1. Student Advocates must prioritise their school work over this role. If you (or your teachers) feel that your workload is too much, you must pause your participation activities until you have more time. If this happens, please email your mentor who will be able to offer the support you need.
2. Participation in the FT Student Advocate Forum is encouraged but isn’t compulsory. When posting on the forum, you must not post any content that:
   a) belongs to someone else (such as copyright material);
   b) consists of advertising, sponsored or promotional links or content;
   c) is offensive, defamatory, threatening or indecent;
   d) discriminates on the grounds of race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age; or
   e) personally attacks other members of the forum.
3. You must not act in any way that is harmful to the FT or your school.
4. You must only promote the FT within your school, not externally.
5. You must not use the FT brand to promote or endorse any of your other activities.
6. We encourage Student Advocates to be creative, but ideas which involve using the FT brand must be cleared with the FT first via Slack.

The FT can cancel your participation at any time if we believe that you have broken any of these rules. If we cancel your participation then you must stop all activity relating to it.

Schools can offer two curious and ambitious students a work experience opportunity at a prestigious news organisation. Improving engagement with current affairs makes for a more informed sixth form: 92% of FT reading students say the FT improves their intellectual curiosity and 85% feel they understand their subjects better from reading the FT.

This Programme is great for schools looking to demonstrate they are meeting the Gatsby careers benchmarks.

Teachers must nominate no more than two Student Advocates in Years 12-13/Grades 10-12 per school. Schools can decide how they choose their Student Advocate. Often teachers ask students to write an application as to why they think they would excel in the role.

Nominations must be submitted by 10am BST on Monday 13 October 2025.

Please note that, due to high demand, a nomination does not guarantee a place on the programme.

The FT will write to teachers each month to update them on the progress of the Programme and their school’s Student Advocate.

100% of students in previous years felt they had some or significant development in their time management, leadership, communication and creativity and public speaking in their exit survey. Students will be able to showcase these new skills gained through working for the FT in their personal statement/CV, helping to make applications more impressive.

The Programme is also an excellent networking opportunity. Students will work with like minded, bright young people and the FT Schools Team. At the end of the Programme, students will be added to an alumni network of Student Advocates from previous years. Connections like this will be useful in the future for job/client recommendations.

Student Advocates will show their friends and teachers the benefits of reading the FT in school such as: understanding topics taught in lessons better, adding real world context to essays, preparing for university applications and feeling more confident with careers and personal finance decisions.

Student Advocates also work with the FT Schools team on activities designed to make the FT more relevant and engaging for young people. These may include:

• Researching how the FT is used and perceived in their school community
• Creating and sharing content inspired by FT journalism
• Organising events or initiatives that spark discussion around current affairs

Advocates take part in monthly calls with FT staff and fellow Advocates at schools around the world.

The internship is entirely remote - all work is done either online or in school. There are no current visits to the FT offices.

The Programme runs from October 2025 to February 2026.

It is entirely flexible, but we recommend roughly 4 hours per month. Academic work should come first, and students should pause participation if their workload becomes too much.

Students are grouped together in clusters of Advocates from schools around the world.

Each cluster is mentored by a Student University Mentor. Their mentor will answer questions on Slack, post feedback/new resources as well as lead monthly calls.

Mentors will be the point of contact for Advocates, but there will be involvement from others in the FT Schools Team including the Project Lead for FT Schools.

The FT will provide the Advocates with all the resources needed to complete the prescribed tasks, help Advocates develop their own ideas for how to increase awareness of the FT in schools and support students in their personal development throughout the Programme.

Student Advocate Alumni would be well placed to apply for the paid role of a Student University Mentor when they leave school and progress onto university/college, gap year or apprenticeship.