What is a spring week? The UK first-year programme explained

The programme is a structured introduction to the firm. A typical week has presentations from each division, sessions shadowing people on the desk or in the team, a group project or case presented at the end, networking with recent graduates, and skills sessions on the firm's recruitment process. Most firms run it in their main office, and the large banks run several divisional spring weeks in parallel.

At most banks and many consultancies the week ends with an interview or an assessment. That is the point of the programme from the firm's side: it is a week-long first-round interview for the summer internship. Students who do well are offered a summer internship for the following year or fast-tracked past the first stages of that process.

Spring weeks are aimed at students in the first year of a three-year degree, or the second year of a four-year degree, because the summer internship they lead to is for penultimate-year students. Some firms also take students on integrated master's courses in their second year. Each programme states its rule, and the degree-stage filter on the tracker shows which open programmes accept which years.

There is no subject requirement at most firms. Banks and consultancies take students from any degree, and a large share of each intake is from non-finance subjects. Law firms' first-year schemes are open to law and non-law students alike.

Most are. The large banks pay a stipend for the week or a pro-rated salary, and most firms cover travel and, for students outside the city, accommodation. Some smaller firms and some law firm insight schemes cover expenses only. The programme listing or the firm's careers page states what is covered.

At the most competitive firms, the majority of summer interns come through the spring week. Because the internship is the main route to a graduate offer, a spring week in first year can settle a graduate job before the final year starts. That is also why spring weeks are so oversubscribed: the programmes are small, the applicant pool is large, and many firms close applications early.

Not getting one is not a dead end. Plenty of summer interns apply directly in their penultimate year, and off-cycle internships, insight days and smaller firms all offer other routes in. A spring week is the most efficient route, not the only one.

Investment banks run the most and the best known, across investment banking, markets, asset management, technology and operations divisions. Consulting firms run spring programmes under various names. Law firms run first-year schemes and open days. Asset managers, insurers, the Big Four and a number of tech firms run their own. The live tracker lists what is open across all of them.