Location: Cheltenham
Internship Payment: £5,223.27 plus accommodation, if required
Hours of internship: Full time (37 hours a week, Monday-Friday). For the first two weeks, you’ll need to attend between the hours of 8.30am and 4.30pm for training. You’ll also be required to attend on the last day of the internship. Flexitime may be an option with prior arrangement, and you’ll have paid days’ off to use throughout the internship. You’ll be office-based for the duration of the internship, you cannot intern from home.
Dates of internship: 29 June to 4 September 2026 (10 weeks)
Ever wondered if a career in intelligence could be right for you? Or is it something you’ve never considered, but could get curious about? Our Summer Intelligence Internship is a great opportunity to spend some time exploring the day-to-day activities of an intelligence team at GCHQ. Discover how we keep the UK safe. And find out if you could see yourself building a career with us.
Am I Eligible?
You are eligible if you are a British National from a Black, Asian, mixed-heritage or other ethnic minority background and you are also from a socially or economically disadvantaged background* as these groups are currently under-represented in the UK’s Intelligence Services. That’s why we invite university students in their penultimate or final year of study (for the 2025/2026 academic year), who are from these backgrounds, to apply for this internship.
*For more details about the eligibility criteria, visit the Summer Intelligence Internship page on the MI6 website.
About Us
GCHQ is an intelligence, cyber and security agency with a mission to keep the UK safe. We use cutting-edge technology, ingenuity and partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats. Collaborating with our intelligence partners MI5 and MI6, we protect the UK from terrorism, cyber-attacks and espionage. On an internship at GCHQ you’ll be involved in varied and fascinating activities in a supportive and inclusive environment.
About the Internship
This 10-week internship, taking place in the summer of 2026, is an opportunity to find out if a career in intelligence is something you’d like to pursue. As part of a cohort of fellow interns, you’ll gain unique insights into our organisation, along with access to specialist training and lots of support from a dedicated internship manager, mentors and the wider team. It’s a great way to build new skills and develop your abilities, as well as figure out if a career in intelligence is something you want to pursue after your degree. If it is, you’ll have the opportunity to apply for employment with GCHQ once the internship is over. Please note, should you choose to apply, you will still need to go through the usual competitive application and selection process to secure a place.
You’ll have an initial induction and IT training prior to moving into one of our intelligence mission teams where you’ll experience what life as an intelligence analyst is like. Our teams operate in a rapidly changing technological environment, problem solving every day. We use bespoke technology, finding information from different places, including a high volume of data generated by many internet-connected devices. If you do have specialist skills such as cyber, data science, or coding experience, you may get the opportunity to use and develop these skills on the internship. If you don’t have these skills, don’t worry – they’re not essential and there will be lots to get involved in that won’t require them.
At the end of the internship, you’ll have the opportunity to apply to join the organisation as an Intelligence Data Analyst. If you choose to make an application for employment following the internship, then you’ll need to go through a competitive application and selection process for that role in order to join.
About You
For the 2025/2026 academic year, you’ll need to be in your penultimate or final year of university, from a Black, Asian, mixed-heritage or ethnic minority background, and also from a socially or economically disadvantaged background**.
You’ll share our values – integrity, respect, creativity, and the desire to have a positive impact on the UK. It’s also worth considering what you’re passionate about and whether that aligns with what we do at GCHQ.
We look for naturally inquisitive people who thrive in a team and bring real enthusiasm. People who enjoy making sense of unique information to solve complex challenges, who like collaborating with others and are passionate about contributing to keeping the country safe.
Our operations are hugely varied, which is why increasing diversity in our agencies is needed more than ever before. Having a diverse organisation is vital to ensure we have diverse insights, perspectives, innovative ideas and different skills to keep the country safe. More importantly, a diverse organisation makes for an enjoyable, fulfilling environment. And you could be exactly who we need to help us achieve our mission.
**For more information on the internship eligibility criteria, please visit the Summer Intelligence Internship page on the MI6 website.
Internship Payment and Accommodation
As well as an experience you won’t get anywhere else, while you’re with us you’ll receive £522.32 per week (£5,223.27 for the total internship).
If you need it, we’ll also provide you with free university-based accommodation for the duration of your internship. So, you don’t need live nearby to consider applying to us. We’ll pay for your travel to Cheltenham at the start of your internship and your return travel at the end. We’ll also pay for your travel to us for a familiarisation visit prior to the start of your internship.
Time Off and Other Benefits
We’ll give you five paid days off that you can use during the internship. Everyone will need to attend the first two weeks for training, and the final day, so make sure you take note of these dates when applying. While you’re with us, you’ll also have access to organisation-wide events where you can network with people from other teams, learning even more about what we do, and where you could take your career.
Equal Opportunities
At GCHQ diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse organisation that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions.
Find out more about our culture, environment and diversity on our website.
What to Expect
Our application process for the Summer Internship is as follows:
- Initial application form - you’ll be asked to provide some basic personal details and answer eligibility questions.
- Full application form – you’ll be asked to provide your education details and work history and to answer some questions exploring your strengths and skills in relation to the internship.
- Online exercise – you’ll be asked to complete an online exercise which will give you an insight into what our analysts do.
- Final interview – you’ll be asked questions about your motivation for applying for the internship as well as questions looking at your strengths and skills.
Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process in order to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process including vetting, so we suggest that you bear this in mind until you have received your final internship offer.
We’re Disability Confident
We are proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that best meet the minimum criteria for this internship will be offered an interview where practicable; this is known as ‘Offer of an Interview’. To secure an interview for this internship, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:
- Full application form – you’ll be asked to provide your education details and any work history and to answer some questions exploring your strengths and skills in relation to the internship. You must meet the minimum pass mark in both of our application questions at assessment sift.
- Online test - You must meet the minimum pass mark in our online bespoke analysis exercise.
There’s a wide range of extra support available throughout the internship recruitment process to enable you to do your best. See our how to apply page for more information on the reasonable adjustments we can offer.
Before You Apply
To work or take part in internships at the agencies, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read more about our eligibility criteria.
This internship requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.
Please note we have a strict drugs policy. So, once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage. Previous drug usage doesn’t make you ineligible to apply and you won’t be penalised for it – but you must be honest.
Remember, these internships are only open to university students in their penultimate or final year of study, who are also from an ethnic minority and socially or economically disadvantaged background. If you aren’t eligible for this internship, we’d encourage you to visit our jobs page to explore the many other opportunities we have available throughout the year.
Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.
Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.
Right to Withdraw Statement:
Please be aware that we have the right to bring forward the closing date for this internship from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.