With the impact of recession and economic recovery still so uncertain, more and more graduates are favouring internships to make their foray into the real world.
Graduates are, statistically, the worst hit by recession. It's affected virtually every job sector, from science to the creative industries. According to Liberal Democrat, Les Bonner, "The number of students who graduated in 2008 who were unable to find work increased by 44% in a single year, from about 14,000 to more than 20,000."
Facing stiff competition for the precious few jobs that are available has made graduates more resourceful in their approach. They've woken up to the benefits of internships - and the growing popularity has begun to shift the normal pathway graduates take from university to employment.
"Now that more and more students are taking internships after university, graduates applying for jobs fresh from school are at an immediate disadvantage. They're no longer just competing against people with the same educational qualifications - they're up against interns who've gained the real world skills and experience to complement their degree." Joy Stefanicki, project manager at West Midlands Graduate Internships.
According to John Lambertstock, Oxford Brookes University Business School's placement centre manager, said, "More and more undergraduates, who are worried about their job prospects, are applying for internships instead of jobs. "We have noticed that placements are getting substantially more competitive. Students have realised that placements add value and that students without work experience will find it harder to find jobs."
In an article for the Times newspaper in March 2009, John Morewood, the senior graduate recruitment and development manager at HSBC, reported a "dramatic increase in students applying for placements. HSBC's first-year internship scheme in retail banking received more than 850 applications, compared with 570 the year before." Mr Morewood added that, "another change this year is that more students from top universities are applying - Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics, in particular."
But when an internship comes to an end - where does that leave graduates? Mr. Morewood confirmed that HSBC offered jobs to about 40 per cent of the graduate intake for retail and commercial banking while they were on placement. And at the Oxford Brookes' business school, it's reported that roughly one third of students who go on a placement get a job offer.
Even for those who don't land a job, internships are always a big plus on your CV, as chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, Carl Gilleard explains, "Internships are a fantastic way of helping students to decide which career, and which type of employer they want to work for. There are fewer jobs around in a recession and all employers are saying the same thing: 'To stand out, students need to really do their research.' And there is no better way of finding out what a company does than working for them."
Now that most graduates have embraced the idea of an internship, the challenge now is getting the information across to them to secure a placement.
That's where the West Midlands Graduate Internships programme (WMGI) has proved a vital resource in the area. They've matched hundreds of graduates to local businesses in Birmingham and the Black Country who have been eager to offer placements to new graduates.
Recent gradate, Leanne Groves, is one of them and was happy to report; "It's been very useful to have the chance to see how companies operate and get work experience, which isn't normally possible during your course at University. The Graduate Project gives graduates more advantages of getting into work and picking up new skills."
To find out more about WMGI opportunities, visit www.wmgi.co.uk