subject: Has internships and work experience become a key route into many professional careers? [print this page] Has internships and work experience become a key route into many professional careers?
The recent survey on fair access to the professions highlighted how internships and work experience has become a key route into many professional careers.
Many of the graduates say that during or after the work experience, the employer offered them a contract or encouraged them to apply for a job role - in some cases to apply to their graduate training scheme. Sometimes, the work experience and the personal contacts created during this time means that the graduate could to a certain extent bypass normal recruitment and selection processes, or at least have a distinct advantage over any other potential candidates. One example of this is a student graduate being notified about vacancies in advance. In the survey, work experience is demonstrated to be an important way to get noticed by employers.
Not everyone connects their placement with getting a job at the same employer as some respondents did placements in for instance the same sector but not with their current employer. The work experience enabled these students to gain sector knowledge and contacts to use in pursuing employment opportunities.
"I did a placement year working for a similar company and got to know the names of competitors. Through searching the websites of other companies and the areas they specialise in I decided to join (current employer)" said one.
What the graduates' experiences do emphasise is how useful work experience is for graduates and that not only does it allow them to acquire skills, knowledge and contacts, it also enables them to explore job roles, careers and their interests.
Have you ever been for an interview but felt you lacked the edge and relevant commercial skills and wished you could posses such skills so you could have a choice of companies to work for?
Hume Training, a Birmingham based training company, is in a unique position to help graduates because it has established strong connections with a number of growing digital companies who are willing to offer its delegates placements.
Why not side step the normal company selection with Hume Training and prove yourself by working with the company during a placement?
