The Talent pool, due to be declared open in July ready for this summer’s university leavers, will contain posted information about placements from organisations in both the public and private sectors such as the Police and Marks and Spencer.
‘Internships are to be welcomed but graduates should make absolutely sure what they are signing up to and for how long.
The experience should be a useful insight into the particular industry, support their CV and provide them with valuable contacts.
The arrangement should be equitable for both parties,’ says Heather Collier, Director, National Council for Work Experience
The announcement of the latest details coincidentally came swiftly on the heels of the most gruesome revelations yet of the state of the graduate labour market.
High Fliers Research has found that leading companies’ job offers to final-year students are down by a third on last year’s situation.
Good experience
The Government reasons that the Graduate Talent Pool ‘will help match motivated graduates with employers giving them vital experience and improving their employability to succeed in the job market,’ in the words of John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skill.
The hope is that when the upturn comes internships will prove to be beneficial for both the intern and the company. Maybe also some graduates will even get real job offers from their internship.
A further underlying motivation for this exceptional Government action is that this year’s graduates are the first to have paid full variable tuition fees – only to find they are entering the worst job market in years.
Latest positive figures for consumer confidence give the Government some reason to believe that an economic recovery will be under way by the end of the year.
If this turns out to be true it will vindicate that idea of graduate internships to tide people over the worst. The labour market usually lags behind economic improvements, though, so don’t expect too much too soon.
Lack of pay
There has been one important change from John Denham’s January curtain-raiser on the internship scheme. Employers won’t now have to pay their interns if they don’t want to.
The Government would quite rightly prefer that a modest wage be offered but is having to take account of the dire situation of many companies. Graduates who have been registering as unemployed for six months will be allowed to keep Jobseeker’s Allowance while taking part.
The optional lack of pay for the interns is bound to put off some participants whether or not they could survive on, for example, the largesse of parents.
Who is to say that a paid job in a bar is really worse for the CV than an internship carrying out minor duties in a small business – supposing, of course, that any sort of paid stop-gap job is available?
There is also the troubling possibility that companies may draft in unpaid interns to fill the seats of long-term employees recently made redundant.
Finer details
As for what is done in an internship and for how long, there is no template. One suggestion from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, is for interns to be tasked with stand-alone projects lasting a few months.
The Talent Pool’s target is 5,000 internships, but the initiative seems to have also stimulated developments outside the official scheme, for example: 250 Mini Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, STEP placements not previously available to graduates and an increase in places on university-linked schemes giving experience in small businesses.
The Government is also increasing postgraduate places and doubling the number of postgrad Career Development Loans.
It’s not jobs, but it all helps.
Sign up to My Prospects to receive regular news, jobs and career advice
