Palantir Technologies is urging young adults to ‘skip the debt’ of university by applying for its Meritocracy Fellowship
A leading tech company that specialises in AI-powered software is offering a £60,000 a year internship to school leavers.
Palantir Technologies is urging young adults to “skip the debt” of university by applying for its Meritocracy Fellowship. Successful applicants will work full-time at the company’s London office for five months on a pro-rata equivalent salary of up to £60,000.
There would then be the potential to be offered a full-time role at the company and move to a higher salary, although this is not guaranteed.
According to The Sun, youngsters would work on projects “that defend Western values and support our most important institutions, like the NHS, to solve their biggest challenges”.
Palantir is hoping to target young people who were planning to study computer science at university. To apply for the scheme, you must have completed your A-Levels or equivalent qualifications by the time the fellowship starts in October 2026.
The internship will run until February 2027.
Louis Mosley, executive vice president and head of Palantir UK, said: “Palantir is looking for Britain’s best tech talent and giving eighteen-year-olds the opportunity to walk out of school straight into work alongside the best engineers in the world…
“We believe it is better to learn on the job at Palantir than spend years at university learning ideas and techniques that could be out of date by the time you graduate while also taking on lots of debt.
“Given how fast tech is changing today, we are investing even more deeply in Britain and we think the next generation of British tech talent is going to play a huge role in making AI work for everyone.”
It comes amid growing anger linked to the Plan 2 student loan system, interest is charged at the rate of Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation plus up to 3%, depending on how much a graduate earns.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her autumn budget that the salary threshold for repayments would be frozen at £29,385 for three years starting from April.
Ms Reeves admitted the student loan system is “broken” but suggested the issue was not a priority for the Government. The Chancellor said Labour wanted to “fix it” as she faced questions following her Mais lecture to the City of London earlier this month.
“Yes, the student loan system is broken,” she said, but added that it was “more broken” that one in six young people are not in education, employment or training.
“So, yes, we want to fix it. Yes, we want to make improvements. But is it front of the queue? No, it’s not,” she said.
