Priyanka at Leicester City FC
A graduate has sung the praises of De Montfort University’s (DMU) innovative Graduate Champions scheme after it played a vital role in helping her land a dream job.
DMU Graduate Champions offers recent graduates the chance to take up paid, month-long intensive work placements with leading UK businesses in order to enhance their CV and help them stand out from the crowd in a furiously competitive jobs market.
Computer Science graduate Priyanka Balcrisna was involved in the pilot of the scheme during the autumn term, taking up a placement working on IT projects for Leicester City Football Club.
As soon as she told potential employers about the placement, opportunities came knocking, and she is now looking forward to starting work as a junior developer in the IT section of Nottingham-based property support service Styles and Wood Group plc. Priyanka will provide IT support and help develop the company web pages.
Priyanka said: “I got a call from an agency and I told them I would not be able to start work straight away because I was taking part in Graduate Champions. They told me a potential employer was really impressed that I was getting experience with Leicester City and would like to interview me. So I had the interview and got the job with Styles and Wood.
“I was told so many times by companies I applied to work for that they were impressed I had taken up an internship. Obviously Leicester City is a great company with a great reputation, but the employers were just as impressed with DMU for running an internship scheme for their graduates.
“As soon as I put the Graduate Champions details on my Linked In page I started getting calls from companies. It gave the perfect impression.
“I think the Graduate Champions scheme is amazing. As a graduate, you really need to show employers that you have commercial experience and that is exactly what DMU is helping us to do.
“I have told so many of my friends from DMU about Graduate Champions and said they really need to sign up to the scheme. It is brilliant. I am so happy.”
Each DMU graduate taking part in Graduate Champions is contracted and paid by DMU to work 18.5 hours a week, and the university pays the Living Wage of £7.65 an hour.
It gives businesses free access to some of the brightest and best graduates in the UK today meaning they are given the opportunity to benefit from an intensive injection of graduate-level expertise and innovation.
For our graduates, the placements bring sought-after opportunities to gain valuable insight into graduate-level work that is relevant to their chosen degree and the career path they wish to follow. They also have the chance to impress a potential future employer.
The next, fully-subscribed DMU Graduate Champions scheme will begin on Monday 13 January. More than 400 placements have been offered by leading companies.
Posted on Thursday 2 January 2014