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London Businesses Need Student Interns
Businesses recognise the value of
student work placements and internships, according to
a recent business attitude survey conducted by knowledge
bridges.
A survey by online business resource Knowledge Bridge
(a non-profit organisation, funded by the Higher Education
Funding Council for England), at the London Development
Agency’s recent Innovation Conference, indicates
that businesses believe that the skills and knowledge
available within the higher education sector are of
value, but unfortunately the wide range of expertise
offered by universities is not fully appreciated.
“This seems to confirm what many of London’s
top universities have long suspected: businesses are
interested in using university services but think that
gaining access to a university will be both time-consuming
and difficult,” comments Knowledge Bridge editor
Ian Powling. “This simply isn’t the case
any longer. Knowledge Bridge now has three online services
to make it easier to contact the right people in London
universities about training courses, research and consultancy,
and advertising vacancies to students.”
The survey comprised four key propositions:
- Part-time Work and Work Placements
Would you consider offering part-time work or a work
placement to an undergraduate?
A positive 72% of respondents, representing a wide
variety of market sectors and company sizes, said
they would consider taking on a student in a part-time
role or placement/internship. This suggests an awareness
that both businesses and students could benefit from
part-time and work placement engagements, and that
student recruitment can play a vital role in developing
the workforce with the right skills for the future.
The small business view - Nearly half (48%) of the
positive respondents were businesses with less than
ten staff, which suggests a encouraging level of openness
of small companies to the idea of taking on students
in this way.
- Research and Development
Have you considered using university facilities to
support R&D projects?
53% of respondents said "yes" to this, showing
a healthy awareness of business that universities
have a wealth of expertise to offer. This optimism
should be tempered however, by the fact that attendees
to the London innovation Conference are likely to
have greater awareness of the knowledge base. Until
now, the difficulty in finding the right person for
the job has been a major barrier to business and higher
education research collaboration. Knowledge Bridge
now makes this easier with its Research Finder enquiry
distribution service.
- Training
Have you considered using a university to provide
training for your staff?
Only 38% of respondents said "yes", suggesting
that universities need to work harder to make business
aware of the advantages of outsourcing training to
universities.
The small business view - 50% of those that said "no"
were small businesses with less than ten staff. This
suggests that awareness of opportunities to source
training from universities is particularly low among
this sector.
- Creativity
Some people feel that sending staff to a university
for training encourages creative thinking and innovation
- more so than in other training environments. Do
you agree-
The majority (59%) of respondents agreed with this
proposition, but universities require further exposure
to ensure businesses are aware of the distinctive
contribution that a university setting can make to
staff learning.
The small business view - The idea that universities
can foster creativity and innovation evidently struck
a chord with small businesses, as 53% of those that
said "yes" had less than ten staff.
Knowledge Bridge is a partnership of London universities
that aims to improve business access to higher education
institutions via its dedicated website, www.knowledgebridge.co.uk.
With Thanks To: Knowledge Bridge
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