Career Ready

Registered charity 1092891 · since 2002careerready.org.uk·England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales·Updated 30 October 2026

At a glance

Open to applications

Rolling, no deadlines · unsolicited applications welcome

Key takeaways

The Internship Investment Funding suits an employer with at least 10 employees, three years of trading, premises to work from, Employers Liability Insurance, a Health and Safety policy, a risk assessment for a young person, and the capacity to host a young person for a paid four-week internship with a mentor.
Organisations with fewer than 10 employees, or that have not been trading for three years, should not apply under this fund.
The annual report gives no usable grants total and no grant range, so the fund's own terms are the best guide to scale, and Career Ready welcomes employers contributing 20% to 50% of the internship salary cost.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis through the short form on its website, and previous recipients are welcome to apply again.
Career Ready considers the strength of its relationship with an employer and that employer's appetite to support it in future when allocating places, so an employer with an existing link to the charity may be in a stronger position.

Overview

Career Ready is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 1092891).

Career Ready exists to connect young people with real-world workplace experiences and support networks that build their confidence, skills and career aspirations, and its central work is to boost social mobility for young people from under-represented backgrounds. In partnership with employers, it provides mentoring, paid internships, skills masterclasses and workplace visits, and its Internship Investment Funding supports SMEs and charities with 10 or more employees. It reports 3,319 young people across its programme cohorts and over 4,000 fellow alumni, employers and volunteers.

What they fund

Priority Areas

Career Ready’s central work is to boost social mobility for young people from under-represented backgrounds, connecting them with education and employment opportunities. Its structured programme provides mentoring, paid internships, masterclasses and workplace visits. Through its Internship Investment Funding, it supports SMEs and charities with at least ten employees and capacity to host a young person for a paid, four-week internship. Employers are also asked to provide a mentor. The fund is intended to help organisations overcome resource barriers to offering workplace opportunities and contribute to local social mobility.

Themes

Social mobility
Paid internships

What they don't fund

Internship Investment Fund only: organisations with fewer than 10 employees; organisations that have not been trading for a minimum of three years

How to apply

Employers seeking Internship Investment Funding should get in touch by filling in the short form on the fund page; Career Ready says it will be in touch.

Who can apply:

Internship Investment Fund
- Funding is available to employers with 10 or more employees and with the capacity to host a young person for a four-week period.
- Your organisation has been trading for a minimum of three years and has a headcount of at least 10 people
- You have Employers Liability Insurance, a Health and Safety policy and can provide a risk assessment for a young person
- You have premises that they work from e.g. an established office or shared hub space
- It is also essential that the supervisor attends one of our internship briefings.

What to send:

Internship Investment Fund
- Employers Liability Insurance
- A Health and Safety policy
- A risk assessment for a young person

Applying again: Internship Investment Fund: Yes, we welcome applications from previous recipients.

Application success factors

What the charity says:

When allocating funded places, Career Ready considers the strength of its relationship with the employer and the employer’s appetite to support Career Ready in future.
Career Ready welcomes employers contributing 20% to 50% of the internship salary cost.
Career Ready asks every employer using the funding to complete a case study at the end of the internship.
Career Ready prefers an internship to last four weeks.

Where they fund

Registered area of operation (Charity Commission)

Similar funders

Funders supporting work similar to Career Ready.

The Sutton TrustInvitation onlyGave £1.3M EY FoundationNo public processGave £115k Purposeful VenturesRollingGave £8.3M The City Solicitors Educational TrustInvitation onlyGave £410k Hermes TrustRollingGave £123k British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical PathologyInvitation onlyGave £42,367 Discalced Carmelites UKNo public process Neonatal & Paediatric Pharmacy GroupNo public process The Peter Cruddas FoundationInvitation only ImpetusFixed deadlinesGave £32.1M

Five years of accounts

Financial year	Income	Expenditure	Grants paid	Accounts document
year to 31 March 2021	£2,409,438	£2,690,669	—	Accounts for year to 31 March 2021
year to 31 March 2022	£2,938,446	£2,923,095	—	Accounts for year to 31 March 2022
year to 31 March 2023	£3,348,599	£3,483,638	—	Accounts for year to 31 March 2023
year to 31 March 2024	£3,421,347	£4,004,395	—	Accounts for year to 31 March 2024
year to 31 March 2025	£2,734,587	£2,657,838	—	Accounts for year to 31 March 2025

— No grants figure for those years.

Figures from the charity’s filed accounts and its register entry. The document icon links to the charity’s entry on the Charity Commission register, where its filed accounts can be found.