We have been delighted to hear how well the Royal Holloway Management
students have been getting on during their placement years. The timing of our
visits corresponded with the release of the latest High Fliers Report which
indicates that since 2010, the number of work experience placements available
for students and recent graduates grew annually, rising steeply by more than
50% in total, almost double the rise in graduate vacancies over the same
period.
conducted detailed research into the Graduate recruitment market in the UK. The
Graduate Market in 2018 is a study of the latest graduate vacancies and
starting salaries at the UK’s one hundred best-known and most successful
employers, conducted by High Fliers Research during December 2017
report notes a change in the purpose of work experience programmes over the
last decade, with such programmes initially being set up to help university
students better understand career sectors most suited to them by giving them
exposure to the types of work Graduates did in particular areas. High Fliers
note that “There were few direct links between these undergraduate work
placements and the graduate recruitment process.”
However
today we see that work experience schemes have become an integral part of
recruiting new graduates. Indeed our Year in Business students applying for
placements during the course of their 2nd year at University are
selected through a very similar process used to recruit graduates. Many face
application forms, on line interviews, psychometric tests, face to face
interviews and assessment centres. As a result many of those who go on to
complete successful placement positions are then offered a Graduate position to
take up after their Final year at University.
to High Fliers Report 2018 over three-fifths of the country’s top graduate
employers will be hosting course placements – structured work experience organised as part
of university degree courses (sometimes described as ‘sandwich’ courses) and typically
lasting between six and twelve months – that give students first-hand
experience of technical, commercial or research roles.
for our 1st year YIBs there is also the opportunity to get work
experience in the 1st year and strengthen CVs ahead of applications
made in the 2nd year. According to High Fliers Research, more than
half of employers now offer work experience to first year undergraduates –
either via paid internships and vacation placements, or through open days,
short introductory courses or ‘taster’ experiences.
in the research highlighted the importance of work experience when it comes to
assessing students’ applications for graduate roles. Over a third warned that in today’s competitive job
market, it was either ‘not very likely’ or ‘not at all likely’ that a graduate
who’d had no previous work experience at all with any employers would be
successful during their selection process and be made a job offer, irrespective
of their academic achievements or the university they had attended
more about the High Fliers 2018 Report:
