Whether you’re a large publication or a small publication, finding funding to offer paid internships can be challenging. That’s why the National Media Awards Foundation has compiled a list of grants and subsidies for hiring students, recent graduates and others for work-integrated learning experiences.
To fully understand the benefits that hiring an intern can bring to your newsroom, check out this discussion with industry-leaders Stephanie Bai, Colin Leslie, Angela Pacienza, and Samia Madwar on the power of a strong internship program.
Know of a grant that we haven’t listed yet? Let us know via email at staff@magazine-awards.com!
Please select the title link for each grant to learn more about its eligibility requirements.
Magazine Association of BC Internship Subsidy Program
Overview:
We are no longer accepting applications for this cycle. Please check back again in 2026.
The Magazine Association of BC is doing a call for applications for subsidies for internships running between March 2025 and February 2026.
Member magazines who are interested in hosting an intern should apply soon, even if the internship doesn’t start until later in the year, as we will be approving applications on a rolling basis until the funding is spent.
Here are a few details about our subsidy:
- The maximum subsidy is $6,300 or 80%, whichever is less.
- Internships must consist of significant meaningful work, i.e. interns must have regular opportunities to apply their education and skills to gain valuable work experience, not just tedious, repetitive work that anyone with a bit of training can do.
- Interns must either be current students or have graduated less than 3 years ago from an accredited post-secondary institution.
- The internship must either be:
- A minimum of 320 hours total, typically 20+ hours/week for 16-26 weeks*
- A minimum of 320 hours total, typically 30+ hours/week for 10-26 weeks* for magazines that publish content 3+ times a week, e.g. online newsmagazines
- A minimum of 200 hours total, typically 10-19 hours/week for 18-26 weeks* for very small magazines.
- * The weeks counted cannot including gap weeks in which the intern works less than half of their usual hours, such as during the winter holidays.
- Hours should be evenly distributed across the internship period to ensure a consistent learning experience. While the above are the minimum requirements, we encourage longer internships (e.g. 400+ hours) where possible to provide interns with deeper, more valuable experience.
- Please check with the Internship Coordinator first if you would like to apply for an internship under #2 or #3 above to make sure your magazine is eligible.
- Pay at least $20/hour. The average wage over the past two years has been $21.40.
- An exception is very small magazines (category #3), which can pay the BC minimum wage ($17.85/hour as of June 1, 2025).
- Mentors must meet with interns a minimum of a half-hour a week or an hour every other week for up to 10 hours total to help the intern in their career, such as giving feedback on their resume or portfolio, talking about the magazine industry, doing a role-play interview, etc. Job training, skills development, feedback on work done and other supervisory duties do not count as mentoring.
- The internship coordinator will book a brief weekly Zoom check-in and discussion with each intern to provide additional assistance and advice for the first 5 weeks of the internship, then as needed.
The above is just a summary of the main points, so we recommend that MagsBC members who are interested in hosting an intern read our guide first, even if they have hosted before, as the program has changed over time.
We also recommend reading AMPA‘s excellent Internship Success Guide, which they produced for their Indigenous Internship Program, but which has a lot of valuable information for any host or intern, especially for those magazines without a human resources department or experience in hiring interns.
To apply, please send an email to Shristi Uprety, Internship Coordinator, MagsBC at interncoord@magsbc.com with the following:
- A 1-2 paragraph statement of interest
- Section 1 of the internship subsidy program details form (MS Word)
- An internship job posting with all details as listed on page 9 of our guide.
All of the above must be received and complete before a submission will be considered.
Approval as always is contingent on funding.
Please direct any questions to Internship Coordinator Shristi Uprety at interncoord@magsbc.com, or Executive Director Sylvia Skene at exec@magsbc.com or 604-688-1175 in Shristi’s absence.
Funded by the Government of Canada.
Canada Summer Jobs Program
Overview: Employers from not-for-profit organizations and the public sector, as well as private sector organizations with 50 or fewer full-time employees. Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) provides wage subsidies to employers to create quality summer work experiences for young people aged 15 to 30 years.
Deadline: January 10, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
Region: Canada-wide
AMPA’s Indigenous Internship Program
Overview: The program subsidizes 75% of minimum wage ($15/hr) to a maximum 40-hour work week for a six-month period for an Indigenous intern, including First Nations, Métis or Inuit.
Deadline: Applications currently closed
Region: Canada-wide
MagNet Student Work Placement Program
Overview: The program provides employers with wage subsidies to hire post-secondary students for paid work experiences. Students in turn benefit with quality work experience so they can secure employment in their chosen fields of study. Funding covers 50% of the wages (to a maximum of $5,000) for each net new placement, and 70% of the wages (to a maximum of $7,000) for each net new placement for under-represented groups including women in STEM, Indigenous students, newcomers, persons with disabilities, visible minorities, and first-year students.
Deadline: Due to funding constraints, Magnet will not be able to accept applications for the Winter 2024 term.
Region: Canada-wide
Venture for Canada Student Internship Resources
Overview: The program provides a 50-70% wage subsidy (capped at $7,000), per student per term. Employers are required to pay Interns a minimum wage of $15.00/hour or higher via payroll. This funding subsidizes hourly wages. Half of the allowable subsidy is paid within six weeks of the intern’s start date, and the remainder is paid upon completion of the placement.
Deadline: Different deadlines for Fall, Winter and Spring semesters. Please see the title link for more information.
Region: Applications are open to any small or medium-sized business, start-up, social enterprise, nonprofit, or charity that is not exclusively based in Ontario (must have a physical office (pre-COVID) in one of the following Canadian provinces: the Northern Territories, BC, AB, SK, MB, QC, NB, NS, PE or NL).
Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s Talent Opportunity Program
Overview: The program is an initiative of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce designed to help employers located anywhere in Canada hire college and university students on work-integrated learning (WIL) placements. Employers hiring eligible students may receive a wage subsidy for up to 50% of the wages (to a maximum of $5,000) for each ‘net new’ placement or 70% of the wages (to a maximum of $7,000) for each ‘net new’ placement for the following under-represented groups: Indigenous people, person with disabilities, newcomer to Canada, first year student, visible minority, and/or women in STEM.
Deadline: Applications currently closed (2023 deadline TBA)
Region: The application portal is open for the Summer 2024 term (May – August 2024). Please note that funding is limited, and applications are not guaranteed funding. New applications will be placed on the waitlist and will only be moved into processing if funding is available. Due to extremely high demand for funding, we are not accepting applications for the Winter 2024 (January – April 2024) or any prior retroactive terms.
Pratiques HR Accueillez un stagiaire programme
Overview: The program offers 50% to 70% of the intern’s gross salary up to a maximum of $7000. Pratiques HR also offers a personalized coaching service completely free of charge to all francophone and anglophone Québec companies, regardless of size, sector of activity or administrative region.
Deadline: Deadlines vary by semester
Region: Canada-wide (grant); Québec (coaching)
Cultural Human Resources Centre Student Work Placement Program
Overview: The program supports partnerships between arts and culture employers and post-secondary education (PSE) institutions to create paid quality work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students so that they can develop the work-ready skills that are required to secure meaningful employment upon graduation. The program reimburses eligible employers 50% of the student’s wages (maximum wage subsidy: $5,000 per placement), and a maximum 70% wage subsidy (maximum $7,000) for students confirmed to be part of a priority group. The employer must be a Canadian cultural sector employer. The cultural sectors include Digital Media; Film and Television; Live Performing Arts; Music and Sound Recording; Visual Arts and Crafts; Writing and Publishing; and Heritage.
Deadline: SWP applications for 2024 – 2025 are temporarily closed. It will open again soon. Please contact nicola.schneider@culturalhrc.ca to be put on the waitlist. For up-to-date information and valuable HR resources, please consider becoming a member of Cultural Human Resources Council or signing up for our newsletter: https://www.culturalhrc.ca/
Region: Canada-wide.
Young Canada Works at Building Careers in Heritage
Overview: The program offers several types of internships and supports organizations from the heritage, arts, and cultural sectors. Internships range from four to 12 months. An employer may be eligible if it is an incorporated, non-profit organization in Canada with a heritage mandate such as a museum, archive, a library, an organization managing built heritage (heritage sites), or an arts organization, or if it is an Indigenous organization with a mandate to preserve and support Indigenous heritage (First Nations, Inuit and Métis).
Deadline: For the 2024-2025 funding cycle, the application deadline is January 19, 2024
Region: Canada-wide
Young Canada Works in Both Official Languages
Overview: The program is open to employers who offer a job in which the employee’s first official language is used to foster the development of an official-language minority community (Francophone community outside of Quebec or Anglophone community within Quebec), or who offer a job presenting the opportunity to practice second-language skills. The employer must be a private, public or non-profit organization with opportunities to build advanced skills through internships, offer internships that meet the labour market needs in linguistic duality, and where workforce shortages are anticipated in official-language minority communities or to staff positions in official-language minority community media (radios and newspapers), and be incorporated.
Deadline: February 3
Region: Canada-wide
Support for Publishers: Business Development (Canada Book Fund)
Overview: The Support for Publishers component of the Canada Book Fund (CBF) helps to ensure the sustainable production and marketing of Canadian-authored books by offsetting the high costs of publishing in Canada and building the capacity and competitiveness of the sector. The Business Development sub-component provides assistance to publishers for internship projects and business planning projects.
Deadline: January 31, 2024
Region: Canada-wide
FESTQ I: Entreprises et organismes
Sommaire: Ce Fonds étudiant regroupe une variété de secteurs d’emploi afin de permettre à tous les types d’employeurs de déposer un projet pour embaucher des étudiants du secondaire, du collégial ou de l’université. Dans le FESTQ I (à l’exception du Volet entrepreneurial), le salaire remboursé correspond à 90% du salaire brut excluant les charges sociales imputées à l’employeur et ce, au taux horaire indiqué selon le niveau d’études. Semaines de travail de 40h et moins admissibles à la subvention.
Date limite: 31 mars 2024 (Période d’embauche entre le 1er mai et le 31 août)
Région: Québec