Students who work in summer likely to get better jobs

UNDERGRADUATES need to work during their summer holidays if they want to get a job later on, the head of the university regulator has said.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, said that undergraduates needed to make the most of all their long holidays by undertaking work placements or internships.

This will improve their employability and increase the likelihood of securing a “rewarding” job once they leave university.

In a speech at the National Graduate Recruitment Conference, she said: “Many employers are now offering degree apprenticeships and this is important. But we also need more workplacement opportunities.”

She said that many students who do not work before university “face a cycle of internships – too often unpaid – before they are able to get lasting graduate employment”.

Over a fifth (22 per cent) of graduates are unemployed six months after they complete their degrees, according to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.