The British Embassy in Berne is part of a worldwide network representing the UK’s political, economic and consular interests. These internships offer a unique opportunity to join the Communications and Consular Team. 

We are looking for a highly organised, dynamic, creative, and proactive individuals, who have experience in communications, customer service, public relations, public diplomacy or a similar relevant field, with evidence of good inter-personal, time management and analytical skills. You will need to be able to think quickly on your feet and manage priorities effectively. Confidence, judgement, writing skills, languages, and teamwork are essential qualities.

Our selected interns will support the team as part of either:

Communications Team:

Approximately 60% of the role will cover general communications in support of UK efforts around general bilateral relations including but not limited to:

• Strategic communications:  Working with the Head of Communications to deliver, monitor and evaluate different types of communication campaigns to positively influence thinking and perceptions of the UK in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Input into a quarterly communications report detailing stats and stories, as well as celebrating wins and highlighting learnings.
• Digital diplomacy: Help to grow our social media channels and audiences to provide informative and creative content for our followers, communicating our work on the UK’s priority issues, including running digital  communications campaigns and tracking as well as analysing stats. Making use of new innovative tools and applications to create engaging fresh content.
• Administrative support: General duties including responding to correspondence, budget management, stakeholder tracking/contacts mapping/stakeholder mapping, supporting with funding bids, and helping organise events/cantonal visits/workshops/cross-Embassy projects to support the Embassy’s public diplomacy and policy objectives.

The remaining 40% will be specifically focused on broader project support around the 2025 UEFA Women’s European Football Championship that will be held in Switzerland between 2 – 27 July 2025. This could include but is not limited to:

• Supporting on ministerial visits and high-level engagement with Swiss government officials.
• Scope for taking a leading role on the conception and implementation of individual projects.
• Liaising between Teams to ensure knowledge exchange.
• Helping with logistics and planning, including the management of project documents, setting up of meetings, and tracking of programme.

Consular Team:

Working in Consular Services with people who require help every day can be tough, but also very rewarding. You will be working alongside the consular team in providing efficient and modern assistance to British people in Switzerland. Tasks will include assisting in issuing emergency travel documents, interaction with British people on various issues, answering enquiries, general administration and working alongside colleagues who deal with issues in the areas of arrest / detention, victim of crime, death, child welfare, welfare and homelessness, and general crisis. This could include but is not limited to:

• Supporting the planning and coordination of key meetings with relevant stakeholders, producing meeting readouts and carrying out other administrative tasks.
• Plan and deliver consular prevention initiatives and communication campaigns, engaging with the Embassy’s communication team and feeding consular messages through Embassy social media channels especially around the two major events in Switzerland in 2025. Open for deployment at the relevant venues and cities.
• Support British people and their families.
• Maintain positive, professional and trusting working relationships with all external stakeholders in Switzerland to support the delivery of day-to-day consular assistance and crisis response, such as funeral companies, law enforcement authorities, courts, prisons, charities and support organisations.
• Provide consular services, such as issuing Emergency Travel Documents to British Nationals. Manage the online appointments booking system as well as perform administrative duties.
• This position will require travel meeting key stakeholders and consular customers.
• Provide out of hours assistance to emergency consular cases as appropriate.

• Full professional proficiency in German and English (written and spoken, minimum of C1 level for CEFR framework* or equivalent).
• Excellent communication skills (oral and written).
• Resourcefulness and strong research skills with the ability to act on your own initiative to find creative solutions to problems;
• Strong organisational skills, including the ability to deliver high quality work to tight deadlines, working at a fast pace and to multi-task effectively.
• Customer focus, including the ability to work effectively with external stakeholders.
• IT proficiency (MS Office).