Research by the UK's only student and employer matchmaking site has found that IT companies across the UK have the largest amount of surplus work out of all the sectors across the UK, with three fifths saying they would look to students and graduates to work on projects they didn't have time to do.
The research conducted by http://www.studentgems.com/ found that the IT industry is more likely to hire a student than any other, with 64 percent admitting to being open to paying students to work on specialist projects. 54 percent of the automotive industry would also hire students to help when workloads increase.
Salesmen are less likely to hire students or outsource projects; with 58% saying extra work is ‘delegated to the most capable staff member'. Only one in five businesses in the banking and finance sector,19 percent, would outsource their work load to students, with studentgems.com encouraging all school leavers, students and graduates to consider roles in sectors such as IT and engineering, where there is a desire to place skilled individuals to complete work that is otherwise not getting completed.
Another aspect of the study by the student-employer matchmaking website asked the question, ‘do you know what the minimum wage is for people over the age of 22?' Just one in 5, 23 percent, of businesses knew that £5.80 an hour was the correct amount; however 49 percent of businesses answered £6.20 an hour. Nineteen percent of the businesses asked knew the minimum wage for 18-21 years old was £4.83, however over a third, 35 percent, thought that the minimum for students was £5.71.
Here are the business sectors that say they have surplus work, by percentage of companies that admitted to need help with their workload:
1. IT – 71 percent
2. Automotive – 69 percent
3. Engineering – 62 percent
4. Secretarial and Administration – 61 percent
5. HR and Recruitment – 59 percent
6. Distribution and Warehouse – 51 percent
7. Property Maintenance and Surveying – 48 percent
8. Media/New Media – 45 percent
9. Hospitality, Travel and Leisure – 38 percent
10. Banking, Finance and Insurance – 32 percent
Sue Harrison, Co-founder of Studentgems.com said: “We wanted to commission this research to discover what businesses do when their workload increases and they don't have a member of staff who is knowledgeable in the field. Previous research has shown that businesses do rely on students, but we wanted to know how much trust companies are prepared to put in undergraduates.”
25 March 2010
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