Is University enough anymore?

As many students will be be graduating in the next few months, it seems they are joining a crop of graduates that are already struggling to secure employment. A common phrase you’ll hear from many of these students is.. “I seem to have missed this years crop, so I’m going to fill my time and try again next year…”. The article below, which sights RateMyPlacement as a great source for finding a Placement or Internship, an experience often leading to graduate employment, is named “Graduates: The forgotten generation”. The full feature, by Sam Barrett, can be viewed on Moneywise.

Graduates: The forgotten generation

It seems a degree is no longer a guarantee of a job: one in five graduates left university without a job in 2010, according to the Office for National Statistics. More worryingly, the unemployment rate among new graduates is increasing more rapidly than for the UK workforce as a whole.

Find an internship

Employers are increasingly using internships to cherry-pick candidates. There are thousands of these available, ranging from ‘open days’ to year-long placements. Oliver Sidwell, a founder of ratemyplacement.co.uk, says: “An internship can look very good on your CV and many employers will pick the majority of their graduate recruits from their interns.”

This is what happened to Kimberley Low, 21, from Hinckley in Leicestershire. Now in her third year of law at Oxford University, she had an internship with Linklaters at the end of the second year. As well as being paid £350 a week during the placement, Kimberley also bagged a training contract with the company.

Details of internships can be found through university careers services or by trawling the internet, with sites such as ratemyplacement.co.uk… full of the latest opportunities.

Tough times for young people

Kimberley says: “I applied as soon as details of internships became available at university and spent time making sure my CV and applications really stood out. The application process was pretty tough, with thousands of applicants being whittled down to 30 places. I would definitely recommend it, though. It’s a great way to compare different companies and I learnt so much about the legal profession from the experience.”

Kimberley’s tips for anyone looking to secure an internship are to prepare rigorously by finding out as much as possible about the organisation; show you’re well-rounded by including plenty of extracurricular and work experience on your application form; and be enthusiastic.

“Apply early too,” she adds. “Although the deadline may be months away, some firms, especially the smaller ones, will have filled their internships long before this date.” But not every internship is as positive as Kimberley’s, and horror stories abound of weeks spent making tea or filing for low or even no pay. This is particularly the case in competitive sectors such as the media and architecture.

Improve your Employability

If your reading the article thinking you need to secure a Placement or Internship… look no further! Visit our Jobs section for the lastest Placement and Internship vacancies.

Already secured your Placement or Internship? No problem… why not check out reviews from your peers? You can see what to expect from your Employer, as well as all the other stuff, such as the social life and cost of living! To view 5,000 reviews from students who have been there, done it, take a look at our review section.

The National Placement & Internship Awards

It is important to point out that Kimberley Low, mentioned in the article, was a winner of “Best Intern”, at the 2011, National Placement & Internship Awards. If you think you’ve got what it takes to win an Award, or to find out more, visit our Awards website here.

Kim managed to exceed all expectations during her 4 weeks at Linklaters and her knowledge, manner and quality of work was likened to that of an Associate rather than a Vacation Scheme student. Standing out in a programme full of good people makes her achievements even more fantastic, a worthy winner of the Best Intern Award.

Please leave your thoughts below, we’d love to hear from you! To view the full article, click here to visit Moneywise.