Develop, support, promote disability leaders
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The internships are open to current premium and entrepreneurs members of the DLI.
The CEO internship program provides a unique opportunity for a high potential leader with disability, with C suite aspirations, to work alongside the CEO or executive team member of some of Australia’s largest organisations. During this paid internship you will take on some of the work of a CEO. The internship will be personalised to your leadership goals and aspirations or identified skill development and learning outcomes.
Expressions of interest for the 2025 intern cohort have now closed. Successful candidates will now form a pool providing interns throughout 2025.
We are seeking disability leaders with some executive level experience who are working towards joining the C suite as the next phase of your career.
The internship program will be a co-learning experience. Through this internship the DLI and our partner organisations seek to build on the lessons from the inaugural CEO internship hosted by Yooralla, to further develop our understanding of what is required to design roles that optimise the impact of disabled leaders. Lessons from this project will be shared and can be used in work role design into the future.
Read more about the inaugural internship in this article by Jessica Horner.
In 2025 we have moved to an annual intake process for the program. This is to address the growing demand the program is experiencing. The EOI process will provide a pool of intern candidates that are then matched to suitable placements with host organisations. The duration of each placement will be negotiated with the successful candidate but will require at a minimum of 160 hours of placement to be completed within a 12 month period.
The intern is required to submit a report at the completion of your placement. Your report should inform and promote the expansion of the CEO intern program. It should be no more than 10 pages and include reflections on design of executive level roles for leaders with disability. It might include reflections from the host executive and their organisation and should be suitable for publication.
For further information about becoming an intern please contact DLI Deputy CEO Yenn Purkis.
For further information about becoming a host CEO or organisation please contact DLI Deputy CEO Wendy Hill.