The recent unemployment figures may make grim reading for job hunters and those poised to leave university but the view from Inspiring Interns is that there are innovative solutions to these disheartening statistics.
The latest survey by the Office for National Statistics revealed unemployment figures have risen to 2.68 million in the three months to November 2011. The unemployment rate for young people was 22.3%, up 1% from the three months to August 2011 with a total of 1.04 million 16 to 24 year olds out of work.
The UK’s jobless are losing hope for the future with the number of people unemployed for over one year reaching 857,000 in the three months to November 2011. Research conducted by The Prince’s Trust found that unemployed young people are feeling less confident about the future than they did this time last year.
With job losses in the public sector likely to continue, the Government must make every effort to help the private sector and SMEs to create more jobs. The key to reviving the job market is to focus on enhancing the right skills and considering roles in growing sectors and newer industries.
In our experience most success has been found in newer industries which often complement many graduates’ personal interests. Areas such as mobile technology and digital marketing offer potential for swift progression when compared to more traditional professions and also allow university leavers to draw on familiar skills, such as knowledge of social media.
Inspiring Interns are championing graduate internships as a new and successful approach to encouraging small business to hire university leavers and getting graduates into work. Their model – a three month placement with minimum lunch and travel expenses, with a view to permanent graduate job – has seen over 1,300 graduates complete internships in the London area in the last three years, with 65% of them going on to secure full-time work with their host company. Inspiring Interns CEO and founder Ben Rosen believes that internships are the perfect model to get graduates into meaningful work.
“An internship provides that stepping stone between student life and the working world – it is a vocational learning experience that more often than not will lead to a job.”
Rosen also explains the benefit for employers;
“Internships offer employers the chance to hire someone on potential rather than experience. A three month internship period allows them to offer the intern training and the chance to observe them in the workplace before committing to taking them on permanently. This limits their risk and allows them to take a candidate on who they would not have otherwise.”