Prospects.ac.uk launches innovative online chat room

Graduates seeking information and advice on career planning can talk to industry experts online, following the launch of a series of weekly chat rooms to be hosted by Prospects.ac.uk, the national graduate careers website run by CSU, the higher education Careers Services Unit.

Careers Chat Live, which launches on Wednesday 9th October, comprises a series of discussion sessions each week, during which graduates will be able to put their questions to representatives from a wide range of graduate employers.

The chat room is a further development of our Careers Message Board, where graduates can share their careers concerns with each other, explains Mike Hill, CSU''s chief executive. The live chat rooms will enable final year students and graduates to talk to industry experts in an informal situation.

Each week, an expert will be online to discuss general questions about graduate recruitment or specific questions relating to their industry sector. The line up before Christmas includes representatives from Robson Rhodes, Unilever, Royal Sun Alliance and Corus. Topics to be covered in the New Year will include teaching, art and design, medical/pharmaceutical and the public sector.

Sessions will take place every Wednesday between 2-3pm and are predominantly designed for final year students and recent graduates.

In addition, Prospects.ac.uk already provides final year students with a wide range of careers and labour market information including comprehensive databases of full time graduate vacancies and post-graduate opportunities, typical salaries and current graduate trends, application and interview tips. For graduates there is also free online information and advice services such as ''Email a Careers Advisor'' and ''Talk to Graduates Online.''

This type of online service has proved very popular with graduates, adds Mike Hill. July and August saw record numbers using Email a Careers Advisor, an increase of 102 per cent on last year and Talk to Graduates online has almost 2400 registered users and receives around 500 messages per month.