How Companies Lead The Way Through Student Placements December 1
There has been much debate over recent years about the ’skills gap’ evident between universities and several areas of the business world - with last summer seeing a particularly concerning set of figures suggest that the IT industry is being particularly hit. It is claimed that university graduates are as much as two years behind the skills they need when entering a business, so firms themselves, and their potential employees, need assistance to bridge this apparently widening divide - but on whom does the onus lie, and what exactly can be done?
Training tends to be the buzzword here. Part of the IT industry’s problem may stem from the statistic that 20 per cent of firms still do not expect to train staff afresh over the coming year - even though it seems that those companies which actively take the initiative are likely to be best placed when it comes to picking the cream of the nation’s talented young graduates.
Work experience placements and various related industrial schemes are thus carrying increasing amounts of weight. This is mutually beneficial, of course - the company can take on very competent young workers for free, who often are able to carry out important short-term tasks with minimal guidance, while simultaneously educating them and grounding them for potential use in the future. Students and graduates themselves are becoming highly appreciative of the need for such stints - with many industries, like journalism for example, seeing some kind of on-the-job experience as a prerequisite on the CV before any lengthier role can be offered. If a prospective employee can be learning on the job - or even undertaking an appropriate training scheme - before they have even left university (so during holiday periods, primarily) then both they and the company, or industry in general, are likely to benefit to a greater level once they have graduated.
Some businesses are even providing dedicated training courses which can be undertaken in university holidays - effectively meaning that a student has completed both their degree and their vocational qualifications at around the same time, thus either readying themselves to make an immediate difference to the firm that has trained them or placing them in an advantageous position on the jobs market in general.
University education itself is in danger of being ignored or bypassed by potential recruits after top-up fees finally kicked in this September. Mounting costs are putting youngsters off pursuing degrees in some cases and this could have obvious knock-on effects for enterprises. How to combat this? An obvious answer would be to increase the number of sponsorships and bursaries offered by businesses, sponsoring them through their degrees of offering them an apprenticeship followed by a part-time degree course. Certainly apprenticeship courses themselves seem to be in increasingly short supply.
Using this idea in relation to a pronounced skills gap in the maths and science areas, Training Services Wales chief executive Charles Middleton recently told the Western Mail: “By targeting investment in this way [companies] will encourage more young people to pursue the challenging technical degrees which are in short supply. A relatively modest bursary could make a major impact on some young people’s ability to pursue their ambitions. It could be the difference between creating a star performer for industry or a major missed opportunity.”
The overriding message is perhaps that companies need to take a real pastoral interest in getting youngsters involved from an early age. Their raw energy and enthusiasm can, married with their intellect, serve a company well on work experience stints or internships, while the training and advice they receive can benefit both them and the firm in question. There can be few situations where two-way benefits are so apparent. Working with youngsters while they are still at university, or even before, has never been more important.
Article Written Exclusively by AdFero for Seriously Business
Related articles
- No Related Posts