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YOU ARE IN » Home page > News and information main menu > Graduate Market Trends > Using Placements (Aut 08)

Using placements to plug the regional brain drain (Autumn 08)

• Summary
• Introduction
• Work experience with regional employers

Summary

Heather Collier, Director of the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE), writes about the importance of using placements to improve regional graduate retention and what the NCWE is planning to do in this area.

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Introduction

Competing against the lure of London’s buzzing night life and infinite job prospects is nothing new for all regional employers looking to attract top graduate talent. In April this year an article in the North West Insider ‘Brain Game’ reported ‘a lack in number and quality of graduates’ despite ‘a rapidly expanding digital industry in the region’ and would-be employers once again lamenting the ‘shortage of skilled labour’.

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Work experience with regional employers

A similar theme amongst students was witnessed every year in East Lancashire when the SHELL Technology Enterprise Programme (STEP) had its mid-placement review which was attended by students and their employers. Both sides were separated so that they could talk to their peers about the perceptions and the reality of working for a local SME versus a Blue Chip. Invariably pre-placement perceptions from students were that London (occasionally Manchester) would be their first destination when looking for a job, based on salary and career aspirations.

However, midway through their well-devised placement, they could honestly report that their perceptions had changed. The strengths of regional employers had shone through: a strong work/life balance, opportunity for individual contribution to the organisation, and a commitment to and sense of pride for the local area. Students thought that perhaps they would prefer working in a smaller, local company where there was more variety and more responsibility. They could always move south later when they had gained some real experience, if they wanted to. This shift in expectations saw more students staying in the area after graduation and a significant number returning to their host placement organisation.

Work experience schemes are one of the most effective tools regional employers and SMEs have in their arsenal to turn students’ heads and get them thinking about alternatives to the blue chip graduate recruitment schemes and London life. Local research confirms that while many students initially just assume they will head to London upon graduation, after regional work experience placements during university they reconsider the necessity and allure of such a move. It seems being a bigger fish in a small pond is an increasingly attractive option for graduates when faced with the prospect of being a minnow in London’s massive graduate talent pool.

More organisations driving this type of initiative are needed to reverse the trend for students to discount the merits of working in local SMEs. To this end, NCWE is attempting to develop the website: www.work-experience.org to provide a regional map of the country with all placement initiatives such as Graduate Advantage, STEP and UNITE alongside the in-house university placement services (and Job Shops) so that an employer will know who and what is in their area to help match and provide students for their work placements. Additional information we hope to provide include a searchable database for employers of the institutions offering degrees which require mandatory work experience from their students, providing the skills that employers are looking for. In some cases we have found there is also alumni or bursary funding from the institution to assist students who take on perhaps poorly paid or voluntary placements. It is an ambitious project but initial feedback has indicated that it would be good to have all this information under one roof. Any suggestions or comments would be gratefully received at h.collier@prospects.ac.uk.