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Arts Council England and Creative & Cultural Skills have published Internships in the arts - a guide for arts organisations.

The guide offers advice on how to develop high-quality and mutually beneficial employment opportunities, and sets out the legal obligations for arts and cultural organisations offering internships.

Recommendations include:

• an open, transparent and fair recruitment process
• internships being well planned and based on a wider internship and equal opportunities policy
• offering meaningful experiences and responsibilities that contribute to the aims of the organisation
• paying interns at least national minimum wage

The guide also highlights the legal obligations for organisations offering internships, including the need for them to ensure that they are operating within the requirements of the National Minimum Wage Act.

Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said: 'We firmly believe that arts and culture will benefit from the new ideas and perspectives presented by a workforce drawn from all sectors of society. Well-planned, paid internships have a role to play in bringing about this change by helping people from all backgrounds gain experience of working in the arts.

'These guidelines will support arts and cultural organisations in developing these kinds of high-quality employment opportunities to create a future generation of highly skilled arts leaders.'

Catherine Large, Joint Chief Executive, Creative & Cultural Skills, said: 'We have long been committed to opening up entry routes into the creative and cultural industries - the sector can only grow if it has access to the widest pool of talent. Through our work in this area developing the first-ever apprenticeships for the creative sector, we realised how reliant the sector is on unpaid labour, how important first-hand work experience is and what the demand is from young people for jobs.'

You can download Internships in the arts from our publications section.