Work experience and Gateway

Gateway Information for Graduates

Currently our funding is transitioning, meaning there may be some changes to the support we can offer. Take a look around GradCornwall for advice and guidance on employability. We are continuing to advertise graduate level jobs so keep a look out for your dream role.

If you are an undergraduate looking for work experience please visit www.brightercornwall.org.uk

Within the Gateway programme, the successful graduates work through individual learning plans to ensure they have work experience, improved skills, more in depth knowledge and the required level of professionalism that will help them secure graduate level roles after the programme. There will be additional support in the form of training and mentoring to help the graduates achieve this.

For more information about Gateway, please contact Jules on 0845 6003660 or email: gateway@cornwall.ac.uk

Rather than being a formal programme of activity, work experience can be much more casual for employer and graduate alike but it is a really valuable opportunity for both

Graduates

It’s an employer’s market at the moment; increasingly, employers are expecting graduates to come equipped with some experience so that they reduce their risk of employing the wrong person
Having a degree is simply not enough to guarantee a job. It is the graduates who have demonstrated a passion for a field of work and have some commercial exposure who are successful in securing permanent jobs in their chosen industry sectors. Take a look at the 3 CV’s below, if you were an employer which one would you choose?!
Work experience is a fantastic method for undergraduates and graduates to gain relevant industry (or any transferrable) experience and to try out the realities of the working environments before committing to a career direction.
Thinking about full time work, you are spending most of your waking hours in a job. So it is really important you do something you enjoy and which suits your skill set
Take advantage of any work experience programmes that are offered to you during your studies as they will invariably offer you some excellent CV fodder
In terms of payment for work experience, this is up to you to negotiate with the employer – we recommend that for work experience you seek to earn at least minimum wage and focus on the other benefits this will afford you.

Employers

Many employers are willing to offer graduates opportunities to shadow people in their working environment and to even give them a trial
If you are interested in offering graduates, who are keen to work in your sector, work shadowing or trial opportunities, make sure you tick the appropriate box in your GradCornwall Employer Profile so that graduates feel they can approach you
Explore the Gateway programme as a tool for offering graduates work experience
Whilst there are no strict rules about how much you pay your work experience graduates, if you have taken them on as part of an accredited training course, the work experience co-ordinators will liaise with you over any salary contributions or wages you will be expected to pay. However, if you are negotiating a privately organised work experience payment we recommend you pay at least minimum wage and limit the placement to a certain number of days or weeks. If the placement is exceeding 2 to 4 weeks, you may wish to explore undertaking an internship