British English equivalent of American English Internship

I've been trying to think of a good British English term for a summer job, the equivalent of American English Internship.

I'm sure that when I've worked with students my company had hired over the summer holidays, we used to the the term studentship, but researching a little further this seems to more correctly apply to a PhD scholarship in British English parlance.

I'm not specifically looking for a term which has connotations of either paid or unpaid work, but if the term has one of those connotations it would be useful for it to be mentioned.

Incidentally, it was my understanding that in American English, internship implied unpaid, but could nevertheless be qualified with either paid or unpaid. As @Martha points out however, it seems that limited duration is a more appropriate qualifier for the word.


Solution 1:

We seem to have adopted the term "intern". Certainly that's what my (small) British company is using to refer to both the student we have with us for a week's work experience and the older students in for summer jobs.

Solution 2:

An alternative term in British English is work placement.

Many larger organisations advertise formal placements or ‘internships’ at different times of the year. These tend to involve working full-time for a fixed period, usually six to twelve weeks - but they’re often timed to fit in with university and college holidays.