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.”

Many had spent weeks organising and rallying for the planned November 10th London march. Subsidised coaches were booked and filled with students from all over the country, banners and posters were created, chants were scripted and rehearsed, and costumes were carefully prepared and fitted. Everyone was campaigning together to make Parliament hear the united student message, no ifs, no buts, no education cuts.

But after the 20,000 expected to attend escalated to over 50,000, and a small minority decided to take things into their own hands, all previous hard work became over-shadowed by the violent rampages that filled both the streets and the headlines.

Millbank, the Tory HQ was the prime target, and had to be evacuated as the angry mob smashed their way into the building. They destroyed windows, stole souvenirs and bombarded the roof where many threw objects including a fire extinguisher which narrowly missed a policeman- into the chanting crowd below.

Fires fuelled by the placards were further lit outside, flares were let off and graffiti displaying ˜Tory Pigs was scrawled all over the Millbank walls.

With 50 people eventually arrested in connection to the violence, and police today saying that the protester who threw the extinguisher should face an attempted murder charge, it seems that the message from the original peaceful demonstration has been forgotten, and many will be left disappointed.

Aaron Porter, the president of the National Union of Students agreed that his cause had lost a lot of public sympathy because of the violence, and that those who had caused criminal damage had undermined their argument.

David Cameron, who is currently in Seoul attending the G20 summit, condemned those responsible for hostilities, and confirmed that the government wouldn’t go back on plans to raise tuition fees as a result of it: Look, even if we wanted to, we shouldn’t go back to the idea that university is free, he finished.

Two Inspiring Interns, Max Clarke and Vicky Lane, went down to the student demonstrations yesterday to record the happenings and talk to some of you about the protest. Here is what they had to say:

-Max-

The intricate splendour of a Big Ben bathed in the soft golden light of the clear November evening greeted us as we left Westminster underground station, evoking a sense of beauty and calm that belied the chaos unfolding beneath.

Walking past one student lying prostrate in the middle of the road, clutching a placard lambasting the Lord Brownes higher education reforms, we joined the crowds and proceeded towards the ill fated Millbank Tower. The crowd around us began to grow in number as we approached the Tory HQ while a palpable energy coursed through the hoards. From above the roar of the gathering, a chant of No ifs, no buts; no education cuts! took shape.

Entering the complex, we found ourselves surrounded by students from across the nation armed with an impressive array of placards and banners; some bearing profoundly worded slogans including down with this sort of thing and ANGRY SIGN, as well as more serious statements of protest, and even some expertly photoshopped pornographic images depicting Cameron and Clegg performing acts better left to the imagination.

Picking our way past drummers beating the crowds into an almost tribalistic dance, we pressed on; deep into the pulsing mob to where the atmosphere darkened appreciably: the shouts became louder, and the chants more malicious.  Smoke from the burning mounds of signs rose into the cool evening air, mixing with various other smokes rising from some of the students.

Vicky attempted an interview with one amiable student representative, but the thickness of his accent and the roar of the crowds soon persuaded us to abort our efforts.

Missiles launched by the reckless behind us curved their way in high arcing trajectories over our heads, smashing down on unsuspecting demonstrators at the front.

From by our side, a husky voiced woman began shouting abuse at the lines of heavily armoured Military Police who were beginning to assemble along the tower’s shattered facade, with the passion and vocabulary of a Millwall fan; as yet another burning plank of wood sailed past us towards the besieged building.

As the police presence intensified and the last of the sun’s golden rays faded into a deep blue dusk, we followed the lead of the increasing numbers of battle weary students vacating the area a set off for home.

Max Clarke & Vicky Lane

-Vicky-

Getting off the tube at Westminster, I was almost disappointed to find things looking reasonably calm. After seeing the chaos of the student riots that had been erupting across the media, we were expecting to be greeted with an overwhelming spectacle.
Yet, initially, it seemed business was as usual.

However, the placards, face paints and crude slogans soon started to appear as we climbed the underground escalators. When they say cut back we say fight back! shouted one of the signs, THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY! screamed another. Clearly, the people were angry. It is just absolutely f*cking ridiculous one guy told me. University will once again be for the rich, whilst the poor and unemployed can just clean the streets, what a joke.

I’m not doing it for me, said Zoe Cleverly, a Bristol University student who had come across for the day with a coach load of her Bristol peers. It’s for my sister and her friends and my cousins and all the other people who will be affected. University is already TOO expensive how can they possibly justify raising the fees higher?

As we walked towards the beaten Millbank building, different sing-song chants could be picked up in the gradually thickening crowds, and costumes changed from a line of face paint, to the truly eccentric. The streets became a mardi gras of bear and tiger ensembles, all in one body-suits, an outfit made of money, and a giant pair of cardboard scissors simulating the cuts as the students rallied together and fought for their cause.

Yet, upon approaching Millbank, the more good-humoured were quickly left behind and the jokey costumes rapidly changed to masks and balaclavas: attire, it was clear, that wasn’t just being worn to keep out the cold.

In fact, the angry spectacle illuminated by fires and riot police surrounding the Millbank entrance was quite shocking – even despite our previous media warnings. Voices on megaphones coaxed the enraged demonstrators, protesters on the roof waved and teased the crowds below, and sticks, stones and any other throw-able objects filled the air as they were hurled towards the entrance and blockading police.

“I’m just so disappointed” despaired Col Leech of Bournemouth University from the outskirts of the commotion. “We had everyone down today and it was really nice earlier on, it was quite cheerful, everyone was having a good time. And now, unfortunately, a few had to ruin it for everyone. I’m just so disgusted.”

“It’s just not fair,” continued Emma Tunston, also a Bournemouth university student. “Even if you’re angry at politicians – which is fair enough, we’re all angry – but to smash up something which is going to have to be cleared up by someone who is probably working a low paid job, just trying to make money for their family is not fair.

“And it subtracts from the rest of us who have come here to say that the fee increases and the cuts are wrong. We’ve all stood there and shouted; we’re all angry. But still, to come here and smash up private property I think is even more wrong.”

The opinions regarding the violent uprising seemed to range from absolute loathing of the few that had ruined “what was a really good day”, to a shrug of, “well as long as it gets the message across and no-one gets hurt – who cares?” (Notably, the latter comment came from a smug hooded young man holding a plant which he proudly exclaimed he’d “nicked from the Millbank entrance”).

Amazingly, the whole sorry affair became quite entrancing to outsiders like Max and I. Drums kept a regular chanting beat, ‘boom boxes’ provided a festival-like quality, and flare guns lit up the increasing darkness. After a few hours we were ready to leave, but the ‘celebrations’ looked to continue long into the night.

All in all, it was quite an incredible display of what a combination of determined young minds and extensive social networking can achieve. On the downside, it was also a reminder that there are always idiots prepared to take things too far, forget the law, and disgrace what was otherwise a commendably successful protest.

Hopefully the guilty will be punished, lessons will be learnt, and the peaceful protesters acknowledged as separate entities to their aggressive counterparts.”

Vikram Sidhu has been interning as a finance assistant for the last 3 months

What was your job role?

I was a finance assistant.

What made you take the job?

It sounded interesting and I thought it would be a good introduction into the world of accounts. It was the area I was considering a career in and obviously it was a better way of getting experience rather than just reading about it.  I also thought that three months experience would give me a good idea about whether or not I wanted to pursue a future in that career.

And do you want to pursue a future in that career now?

Yes, I’m definitely interested in that line of work, it’s different, it’s interesting, it’s unique, you’re on the phone quite a lot, and you’re dealing with a lot of people. It’s nice to be part of a team, as well as getting the chance to work by yourself.

Had you applied for jobs before you took the internship route – or did you apply for an internship straight away?
I did apply for a few – I used reed.co.uk and received their daily email alerts for account assistants and loads of different general sorts of finance roles. But they all wanted x amount of months of experience with whatever packaging, and at that time I didn’t understand what half the words or programmes were.

And do you understand them now?
Mostly, yes. Obviously I am not so familiar with the packages that we don’t use ourselves, but I do now know what they are.

So would you say that this internship has given you a lot of confidence in finance?
Definitely.

What degree did you do?
Maths and finance

Did that not prepare you for a career in finance?
No, because what I did in the degree was more the practical side of mathematics, with a bit of finance. There wasn’t any accounting involved, it was just more about theory and numbers, analysis and that sort of thing. It was quite varied and pretty fun – the financial side anyway! But obviously there wasn’t anything that was going to prepare me for accounts payable – it just wasn’t part of my degree. Maybe if I had done an accounting degree it could have, but we will never know – unless I go and do another degree in accounting. Which would suck!

Did you think you would have to take an extra course in accountancy when you graduated – or did you think that an internship would be a better route?

I preferred to do an internship. I could have just done a course after graduation, but I think that has the same problem as a degree course, a lack of practical experience.

So now having almost completed your internship, do you think you have enough experience to get a full-time paid position?

I hope so. I definitely feel like I have a lot more experience now than before.  When I used to ring up agencies saying I was a graduate they would instantly ask have I got x amount of experience, to which I’d always have to reply no. Now, I get a much different response, which is great. Instead of straight out rejection, I now often get told that there are a few relevant jobs I can go for. I’ve had a few interviews already; in fact, I just came back from one today. So it’s definitely a lot more positive response than before.

So how did you feel the interview went today?

I’ll let you know if I get the job or not!

Did you feel you had more confidence talking about complex finance scenarios now that you’ve had experience dealing with them?

Yes, definitely. It makes a big difference. Beforehand, during previous interviews I had for some graduate finance schemes, they’d ask me to give an example of when I’d had to use / cope with a particular financial situation, and I had to relate it back to when I worked in a shop a few years back. Whereas today, I could say, ‘just this morning I was dealing with invoices chasing x amount of money’ and explain how exactly I dealt with that, how I ensured a good customer relationship was maintained etc. It just comes across as so much more relevant and is obviously a much better answer.

Have you ever regretted deciding to take an internship?

No, definitely not. I guess the only thing that was hard was the money – I had saved up beforehand which made it ok and was able to stay with my parents which certainly made it easier, though I can understand why people find it tough. I do think there needs to be some kind of governmental loan scheme to help those struggling.

Did you get all your expenses refunded ok?

Oh yes, I always got my travel refunded without any problems, and lunch was provided by the company, so I wasn’t spending anything as such as far as the internship went. It just meant I had to budget myself for everything else. I’d saved up about £400 beforehand, and I am just about coming to the end of that now. Though that’s not too bad considering it’s been three months!

So for anyone thinking of undertaking an internship – what advice would you give them?

I would definitely encourage anyone considering an internship to save some money first! I would also recommend from my own experience to go through a reputable company to ensure everything is above board. You hear a lot of negativity about internships in the papers nowadays, and about how they can exploit, so it is really important to make sure that your internship is valuable and genuine, and a good recruitment company can help with that. I know people who have gone on self-organised internships and then left after three days because they weren’t learning anything new and were instead left to teach other staff! The fact is it should be the other way round, the company should be teaching you and appreciate that in return, you are giving your time and hard-work to support and help build-up their company. I got my internship through Inspiring Interns and they were great, especially in maintaining constant contact and support throughout to make sure everything was going well. That’s the main thing with internships. As long as you are learning something relevant that you can put on your CV then you should stick with it. If not, then you should leave, just walk out. Internships shouldn’t be contracted and they should be on your terms. You should be able to leave if you are not getting what you want out of it, and reap the benefits if you are.

What kind of person would you recommend an internship to?

A graduate who has just come out of university, or even one who has been out a while but is still struggling to find employment.  I would also really recommend them to students still at university. One of my biggest regrets is not doing more work experience during my time at university – an internship over the summer holidays would have been perfect if I’d known about them before.  It’s easy to see how a Catch-22 scenario can occur. For example, I graduated last year, and applied for loads of grad schemes. But they all wanted graduates with experience, but you can’t get a job without experience…hence Catch-22!  It’s definitely best to make that preparation as early as possible to help make it easier later on to get a job.

So you would recommend internships to other people?

Definitely. As long as they are regulated and you go with a reputable company, I think internships are a great chance to work in an office environment and make that transition from a university environment into a proper, full-time job.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about your internship experience?

It’s so nice to have something useful and relevant on my CV that makes me stand out from all the other graduates – well worth the extra time I invested. I am now regularly getting responses to my job applications, and am able to talk confidently about my area of expertise. I am really pleased I decided to do an internship and certainly have no regrets, and let’s face it – doing an internship is so much better than just sitting at home waiting for something to come along!

There have been whispers in the media about the introduction of a training wage for all interns, proposed by the CIPD (The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development). The £2.50-per-hour minimum wage would align interns with apprentices who will be entitled to this sum come October, with other increases to the national minimum wage happening at the same time. It seems like a interesting proposal – all interns will legally be entitled to a nice pay packet in their pockets, no longer walking home empty handed with only vague dreams of earning money. Like me, you may already be envisaging rolling around (somewhat uncomfortably) in a pile of crisp £50 notes, casually throwing wads of cash around the room. Sadly, however, this may be a slightly overenthusiastic reaction to the new proposal.

In reality, a growing number of internships are based in Central London, which on the surface sounds rather glamorous for the humble student or graduate, but in actual fact amounts to a laborious and costly journey, as well as an overpriced sandwich for lunch and a meagre window-browse of the shops after work. I asked a friend of mine who has recently graduated from the University of Manchester about her internship and the amount she has to pay to get to work every day. It turns out it costs Rebecca over £100 per week travel-wise, which includes catching a National Rail train, followed by two changes on the Tube. And then there’s her lunch on top of that. Fortunately for Rebecca, her travel and lunch expenses are subsidised by the company at which she is interning, so there is never a risk of her losing money. The training wage, however, would fail to cover her costs, causing her to be significantly out of pocket. Of course this does not happen with everyone; for many the proposed wage would give interns a modest amount of spending money, and according to Jenny Lee, a recent graduate doing an internship in London, “it feels better to actually be earning something, rather than striking even without a faint whiff of cash coming my way”.

Is it worth it though? Should interns be legally entitled to a training wage, or do you think travel and lunch expenses suffice? We want to hear your thoughts and comments, let the debate rage on!

The recent news that “three quarters of employers ‘require 2:1 degree’” has come as a shock to many graduates who have only just received their university degrees, many of which fall below this grade.  With the number of students still on the rise, the latest statistics issued by The Association of Graduate Recruiters reveal that job vacancies have decreased by 7%, a frightening percentage for any graduate on the hunt for a job.

Hearing such statistics can be disheartening, and the current job climate is such that it is even more important to make yourself stand out from the crowd.  Employers are not just looking for candidates with enthusiasm in an interview and a high academic record on paper; they are now turning to work experience and seeing whether potential employees have enough relevant transferable skills.  Yet here lies another conundrum – how does one go about gaining these skills when no company will employ a candidate without them?

This is exactly where internships can help.  By engaging yourself in an internship, you can get one step onto the career ladder and significantly increase your employability.  Not only will you have a taster of work in your chosen field, but you will gain invaluable experience that employers are finding increasingly necessary when deciding who to employ.

If you recently graduated and your degree was not what you wanted or was lower than you expected – don’t panic.  Degrees are of great value but they do not mean everything in terms of employability.  Experience in the working world is becoming crucial to employers, so why not bite the bullet and apply for that internship that you’ve been meaning to – there’s every chance that it will lead to that full-time dream job.

source – eduinreview

For one recent graduate it all gets a bit too overwhelming.

It’s grim up North; or so the saying goes. Well now it seems that it’s grim up North, down South and anywhere else in-between, according to a recent survey of final year students at 30 of the UK’s top universities. The study, carried out by High Fliers, concluded that 45% of university leavers believed that their prospects upon finishing were ‘very limited’. Considering that the recent recession is officially over, the aftermath of the banking crisis seems to be playing heavily on the minds of graduates.

Possibly the most disturbing of all of the findings is that one in six wouldn’t have gone to university at all if they’d known about how tough it would be to find work upon finishing. Many are scared that jobs available will be snapped up by 2009 graduates, however speaking as an ’09 grad myself I am vigilant of the reverse coming into effect. Martin Birchill, Managing Director of High Fliers commented, “Our latest survey shows that final year students due to leave UK universities this summer are just as pessimistic about their employment prospects as those who graduated twelve months ago… with a record number of students due to complete degrees in the coming weeks and tens of thousands of last year’s graduates still looking for work, there is widespread concern on campus that competition for graduate jobs has never been fiercer.”

These figures paint a stark profile of graduate unemployment but yet again the Government have failed to differentiate between youth unemployment as a whole and the plight of those in higher education. In a repost to the survey’s findings, Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts said, “The jobs market continues to be very tough for young people, who were among the biggest losers during the recession. There continues to be enormous value in higher education and that is why we also are committed to offering an extra 10,000 university places this year.” As we have continued to say time and time again, herding more young people into university will only make the problem of the saturation of the graduate job market even worse; how long will it be until the government realise this?

Although in reality this survey is only a snapshot of graduate opinions, a fifth of final year students were interviewed and the assumptions that can be drawn are worrying to say the least. Following the announcement of dramatic spending cuts in Whitehall, the post-recession bubble seems to have been well and truly burst. With dark times ahead, the next few years for graduates are forecast to be a bleak period.

Chanel. Louis Vuitton. Ralph Lauren. Inspiring Interns.

These are names deeply rooted in the pomp and regalia of modern fashion and are at the forefront of genre-defying vivacity. What’s that you say? Why Inspiring Interns? Well, besides the Inspiring office looking like a catalogue of what’s hot this season, Burberry trench dresses and nudes if you must know, we earned a mention in the fashion bible that is Vogue over the past week. Unfortunately it wasn’t for a run down of my outfits for this week, my fingers are still crossed, but in relation to the news that Lady Gaga has applied for an internship with milliner extraordinaire Philip Treacy. So who was Vogue’s go-to guy in regards to this burning gossip? None other than Inspiring Interns’ CEO Ben Rosen. Follow the link below to read the full story.

Vogue – Go Gaga for an Internship

An inspiring mission statement from our inspiring boss! Rise to the challenge. Let’s get graduates back into internships and onto the career ladder.

Excerpts from the interview:

“We want to break the myth that companies are doing interns a favour by offering them an opportunity to learn and train. An internship is a mutually beneficial relationship which benefits both the employer and the intern.” To read the entire article, visit http://tinyurl.com/pkx5xh

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