Facilitated by all–nighters and lots of coffee many students hope their hard work will forge the way for a successful career. We all know it’s often no longer enough to have a degree- businesses are advertising graduate roles and asking for candidates to have relevant work experience. More than ever businesses need to help students gain this gold dust experience through industry placements.

UNTAP THEIR POTENTIAL

We’ve recently taken on two new industry placement students who will play a key role in lead generation, account management and our creative & design services. From a business perspective we’ve often found that placement students can fill skills gaps which might exist. Our two new additions have a flair for digital design and one is even designing a new office space for us! Our two industry placement students have helped us add further capacity to our emerging creative and design services.

“From 2010 to 2016 there has been a 50% increase in the total number of work experience places available for students and recent graduates”

– The Graduate Market, 2018

THE BENEFITS

The obvious perks are getting a fresh perspective from someone new and it’s a cost-effective way of recruiting. We also discovered it was a way of upskilling our current staff- they were given the chance to nurture their own soft skills. Through becoming leaders in supervisory roles, give praise and provide constructive criticism (which is never easy for anyone!) and monitor progress in a supportive way, as well as the obvious sharing their knowledge and expertise.

TWO-WAY PROCESS

But don’t forget they want to make the most of their time, so sharing your knowledge and insights is essential, as well as providing practical training. We make sure we have an environment which allows them to tell us their ideas and insights from their studies. Given that the UK suffers from several weaknesses in its skills base which impacts on productivity, businesses need to get involved to upskill and train the workforce and taking an active interest in preparing those still in education.

Working in the college and university sector opened us up to the opportunity and we’re glad it did – every company should play some role in shaping the leaders of the future.