Intern Enters Public Office
19 Oct 2009
Mark has taken part in the University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) Internship Scheme, offering a graduate an eight week work experience placement, based at his Preston Constituency office. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to put the skills learned whilst studying their degree course into working for an MP.
The scheme offers graduates real work experience and the chance to improve their CV. There have been many successful cases where internships have led to full time employment.
UCLan were successful in gaining funding from the Economic Challenge Investment fund (ECIF) which is set up by Higher Education Funding Council (HEFC) and will provide paid placements for over 200 graduates until August 2010. The funding has enabled the University to develop a scheme which is aimed at helping graduates and employers during the current economic crisis.
The successful intern, Laura Crabb, BA Hons Public Relations graduate from UCLan said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship with Mark Hendrick MP. The experience I have gained is invaluable and it has enabled me to put the skills and knowledge gained from my degree into a working environment. The internship has also given me the chance to enhance my portfolio, which will hopefully increase my employability for the future.”
Mark said: “With the current economic downturn, 2009 has been an extremely difficult year for graduates. It is encouraging to see that the Futures Team at UCLan have devised a programme which tackles these issues. I was more than happy to take part, as I feel that it is important to give graduates an opportunity to kick start their careers. I along with my colleagues regularly employ interns in our Westminster offices. I would like to see more MP’s employing interns within their constituency offices, as there is a high calibre of graduates here and not just in London. I would also advise more businesses in the North West to look into the scheme and see where they could help graduates to gain work experience.”
Steve Bell, Project Manager, Knowledge Transfer Services at UCLan said: “The Graduate Internship programme is a great opportunity for graduates to work with local businesses. They can benefit from the experience of working alongside skilled people with good industrial expertise and knowledge. To date we have worked with over 80 North West businesses right across the commercial spectrum. For many of these companies this has been their first engagement with a graduate, in some cases the experience has been so good for them that the intern has been offered a full time job. UCLan is committed to providing and developing industry leading employment services to its students and graduates and the Government support that we have received in the development of this programme has assisted us to improve that service.”
More information about the internship programme can be found on the Placement and Work page at: www.uclan.ac.uk/futures