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Aston University in Birmingham will this year create an extra 150 student placements at local businesses in the West Midlands region. The 150 places are up for grabs to all West Midland graduates – and to graduates from other institutes who return to the area.
The placements are being created by the Graduate Advantage Scheme which is also based at Aston University.
The extra places are being made available following extra funding from the government via the Economic Challenge Investment Fund of the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE). It is also hoped that the funding will help businesses who have been hit by the recession; it will give them access to vouchers entitling them to direct academic support from any of the West Midland universities.
The HEFCE have made a total of just over £27.5 million available to universities across the UK – with Aston gaining the second highest amount of £998 thousand. Only the University of Cumbria received more (£1 million). Other beneficiaries include Bucks New University with £500 thousand, Brunel with just short of the same figure and the London School of Economics with a little less than £100 thousand.
The Pro Vice Chancellor for Business Partnerships and Knowledge Transfer at Aston University, Dr Phil Extance, said that, “Universities can provide vital support to businesses but sometimes businesses do not make use of the skills and expertise that exists. We're delighted to win this latest bid, which will enable us to increase the scope of two of our successful activities and to allow universities to help businesses tackle the difficult issues they face.”
Dr Extance also pointed out that the West Midlands needed a further three thousand graduates each year taking up jobs in the private sector just to come up to speed with the average for the UK. He said that the extra Graduate Advantage funding would “help to give a boost for students graduating into the job market this summer.”
If you would like further information about the placements on offer through the Graduate Advantage Scheme then go to www.graduateadvantage.co.uk. And, if you want to explore other avenues of internships and work placements, then check out our own dedicated pages.
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