Take a first step to a top-class job
WORK experience is no longer an optional extra for undergraduates who want a top job.
It has increasingly become an essential element of preparing for the job market.
A recent study found that vacancies have reached a seven-year high, but thousands of jobs are available only to those who have already worked for the country’s top companies.
A record four in ten graduate positions are open just to those who have previously had paid internships, industrial placements or holiday work, according to High Fliers Research.
It surveyed 100 graduate employers including KPMG, L’Oreal, MI5, Unilever and Procter & Gamble and found that vacancies this summer will rise to 18,200 — the highest level since 2007.
Employers are stepping up graduate intake by 8.7 per cent — the biggest annual rise in recruitment for four years.
Despite the turnaround, recruiters say 37 per cent of this year’s positions will be filled by graduates who have already worked for the organisation — up from 26 per cent in 2010. More than half the companies surveyed said graduates who did not have work experience were ‘ unlikely to be successful’ during the selection process.
‘Work experience has gone from being a nice-to-have thing to something that makes a difference to getting the job,’ says Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research.
More than four-fifths of Britain’s leading graduate employers are offering paid work experience to students and recent graduates this academic year — a record 11,819 paid placements.
A quarter of organisations also offer paid internships and a third of employers run introductory courses, open days and taster experiences for first-year students.