The value of work experience for students

Earlier this year NCUB released a report on the current state of work experience in the university sector.  It found a rather mismatched and misunderstood process.

“Student work experience is widely regarded as the most successful way to smooth the transition of students into the labour market, enabling graduates to land the right jobs faster,” the report says. 

A recent Business Gateway project has been setup to allow eight students to undertake a three month paid internship with the Liverpool based Seqirus (who were formally known as Novartis).  The company are one of the biggest in the world for the manufacture of flu vaccines.

Seqirus approached the university to help them manage their busy summer production period, and through working with Business Gateway a recruitment programme was established to help the company fulfil their vaccine quota.

The students performed a range of roles at the company in areas such as quality control, health & safety and engineering.

Tom Wescombe interned at Seqirus, graduated this year and is now back at Seqirus working as a Quality Control Analyst: “I found the experience very rewarding. The culture of the company is very friendly while ensuring a professional atmosphere. It was a great opportunity to see how the graduate position operates, gain some valuable experience and earn a bit of money over summer!

“The best thing about it for me was the management really do acknowledge hard work by giving you actual responsibility and I came out of the internship with a decent job that is highly relevant to my degree.”

The company were extremely satisfied with the quality and competence of the interns and the contribution they made over a busy period.  With the NCUB report revealing that this kind of work experience has a big impact on the employability of the placement student upon graduation, it’s hopeful that this kind of partnership will be one of many.

If you would like to find a work placement yourself, you can do so here.