish university, and over 20 universities in the UK – including the University of Cambridge, The London School of Economics, the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London – Covid Interns has recently re-launched for the 2021 cohort.

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Receiving hundreds of CVs over the last few weeks, the initiative is now looking to place these students across a wide-range of businesses.

Co-founder Rob Muldowney stated: “We have been delighted with the success of the initiative in offering a very distinct type of work opportunity. Our placements are usually volunteer projects and extracurricular roles that are flexible, remote, and work around students' college schedules.

"The placements have been highly rated by past clients and candidates, and the testimonies demonstrate the value-add and the wider social impact Covid Interns has made and will continue to make throughout 2021.”

Paddy Ryder stated: “Like many organisations Covid Interns was born out of frustration, given the difficulties Rob and I faced securing summer internships post-graduation. Having realised we were not alone, we set about mobilising these students to help Irish SMEs.

“Our candidates may agree to take projects on a voluntary basis if they are appropriate and can be fit in around their schedule. Any placements that more closely resemble jobs should be positioned as paid placements, unless there are special circumstances such as charitable status, a complete lack of revenue etc. Students may agree to volunteer for organisations with such worthy causes. This will be decided upon in a case by case basis.

"If you are in a position to pay, and find that after three weeks your Covid Intern has been a success, we will charge a modest fee. Fees are necessary to make our social impact initiative sustainable. If your organisation is a charity, new startup, or gravely struggling, we can offer pro bono placement services."

Conor Edwards at Trinity Business School added: “By connecting top talent with companies Covid Interns is breathing new life into how our SMEs are navigating this crisis, while also providing our students and alumni with invaluable real-world work experience.”

Photo: Covid Interns founders Rob Muldowney (right) and Paddy Ryder