PRESS RELEASE: PLACEMENT PROGRAMME REACHES OUT TO STUDENTS AND BUSINESSES ACROSS LONDON

6th April 2011: Step launches 2011 programme search for London’s Most Enterprising Students and Graduates

With graduate unemployment levels at historic highs, the UK’s leading paid student placement and internship provider today announces it is expanding its programme across London to enable more students and graduates to gain the experience which could be vital to landing a permanent job.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:

“It is essential that graduates move successfully from academic to working life and a place on an internship scheme is a fantastic way to start out. I am delighted to support a programme that not only works to provide real opportunities for graduates, but that also directly helps to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of the capital’s businesses.”

For 2011 Step is working with two new key partners to help expand the number and range of opportunities available across London. The Careers Group (University of London) are giving Step a major boost this year by offering the placement programme to their employer partners for the first time, and will be working closely with Step’s other new partner Real World Magazine. Existing partner WEXO (Work Experience Online) will continue to focus on the creative industries and SMEs and the partnership will be managed by the central Step team.

Every summer STEP places hundreds of undergraduates to run business development projects tailored to their individual skills and career ambitions. And following a highly successful trial supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in 2010, Step will now continue to also offer opportunities to recent graduates.

The 12-week placements give students and graduates the chance to generate results which could provide a real boost to their employment prospects whilst gaining relevant and meaningful work experience. The programme, has delivered more than 23,000 projects in SMEs since it began in 1986.

Small businesses, which still may find themselves stretched in the current economic climate, also benefit from the projects, which can deliver substantial financial rewards. Every year, almost half (48%) of Step students add more than £5,000 worth of value to their host business, while a fifth (17%) have added more than £30,000.

Students and graduates can apply for a wide range of placements ranging from designing websites and bespoke software to devising marketing strategies and identifying potential new markets.

The programmes have helped deliver paid placements to companies ranging from Manchester United’s London offices to innovative new London Gin distiller, Sipsmith and internet sensations Mydeco.com and Skimbit to property company Ivy Lettings.

Philip Donnelly, Programme Director at Step Enterprise, said: “Step is a direct and practical response to the challenge that tens of thousands of UK graduates face when they move from the world of study into employment. I am delighted that with our new London partners we will be creating more opportunities for meaningful placements right across the Capital.”

Students and recent graduates can find out more and apply for a placement in London at www.wexo.co.uk Towards the end of their placement all candidates will write a blog on their achievements and personal development, which will be entered into the ‘Most Enterprising Student’ awards.

Businesses that have a potential project opportunity should email info@wexo.co.uk or visit the website for more information. Applications received by April 30th will benefit from a special Spring discount offer.

~ENDS~

For more information contact Robin Kennedy on info@wexo.co.uk

Notes to editors:

Step is a direct response to the challenge that tens of thousands of UK graduates face when they move from the world of study into employment.

Step has received a range of national and regional Government funding in past years, and until 2009 was sponsored by Shell UK. Following Shell’s withdrawal of support in 2009-10, Step Enterprise have worked hard to develop and enhance the programme, creating a sustainable focused entirely on the needs of participating students, graduates and employers.

“Be passionate, be opinionated and always be a problem-solver“. So said our panel at last night’s filmed careers event and launch of WEXO TV, ‘How I Made it in Advertising‘. We were lucky enough to get an intimate and entertaining careers chat from five pros in the advertising world, jam-packed with practical advice and anecdotal lessons. The Tabernacle in Notting Hill hosted our evening in its beautiful and embellished theatre.

On the panel sat Julian Diment (Carphone Warehouse), Rebecca Robins (Interbrand), Nick Foster (T-Mobile), Tanya Hamilton-Smith (JWT) and Robin Garton (MBA). Collectively they’ve worked for and with the likes of Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Tesco, Orange, Andrex and Reuters. A pretty impressive but instantly likeable bunch, if we ever met one.

Our audience consisted of everyone from LSE undergraduates, Masters students and careers advisers for schoolchildren to keen WEXO members who’d travelled from as far as Cardiff! Needless to say the atmosphere in the Tabernacle was rather electric, with guests in the running to win a work’s week experience in advertising particularly excited. To begin, each of our speakers zipped us through their background, and how they found themselves on their current career paths. A few central themes arose, which anyone looking to delve into the advertising should consider noting. Pens at the ready:

1. Follow your instincts. When it comes to joining a team, go with people you instantly feel you can gel with. If you’re pretending to be someone you’re not, it’ll show in no time.
2. Relationships are key. Care about the people and brands you work for. Not in a sentimental sense, but in terms of genuinely wanting to push forward their agenda. Those relationships will form the core of your contact base in time.
3. Do your research. Know the brands or companies you aspire to work with, before you find yourself in that interview you worked so hard to nab. With LinkedIn, Facebook and Google at your disposal, any failure to read up will tend to reflect badly on your preparation.
4. Don’t be a slave to the numbers. When you’ve got an idea in a creative position, it’s vital to balance both your own gut feeling and the anticipated demand from market research. You’ll sell yourself short by only responding to one or the other.

After learning how each speaker ‘made it’ in advertising on their own paths we then enjoyed the Q&A session. While I tweeted furiously throughout, our audience came through with questions on the prevalence of social media, importance of corporate social responsibility and recommended academic paths to advertising jobs.

Some particular crackers included a question on whether the panel members would have handled the John Lewis ‘freezing dog’ Christmas ad differently and a personal question about why so few of the panel seemed to be on Twitter themselves! These two are in fact our winning questions for the event: in our promo we had advertised a week’s work experience and subscription (worth £800) to The Reel. We’re happy to announce that Debra Sherman and Lucy Hine are our two winners, and more details will be coming their way today. Well done!

As the Q&A went on, similar themes started to crop up while the panel used stories of their own experiences to illustrate their points. It was particularly interesting to hear about Garton’s adventurous approach to adverts when contrasted with Hamilton-Smith’s self-described ’safe’ angle. Knowing we were sat with one of the brains behind Orange Wednesdays (Diment) was also impressive and inspirational.

All in all, the gist seemed to be: use your skills, resources and creativity to push yourself towards the department you’d work best in. Although the advertising industry is so varied, finding oneself in the wrong area could be disastrous and personally unfulfilling.

WEXO Members can watch the entire event on WEXO TV here or break it down into clips of the Q&As.

Tshepo Mokoena

Will Gordo's news be good for you?

AT WEXO we think it’s important to keep you guys up to date with what the government, (or anyone else for that matter) are doing to help young people looking for work. So…

The government just announced The Young Person’s Guarantee. According to the Government, the guarantee will offer up to 470,000 training or work experience opportunities over the next 15 months, benefiting almost 100,000 youngsters straight away. It offers the chance of work through the Future Jobs Fund, work-focused training, a place on a community task force, help with self-employment and internships. Young people will still receive JSA (Job Seeker’s Allowance) while on the schemes. If they do not take up the offer, young people’s benefits will be affected.

It means a bit more freedom and funding to help develop your career. BUT we think they don’t go quite far enough and have one reservation about the plans: The government should be offering more incentives for businesses to pay their interns at least minimum wage. A graduate on Job Seekers Allowance for 6 months could legally be taken on for an internship and paid £46.85 per week? That could be even less than the travel and expenses bills met by some 14 year olds that we send on work experience placements. WEXO would like to see more action being taken to incentivise companies to recruit graduates in particular and pay them a respectable wage. Otherwise talk of a ‘lost generation’ could still become a reality.


More info on Young Person’s Guarantee – Press Association Coverage


Tell us what you think of the situation. Is the Young Person’s Guarantee Good news?