Work Experience: a crucial component of graduate employment success

Work experience is vital to our students. It is clear that employers place a high value on graduates having work experience (Being 'work ready' tops employers' wish list), and evidence suggests that students are more likely to be successful in obtaining employment if they have previously had good quality work experience (Learning Through Work Placements and Beyond).

The Benefits of Work Experience

for Students

• Development of transferable/employment knowledge, skills and attributes.
• Ability to apply subject knowledge and skills in a real life situation.
• Enhancement of academic performance through the development of skills/attributes !!The Benefits of Work Experience for Studentsand through the building of motivation, independence, responsibility and confidence.
• Development of subject understanding where the work experience is subject-related, by applying knowledge in context, enabling connections to be made between academic work and the ‘real world’.
• Opportunity for the exploration of different career paths and organisations without long-term commitment.
• Assistance in the development of commercial awareness, understanding management structures and in becoming conversant with current work practices.
• If placed with certain kinds of government or voluntary sector agency, there can be gains in terms of citizenship, community engagement and insights into major issues such as social justice and sustainable development (Buckingham-Hadfield 1995; Yarwood 2005)
• Help students understand and acclimatise to the world of work, including its social and cultural aspects.
• Facilitate valuable networking opportunities and develop networking skills.
• Significantly improve their CV and gain a good employer reference.
• Earn an offer of permanent employment.

for departments

• Enhance the applied aspects of teaching by providing staff with direct insights into subject- related organisations and their work.
• Raise the profile of departments/institutions in the local community.
• Develop useful relationships with businesses, organisations and professional bodies with potential spin-offs for research and consultancy.
• Improve the programme and enhance the career prospects of graduates, thus providing a selling point for courses and improving departmental graduate employment statistics.

for employers/host organisations

• Enable access to knowledge (expertise and resources) and facilities such as laboratory and IT equipment and software. Such access will be particularly valuable to smaller organisations such as small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
• Enable useful research or project work to be undertaken that the company would not normally have the time, money or expertise to undertake. Again, this is more typically the case for SMEs, charities and NGOs.
• Compliment normal recruitment procedures. A significant proportion of students are offered permanent employment with their work experience provider.

Issues in the provision of Work Exeperience

• Not enough GEES students are provided with the opportunities for, or encouragement to undertake, work experience. The GEES Graduate Employability Survey found that 89% of graduates reported that there were little or no professional quality work experience opportunities available in their curriculum.
• Work experience takes time to set up and manage. This can be viewed as an additional burden on already busy staff.
• The assessment of work experience requires different approaches to those commonly used when assessing ‘subject’ knowledge. Many academics feel ill equipped to make judgements on students’ work performance.

The additional pages in this section on work experience provide information and guidance on designing, planning and managing work experience.