Sir Tim Wilson’s review of university/business collaboration has again shown the value of work-experience during University. Sadly the old ‘Sandwich Courses’ (which were intended to prepare students for business life) have been in decline and only a small number of students get interaction with ‘real business’ during their studies.
This is an increasingly important issue as UK Universities get measured on ‘Employability’ – with the measure being how many students are in employment or further study after six months of graduating. Potential students, becoming more focused on value for money are going to pay more attention to this (or perhaps it is more likely to interest their parents?).
Research published this week shows that getting an internship or a holiday job whilst at University makes students three times more likely to get a well-paid job on graduating. 36% of final year graduates who had work experience with a leading employer whilst at University received at least one offer of a graduate level post. That figure dropped to 11% for those with no careers related work experience.
As with the issue of ‘Research’ this is another area where relationships with mature alumni, now in business, can be hugely valuable. Having such relationships at senior level in business can create a ‘contact list’ for Universities seeking to improve their access to business for this purpose. Business will then find that this is very much a two-way relationship, with early access to promising future employees and input to work projects from outside the organisation.