Success of an Intern – Our New IR35 Test

No pay… No fun… No hope for progression within the business afterwards…?

This is the impression from many current articles, in regards to the working environments for Interns. Including an article from the Guardian Newspaper which states:

‘Famous high street businesses, including Topshop and the recruitment specialist Reed, are being named and shamed by an internet campaign targeting the rise of unpaid and very low paid internships that, it is claimed, is undermining the link between pay and work.’

This differs dramatically to the experience had by QAccounting intern Alan Hannah, who has recently turned full time staff at QAccounting in the role of Designer/Web Developer.

Alan Hannah started at QAccounting as an Intern provided by a Robert Gordon’s University initiative to give recent graduates a taste of working life, in a business environment. Over a year interning Alan was an integral part of developing two websites, as well as working on a project to send Accounts so that clients can sign them via smart phone (this is still underway), as well as vastly decreasing the paperwork involved in the client Enrolment Process for both our new clients, and our internal sales team, and a number of further design projects.

Alan says:

“I feel I have had, and continue to have the opportunity to grow both as a business man and a web developer. My ideas are always taken on board as part of a broader strategy and I love coming to work to face the challenges that make me better at my job as each day passes.”

Michelle Barclay, Alan’s Line Manager, said:

“Alan is essential to the business to ensure we are on the cutting edge of web compliance, technological advances and he has a keen eye for improving the client experience as a whole.

Alan’s ideas are always taken on board, just like the rest of the Team at QAccounting. His contribution to the development and growth at QAccounting is so invaluable, that at the end of his year internship he was offered a full time position, on a wage that beats most graduate roles.”

At QAccounting we are specialists in Contractors and Freelancers, Alan has been keen to learn about the legislative boundaries for these clients, and we encouraged him to learn about the rules involved in IR35 Legislative rules. He also did further study on our blogs and videos on the topic. His interest planted a seed, and he developed a tool for our Contractor and Freelancer Toolkit which our contractors could greatly benefit from; the 12 point IR35 test. This identifies if a contractor or freelancer’s IR35 risk is high, medium, or low.

Please keep your eyes peeled on this going live this Friday, as we’d love to hear feedback from our clients and followers.

Alan Counts. We Count. You Count.