Work Experience Invaluable to University Degree say 72 Percent of Graduates

LONDON, October 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

University leavers polled by reed.co.uk place importance on the role of hands-on experience in education

A survey by jobs site reed.co.uk, which advertises graduate jobs, as well as training courses and placements, has found that nearly three quarters of university leavers found that work experience was invaluable to a university degree.

The Graduate Survey from reed.co.uk polled nearly 700 university graduates..

The findings mirror trends seen across the current UK jobs market, which puts a high premium on hands-on experience as the effects of the downturn continue to squeeze the economy and employment prospects.

With hundreds of thousands of new graduates seeking employment each year, this survey suggests that graduates want their degrees to be better channeled towards the workplace.

The majority of arts students were dissatisfied with the relevance of certain elements of their education: 40% of Drama & Film students surveyed strongly disagreed that their degree had helped them in the workplace.

Just over 43% of those surveyed had been given the opportunity to undertake work experience as part of their university education, the overwhelming majority of whom had found that the opportunity to learn directly from a place of work was of huge benefit.

Only 5.48% of those who did work experience as part of their degree found that it was not at all useful to their education:  nearly 95% of those who undertook work experience found it either very valuable or valuable.

Reviewing these results, Mark Rhodes of reed.co.uk comments:

"This study shows that the opportunity to gain real world work experience can significantly enhance the value of a degree to graduate jobseekers.

"For students who are serious about following a specific career path, finding courses which includes an industrial placement or similar may prove invaluable when it comes to graduation."

About reed.co.uk:

reed.co.uk is the UK's leading online recruitment service. Owned by Reed Executive PLC, reed.co.uk enables jobseekers to search over 110,000 jobs from more than 8,000 recruiters across 42 industry sectors.

Registered jobseekers can receive email job alerts, save searches and make their details available to a range of recruiters, including Reed's network of trained recruitment consultants.

Recruiters of all types benefit from reed.co.uk's range of innovative online recruitment solutions, including: online job posting and applicant management; job posting with Guaranteed Response; CV Search; targeted branding and email services.

For press enquiries, please contact Lynn Cahillane or Mark Rhodes on +44(0)20-7067-4582, Email: news@reedonline.co.uk, Dragon Court, 28 Macklin Street, London, WC2B 5LX