Partnership opens opportunities for gap-year students

Citation

(2004), "Partnership opens opportunities for gap-year students", Education + Training, Vol. 46 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2004.00446aab.003

Partnership opens opportunities for gap-year students

Partnership opens opportunities for gap-year students

Year in Industry, the UK's largest supplier of gap-year work placements to the IT and engineering industries, has teamed up with the Chartered Management Institute to give students the chance to develop management skills in a business environment. The partnership follows research by the institute, which discovered that 49 per cent of human-resource managers think that today's graduates are less well prepared for the workplace than those in the past. One third of managers believe graduates have poor interpersonal skills, with diplomacy (64 per cent) and team-working (39 per cent) cited as key areas of concern.

Designed by the institute, the programme responds to management demands that graduates "hit the ground running". It introduces gap-year students, in full-time employment, to management skills teaching team-leadership, information-handling and project-supervision techniques. Successful participants are awarded a Level 3 certificate in management. "Organizations have high expectations of their graduates' preparedness for their professional roles. However, many university leavers enter the marketplace without transferring classroom confidence into practical business skills. By partnering with Year in Industry, the institute aims to link the needs of business with the drive for quality entrants into the UK job market," said Christine Hayhurst, director of professional affairs at the Chartered Management Institute. The institute's research also revealed that 67 per cent of organizations offer work-placement schemes.

Roy Bromley, national director of Year in Industry, said: "The attraction of a gap year has increased in recent years, helped considerably by the activities of public figures such as Prince Harry." In 2002, almost 25,000 students applied for deferred university entry. The figure for gap-year applicants in 2003 was estimated at more than 50,000. Mr Bromley continued: "Students are saying they want to broaden their horizons and enhance their CV. Development programmes, such as our link with the Chartered Management Institute, make both opportunities possible. The students get the work experience they want and organizations will ultimately benefit from employing people with some experience of the business environment."