As business and academia continue to battle over the readiness of former students
for the world of work, a new report suggests that work placements play a key
role in helping graduates find employment.
Degrees incorporating work experience offer graduates the best chance of finding work after university with between one in five and just over a third finding employment with a work experience employer, suggests a new survey.
Design graduates surfaced as the most likely to find work with a work experience employer, with just over a third (34.5%) of the one in seven finding employment taking this route to a job, suggests the What Do Graduates Do? report.
The discipline most likely to find work was civil engineering. Over three-quarters (78.6%) found a job with almost a quarter (23.1%) finding the position with a work experience employer, suggests the Graduate Prospects, AGCAS and UCAS report.
Other work experience successes include electrical and electronic engineering (21.7%), IT graduates (21.3%), mechanical engineering (21.2%), building graduates (20.1%) and even sociology graduates beat the average 16% with 19.8%:
‘The message to students is loud and clear; get some relevant work experience
under your belt while you’re studying and you’ll have a definite
head start when you look for that all important first job,’ said Mike
Hill, chief executive of Graduate Prospects.
A survey in the summer from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) suggested
nearly three-quartets (73%) of their members were offering some form of placements
to students, while the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE) claims 97%
of UK firms offer some form of placement for students.
The research also suggested that 44% of students thought work experience was
important to finding a job compared to 24% citing the degree grade or classification
they left with.
Of the employers questioned 62% said the main reason for taking on work experience students was to find permanent staff, with 73% having recruited students on a permanent basis as a result of work experience.
The NCWE has produce a work experience Professional Development Programme (PDP) QualityMark following a pilot project including the University Vocational Awards Council and pharmaceutical employer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Following accusations from employers that universities were doing little to help in preparing students for the world of work, the QualityMark is designed to build bridges between academia and business.
It ensures that students are prepared for placements, that they receive continuing
support from the employer and that they get a formal evaluation and a debriefing
at the end of their placement.