Businesses in London need student interns

A survey by online business resource Knowledge Bridge, at the London Development Agency's recent Innovation Conference, indicates that businesses believe that the skills and knowledge available within the higher education sector are of value, but unfortunately the wide range of expertise offered by

universities is not fully appreciated.
Knowledge Bridge editor Ian Powling comments, 'This seems to confirm what many of London's top universities have long suspected: businesses are interested in using university services but think that gaining access to a university will be both time-consuming and difficult. This simply isn't the case any longer. Knowledge Bridge now has three online services to make it easier to contact the right people in London universities about training courses, research and consultancy, and advertising vacancies to students.

'For instance, to the many companies that are considering taking on students for summer internships, Knowledge Bridge offers its Vacancy Placer service. Employers can post vacancies on the site and these are distributed to every participating university in London. It couldn't be easier, and it's free.'

The survey comprised four key propositions:

1. Part-time work and work placements

Would you consider offering part-time work or a work placement to an undergraduate?

A positive 72% of respondents, representing a wide variety of market sectors and company sizes, said they would consider taking on a student in a part-time role or placement/internship. This suggests an awareness that both businesses and students could benefit from part-time and work placement engagements, and that student recruitment can play a vital role in developing the workforce with the right skills for the future.

The small business view - Nearly half (48%) of the positive respondents were businesses with less than ten staff, which suggests a encouraging level of openness of small companies to the idea of taking on students in this way.

2. Research and Development

Have you considered using university facilities to support R&D projects?

53% of respondents said yes to this. This shows a healthy awareness of business that universities have a wealth of expertise to offer, although this optimism should be tempered by the fact that attendees to the London Innovation Conference are likely to have greater knowledge of the knowledge base. Up to now, the difficulty of finding the right person for the job has been a major barrier to business and higher education research collaboration. Knowledge Bridge now makes this easier with its Research Finder enquiry distribution service.

3. Training

Have you considered using a university to provide training for your staff?

Only 38% of respondents said yes, suggesting that universities need to work harder to make business aware of the advantages of outsourcing training to universities. Knowledge Bridge is helping with its London-wide search engine for courses at universities and regular updates on new programmes of study.

The small business view - 50% of those that said no were small businesses with less than ten staff. This suggests that awareness is particularly low among SMEs that they could source training from a university.

4. Creativity

Some people feel that sending staff to a university for training encourages creative thinking and innovation - more so than in other training environments. Do you agree?
The majority (59%) of respondents agreed with this proposition, but universities clearly need to get out there and make more businesses aware of the distinctive contribution that a university setting can make to staff learning.

The small business view - The idea that universities can foster creativity and innovation evidently struck a chord with small businesses, as 53% of those that said yes had less than ten staff.