Royal Holloway Year in Business: High Fliers 2016 Research

The blog article below is based on the findings from the High Fliers 2016 Research publication which is available online: http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2016/graduate_market/GMReport16.pdf

The latest findings from High Fliers research highlight the importance UK's leading graduate employers put on the value of work experience on students' CVs. This is reflected in the large number of paid work experience programmes now being offered by such companies.

This is all positive news for the students on Royal Holloway's Year in Business programme who need to secure a placement position for their 3rd year at University. Many may also seek summer internships/ taster days during their 1st year at University to establish the areas which interest them and also gain valuable experience for their CVs.

Research background: High Fliers Research, established in 1994, is an independent market research company which specialises in student and graduate research. This research study was conducted in December 2015 and reveals details of the graduate vacancies, starting salaries and undergraduate work experience programmes at the country's one hundred leading employers.

Key Findings related to work experience quoted from the High Fliers 2016 Research report:

1. More than 90% of the UK’s leading graduate employers are offering paid work experience programmes for students and recent graduates during the 2015-2016 academic year – an unprecedented 14,058 places are available.

> At least half of UK's leading graduate employers offer industrial placements for undergraduates. (typically lasting 6-12 months as part of a university degree course such as Royal Holloway's Year in Business programme).

> Three-quarters of employers provide paid vacation internships for penultimate year students.
> Increasing numbers of employers now also have work experience places for first year undergraduates – over a quarter of organisations offer paid internships and two-fifths of employers run introductory courses, open days and other taster experiences for first year students.

2. Almost half the recruiters who took part in the research repeated their warnings from previous years – that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes.

3. Recruiters have confirmed that they expect a third of this year's full-time graduate positions to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations, either through paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work.

This High Fliers report builds on the findings from other research studies, such as the CBI survey (2015) which indicates that after attitudes/ aptitude for work, relevant work experience/ industrial placement is the 2nd most important factor considered when recruiting graduates.

Some of the employers who have visited Royal Holloway this year to talk to students about their placement positons: