The increasing importance of work experience for students

Introduction

Recent indications of a new trend in graduate recruitment, plus the potential impact of the credit crunch on employment opportunities for graduates, mean that the advantages to be gained from work experience will be increased for those students who are able to find an employer willing to offer them such an opportunity.

Article

It has long been acknowledged by students, academics and employers alike that gaining work experience enhances the employability of the majority of students who undertake it. In the past, of course, sandwich degrees offered the most structured approach to combining practical experience in the workplace with related academic study and graduates from sandwich degrees were considered by recruiters from many sectors to be the most attractive applicants for their job vacancies.

More recent academic developments in the form of foundation degrees are building on the relationship between employers and higher education and offering students a strong combination of work-based and academic-based learning and expertise to take into the labour market.

Work experience of any length or type is actively encouraged within higher education, (as long as it isn't detrimental to the acquisition of the qualification being studied), and students are constantly seeking short-term placements, one-year placements, vacation placements, internships, industry-based projects, temporary work, work shadowing and any other possible opportunity to experience the work-place first-hand.

However, students seek work experience for more reasons than earning some money, enhancing their transferable skills and hence their job prospects, although they are obviously very powerful incentives and ones that may have increased significance if the labour market contracts and vacancies are seriously reduced in number over the coming months or even years.

Students see work experience as a way of:

• Confirming their career choices (or confirming that they have made quite the wrong choice!).
• Establishing a network of contacts to be used in the future, maybe for further work-experience opportunities or to help with finding a job after graduation.
• Having a good company name on their CV that will give them extra credibility in the future.
• Gaining a referee who will support them.
• Seeing work from the inside, warts and all, and gaining a realistic view of what is involved.
• Developing more flexible communication skills and self-confidence.
• Last but definitely not least, they want a chance to apply some of the knowledge or skills they have gained so far to the real world.

They hope you as employers will see their capabilities, challenge and stretch them and not limit their participation to tea-making and photocopying.

One category which often gets overlooked when work experience is being offered is mature students. They may be their own worse enemy in this regard because they do sometimes find it difficult to market their previous unrelated experiences in the most effective way. However, for many they are changing direction in their career and the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of their new career area is extremely valuable.

Employers do sometimes appear a little bit wary and concerned that a mature student coming into their organisation will have a negative impact in some way, but in my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Mature students are reliable, focused and determined to succeed and to do so, need work experience just as much as a younger student. They should be given the opportunity to gain similar insights, knowledge and skills in what may be an entirely new sector or industry for them and the advantages for them too should not be underestimated.

So work experience is undoubtedly a major contributor to enhancing the employability of all new graduates and as such there will be further emphasis placed on it as a result of the findings of a recent survey, AGR Graduate Recruitment Summer Review (July 2008), carried out by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR).

This has revealed a significant change in thinking on the part of recruiters. For many years, the mantra of '2:I or better' as the minimum standard for all applicants hoping to work for one of the larger private sector employers has been cited by graduate selectors, careers advisers and students alike. However, the survey shows that this may no longer be the case and significant numbers of employers of graduates are now prepared to consider any degree achieved with a 2nd or 1st class result.

As the AGR says:

One third of employers are now asking for a 2:2 or above, as well as other skills and relevant work experience. The main reasons that employers cited for dropping the 2:1, which has until now been the gold standard of selection criteria, were the increasing importance of life skills as well as academic skills and the need to widen the talent pool.

With potentially difficult times ahead, it will be important for as many employers as possible to continue to offer a variety of work experience opportunities to the widest range of students, undergraduate and postgraduate, in order to maintain a good supply of skilled graduates for the future.

Margaret Holbrough, Careers Consultant, Graduate Prospects, November 2008