A recent conference in UCD, hosted by the Association of Higher Education Careers Services, AHECS, explored the whole area of work placement and how the process can be refined to offer more value to students and companies. Entitled ‘Positive Impact of Work Placement: Enhancing Employability in Challenging Times,’ the aim was to promote and refine the concept of work placement as an essential tool for building graduate careers. Research presented at the conference showed that employers are increasingly viewing the work placement process as part of their recruitment processes. 

Speaking at the start of the conference, Seamus McEvoy, chair of AHECS and Head of Career Services at UCC said that the Association has established a working group in this area to “develop best practice policy and guidelines for work placement learning, produce relevant research publications and create a forum for the sharing of expertise and experience amongst Work Placement practitioners.”

The keynote speaker on the day was Ms Una Halligan, Chair of the Expert Group for Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). She hosted a presentation based on research carried out by the Expert Group, entitled Future Fit: Role of Work Placement in Preparing Students for Employability & the World of Work. 

The Group have carried out a number of studies on the impact and effectiveness of work placement schemes in different industry sectors. The overriding theme of the responses from companies in these sectors is that work placement is increasingly vital for graduates. In the bio-pharma sector, companies  ”emphasised the importance of student work placements and consider them to be very valuable, giving students practical experience of the industry.” In addition, according to the report, they see a “considerable difference between graduates who have had a work placement as part of their studies, and those who have not,” and it is the experience of companies that ‘graduates from programmes with work placements hit the ground running.”  The issue though is that the report also found that large numbers of students taking biopharma-pharmachem related courses do not have access to placements. For those unable to secure a placement the EGFSN recommended that students use visiting lecturers or networking with industry professionals to attain some of the knowledge and skills that work placements can provide. Companies surveyed also said that placements should be ideally between 6-9 months as it takes between 8 and12 weeks, in their experience, for students to familiarise themselves with the positions.

The theme of the growing necessity of work placements was carried through to the Financial Services companies surveyed by the EGFSN, mirrored by a similar lack of placement opportunities. This lack of opportunities was, according to companies, having an impact on the effectiveness of graduates during the recruitment process. The report says that financial companies found a lack of “industry readiness” in graduates. But the exceptions to this were colleges who included work placement programmes as part of their curriculum. According to the EGFSN; “this practice was viewed very favourably by industry with several respondents stating that quality work experience made these undergraduates instantly more employable and often placed them on a par with students who had pursued postgraduate level studies. The report emphasises the benefits of the “practical application of their education in a live work setting, and as graduates, that they can adapt and contribute immediately as they encounter less of a learning curve in entering the work environment.” In terms of manufacturing,  employers emphasised the importance of graduates being reasonably ready for work, both in terms of being able to apply what they have learned, and in terms of the course content reflecting the workplace as it is now. The presentation from Ms Halligan also highlighted that “employers indicated that they see work placements as forming a major part of their recruitment process.”

The presentation also touched on the skills levels in the ICT sector, with surveyed firms saying that they “are generally happy with the graduates they see,” and “were keen to endorse work placements as a mechanism to smooth the transition from college into the workplace.”

Ms Halligan also spoke on the under-usage of the Erasmus programme and the whole issue of the shortage of language skills as a result. We’ll discuss this whole area in a future article.

Check out http://gradireland.com/work-experience for advice on work placements and internships.

In a week where the whole issue of tax being paid overseas was thrown into the limelight with the comments by Minister for Social Welfare Joan Burton regarding U2 having their tax affairs handled in the Netherlands, a UK Parliamentary Committee has also summoned Google to appear before it to explain why it has paid virtually no tax there despite accumulating €13 billion in revenue over the past six years. It turns out it’s paying its taxes here due to its European HQ being based in Dublin.  With Ireland’s low corporate tax rate renowned, revered, and in places envied, across Europe, we are well used to the continuing debate over how much tax global corporations with major European operations pay here.

The facts are that resident multinationals here represent a virtual roll-call of the rich and famous of the technology, pharmaceutical and finance sectors; including Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, eBay, PayPal, Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Accenture, KPMG, JP Morgan. In yesterday’s edition of the Sunday Business Post, Adrian Weckler wrote a comment piece stating essentially that it’s high time that Ireland stopped feeling guilty about our privileged position as a global hub in these fields and realise that these companies are “national, strategic assets in Ireland, as important to Dublin (and other Irish cities) as agriculture and tourism are to rural counties.”

For graduates, this landscape multinationals on our doorstep represents considerable opportunity. For overseas companies, the groundwork for them moving to Ireland, in addition to the obvious tax based incentives, is often laid by hard-working overseas trade delegations and IDA lobbying which focuses heavily on the quality of the workforce. Fidelity Investments International are currently seeking 50 more employees to add to the 250 they have nationwide and, also speaking to the Sunday Business Post yesterday, its President, Travis Carpico made comments which can only be interpreted as positive for both jobseekers and graduate jobseekers. “We came to Ireland in 1996. It was our first foray into accessing non-US talent. The things that you hear from the IDA are actually true. You have a highly educated workforce, a great work ethic and mesh well culturally with US multinationals and the way they like to go after things. Obviously there have been a lot of changes in Ireland over the past 17 years but the fundamentals of Ireland in terms of education, infrastructure and the business environment and the level of talent haven’t changed.”

The ten biggest high-tech firms are openly seeking to fill over 600 positions, pharmaceutical multinationals have over 110 positions available and the financial giants such as Deloitte and BNY Mellon and others have over 300 positions available. While many of these positions are for experienced professionals, most of those recruiting also offer graduate programmes which provide a wealth of real-world experience, great training and long term job opportunities. The average salary for graduates is between €24,000 to €26,000 but the number of graduates being taken on with salaries over €34,000 has increased by over 6% between 2011 and 2012. With a fragile economic recovery still in its early stages and an unemployment rate that is still unacceptably high, firms that provide employment, opportunity and considerable boosts for local businesses by their very presence need to be embraced and their opportunities exploited by the highly skilled graduates and jobseekers that our universities produce. As Adrian Weckler said in his column yesterday “there are times when national interest competes with -and overrides- solidarity with EU members, even when they get into a scrape over tax avoidance. So Britain’s MP’s and its media may be ticked off with Google. But that’s not our problem.”

To search for graduate jobs and for more on graduate recruitment and the application process, visit www.gradireland.com

If you can answer YES to the above question, you will definitely want to check out the revised  online edition of Do Ghairm le Gaeilge, now available on gradireland.com in both English and Irish versions. Catherine Lyster of Letterkenny Institute of Technology explains how the guide can help you discover the vast array of opportunities to use Irish in your career.

Perhaps you are a recent graduate or about to graduate in the Irish language or you may have a great passion for using the Irish language in your chosen career area but do not have Irish in your degree.  Fear not! Do Ghairm le Gaeilge  provides  a comprehensive overview of the range of career options where competence in written and spoken Irish is a decided  advantage. You will discover, for example, that opportunities to use Irish in your career are not confined  to Gaeltacht areas and that the burgeoning development of new technologies have spawned  career opportunities to use Irish that would have been unheard of 5 years ago, such as apps developer and opportunities in online media.

Do Ghairm le Gaeilge is thoroughly researched and presented in an attractive, user friendly manner. Section One gives an outline of interesting facts regarding usage of Irish . Did you know, for example, that  job opportunities exist for bilingual researchers, producers, journalists, IT and other technical experts in the areas of broadcast media? Or that barristers with Irish make up a significant proportion of the Bar Council with more than 155 registered as having fluent or a working knowledge of Irish? This section also contains valuable hints and tips on how to incorporate use of Irish into your daily working life.

The subsequent chapters outline opportunities in sectors  where competence in Irish is a distinct advantage such as Media, Translating and Interpreting, Private Sector opportunities, Culture , Arts and Language, and, of course, the Public Sector. Each chapter is concise and thoroughly researched.  In the case of media, for example, the reader will gain a comprehensive overview of careers where Irish is welcome such as print, broadcast and social media. Each chapter is peppered with case studies, job and internship  hunting tips, sample CV’s, facts and an extensive list of web resources. There is a special chapter on postgraduate studies which will be of interest to anyone seeking information on postgraduate courses in any of the above career areas

With Do Ghairm le Gaeilge, you will be well informed on the range of exciting career opportunities  in which you can use Irish and will be provided with  lists of valuable contacts and resources. Do Ghairm le Gaeilge is the essential companion for anyone looking for a career using Irish or to pursue postgraduate studies in the Irish Language sector.

There are a host of different approaches to getting a job – ask 100 experts and you’ll get 100 different answers. However, our guest blogger, Dean Ruxton, succeeded with an approach that many would discourage and some would abhor – is there such a thing as “successful spamming” and can it actually get you a graduate job?

“Spamming” in general gets a bad name. For most purposes, it amounts to inbox terrorism or a channel for shameless, viral self-promotion. However, in terms of getting a job in the shortest amount of time possible, it’s also a cost effective and economically viable method. I graduated with a BA last September and, like most of my classmates, found it harder than I could have imagined to even get a response from a potential employer, let alone a job. That’s when I decided to utilise a structured, focused ‘spam’ week to flood the market with my info; it took five days to implement and since then, I have had a 50% response rate, six interviews, three offers (one of which I accepted) and am still receiving phone calls.

The Method

Before you start, you will need:

■        A short, punchy, one-page CV. One page might seem short, but there’s actually university professors who champion their own one-page CV; just keep it concise and be ruthless.

■        A couple of stock cover letters. For higher level positions, you will have to tailor your cover letters, but you can also utilise a couple of general ones; for example, you might have one that could satisfyingly cover any retail, hospitality or customer service positions.

■        Paper, stamps and envelopes.

The Execution

This is an aggressive distribution process that will involve applying for 40 positions in a 4 day period. First, you will need an A3 piece of paper, ruled out into four sections, each representing a day of the week; my own template spanned Monday-Thursday. This frees up Friday to catch up on any day targets you didn’t reach, or to follow up on any very promising contacts you made during the week.

Within each day section, list the numbers 1-10 (how you orientate the page is up to you – just make sure you can follow it). It’s important that you write the name of the company you’re applying to and the position – this makes for a quick reference point should you receive any unexpected calls and removes any chance of a fatal error on on your part by forgetting what position you applied for within a company.

The name of the game is efficiency in distribution. You will be using four main channels; the mailed CV, walk-ins, online applications and online job-posting sites. The biggest mistake you can make here is over-relying on generic jobs boards like jobs.ie; due to the sheer volume of applications, your chances are dramatically reduced from the get-go. Here’s an approximate percentage breakdown guide to using these channels:

Mailed CV- 50%

If possible, ring ahead to get a manager’s name and put it on the envelope (if not, “Hiring Manager” will do for general serving, retail and hospitality positions). This method really is your best friend for our purposes; it’s quick, casts a wide net and makes sure your information reaches its target.

Online (position-specific) applications 25%

They’re looking to fill a position and will list the role responsibilities and desired characteristics; it’s up to you to hone your educational credentials and experience to convince them you’re suitable.

Walk-ins 15%

More suited to local positions in retail, bars etc. For customer-facing types of roles, it can’t hurt for the manager to get a glimpse of your presentation and demeanour.

Job sites 10%

Again, don’t be fooled into thinking you’re being productive by spending too much time surfing these websites. You can get lucky, but the statistics aren’t in your favour.

For a week, this is your job. Get up early, get dressed and then begin your shift. It gets more difficult to find places to apply to as the week progresses, but remember that any job is a good job. However, don’t waste your own or anybody else’s time by applying for a position that deep down you know you would not accept. By all means have a broad outlook, but also know what jobs you would or would not accept. While waiting for responses, it can only help to keep going. Keep networking, calling, surfing and emailing for leads. If nothing happens, change something. It could be your CV, your approach or your attitude. It is true that you need a certain amount of luck, but you can increase your chances dramatically by altering your methods, reviewing your strategy and marketing yourself effectively.

This approach may not be a fast track to your desired career path, but the fact remains; it’s a lot easier to get a job if you already have one. 

This “Successful spamming” worked for Dean. What do you think? Has anyone else tried this approach (and with what results)? What do careers advisers and graduate recruiters make of Dean’s strategy? Let us know! And if you want to take a more considered approach to speculative applications, read this advice on gradireland.com http://gradireland.com/careers-advice/cvs-and-applications/how-to-write-a-speculative-application

The gradireland and postgradireland 2013 awards

In The Mansion House last Thursday, over 500 representatives from Ireland’s graduate recruitment, career services, higher education and business communities gathered to celebrate the gradireland Graduate Recruitment Awards 2013 alongside policy makers and departmental advisers.

The gala event, now in its seventh year, celebrates all that is great and good  in graduate recruitment and education, with the event now a key date in the stakeholders calendar and growing year on year.

The spirit of competition and the recognition of achievement were both strongly represented in The Mansion House, with the overriding aim of matching the energy and ambition of Ireland’s graduates with the right opportunities at the right companies. In the graduate recruitment sector, it was a great night for companies like Google, Jameson Irish Distillers and PwC, who all scooped two awards, with PwC the proud winners of the gradireland employer of the year. In terms of course providers NUI Galway was the big winner in the postgradireland Postgraduate Course of the Year categories, taking home three major awards.

The message was loud and clear last Thursday, these awards do matter. Why? Because at a time when some misplaced commentators would have you believe that a graduates only viable route would lead them to the airport and emigration, the enthusiasm and competition at the gradireland awards between some of the world’s largest graduate recruiters paints a very different picture indeed.

Like last year’s awards, the theme from The Mansion House was the continuing need for course providers, academia, higher education, business and government to continue to cooperate closely so Irish students are equipped with the necessary skills to compete in a highly competitive, and global, jobs market. Policy makers talked to business leaders, who networked with academics and course providers, who in turn informed them of the questions that they are facing from students and graduates. The ambition, dynamism and drive of the Irish student and graduate population needs to be met with equal verve from those in education and business and also in government, particularly at a time when the drive for cost efficiencies at every level makes clarity of message and unity of purpose so important.

gradireland and postgradireland are privileged to be in a position to showcase the achievements of courses, students and graduate employers, to represent to some extent the belief that the various sectors have in a better future for Irish graduates. The awards on the night were keenly contested and demonstrated real ambition on the part of those employers shortlisted in providing real careers and real opportunities for college graduates. For course providers and educational institutions, the challenge continues to provide students and graduates with the skills that will enable them to secure a career with real potential here in Ireland.

For a full list of the 2013 Winners follow this link

But thanks to the internet, distance learning has never been more popular. In the UK in 2011, nearly 11 per cent of students were distance learners; while in 2010, there are 7,500 students from Ireland registered to do courses with The Open University. That institution saw an ‘unprecedented’ 34 per cent increase in 18 to 24-year-olds doing a distance learning degree in 2010.

I recently interviewed several recent graduates who had undertaken postgraduate study online and all gave a positive assessment of this approach to gaining a qualification. One woman doing an online teaching course with Hibernia College noted how she worked during the day and did her course work in her available time. ‘You’ll find a lot of people who are changing career who will do it this way,’ she said, ‘because it allows them flexibility.’

Another person I interviewed did an Open University postgraduate diploma in marketing while working as a teacher. It enabled her to eventually change career and become a consultant.

And one of the best features of modern distance learning is that it enables you to do a course in a top university in another country without ever leaving the comfort of your house. Most top universities in Europe allow people to enrol in courses remotely. The University of London’s international programmes, for instance, have over 50,000 students, from 190 countries, enrolled in distance learning courses – including over 200 from the Republic of Ireland. These programmes include undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the London School of Economics, Kings College, Royal Holloway and the Royal Veterinarian College.

And new approaches are now being developed, such as that of Coursera, which offers free online short courses from universities including Princeton and Stanford and has had over 1.7 million people register since April 2012.

For more ideas on choosing a postgraduate course, see postgradireland.com.

If you are one of those people, it would be worth your while staying within the European Union. Under EU law, Irish people must be considered a local student in any of the 27 member states. This means that in Estonia, for example, you would have the same responsibilities to pay the same fees, and the same rights to receive the same loans/bursaries, as would a native born Estonian.

And tuition fees are relatively low across the continent. In France, for instance, postgraduate fees cost between €200 and €400 a year. In some countries, there are no fees for postgraduate courses.

One advantage of studying in the EU is that that there is over €16 billion worth of funding awarded there each year. Many of these can be found in the EU Scholarship Portal.

If you lack a foreign language, it may not be as big a drawback as you imagine. More and more, English is being seen as the ‘international language’ and most top universities in the European Union provide courses in English. For instance, one of Italy’s leading institutions, the Politecnico di Milano, now only provides courses through English.

In some countries, courses taught in English are generally more expensive than equivalent courses in the native language. Universities in the Czech Republic, for instance, don’t charge fees for courses in Czech, but generally charge around €1,000 a year for a course taught through English. This still isn’t bad, though, when compared to postgraduate fees in Ireland.

So if you are thinking of enrolling in further education and you’ve always wanted to experience living in another European country, why not kill two birds with one stone? There’s never been a better time.

For more information on studying abroad see postgradireland.com.

The medical technology sector in Ireland is already of great strategic and economic importance – 11 of the world’s top 13 med tech companies are located in Ireland and over 250 companies offer a growing range of careers in this sector, which already employs over 25,000 people.

Industry, academia, clinical and government agencies are increasingly working together to ensure the sector continues to grow – it is seen as one of the core drivers of the Irish economy in the 21st century, supported by the HEA’s National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 and backed up by research that shows Ireland to have the third highest proportion of maths, science and computer graduates per capita in the world.

When considering your career it makes sense to link it to sectors of the economy that are thriving, are future-proof (as much as any sector can be) and which are likely to receive both national and inward investment. The med tech sector ticks all those boxes, so what are the career opportunities in this sector?

In this sector, companies mainly operate in three areas:

1. Medical devices

Careers in this sector can be broadly divided into production processes or engineering. There is considerable diversity among medical devices production processes, leading to a wide range in the mix of skills required between different production operations. Key roles include manual assembly operatives, machine operators, technicians, quality control and quality assurance staff, operations managers and operations supervisors.

Key specific engineering disciplines that are predominant in the sector include biomedical; production; industrial; manufacturing; validation; automation; process design; product design; polymer; research & development; quality engineering.

2. Diagnostics

Where devices include significant biologically active components (these are components which cause biological change within the human body), companies employ scientists, science technicians and processing operatives with skills similar to those of the pharmaceutical or bio-pharmaceutical industries. They undertake roles parallel to those of engineers, technicians and machine operators in manufacturing biomechanical and bioelectronic devices. With the increased use of biologically active substances in the medical device sector’s products, the needs for professionals with skills in biotechnology are in high demand. This trend is making skills in biological sciences, chemistry and pharmacology all the more important to innovation in medical devices, alongside the clinical and engineering skills that have traditionally dominated innovation.

3. Service/associated career options

Given that it is a highly regulated industry, other roles that are prominent in the industry and provide good careers prospects include the following:

Regulatory affairs professionals track compliance of operations with regulatory requirements, advise other staff on regulatory matters, report on compliance and manage relationships with regulatory authorities.

Healthcare economists have a leading role in establishing the benefits of a device quantitatively, and communicate these benefits to healthcare providers, health insurers and other organisations.

Future careers in the industry

As well as providing current career opportunities as outlined above, future developments in this sector are likely to lead to an even wider range of career prospects. Medical technologies are becoming increasingly more complex, and many companies are now engaged in research and development. Sectors such as medical devices, biotechnology, diagnostics, ICT, software and the pharmaceutical industry are recognising the opportunity to combine traditionally separate scientific disciplines to form new, more innovative ‘smart combination technologies’. Advances have resulted in new services, therapies or products such as drug-device combination products, ICT-device combination products and personalised medicine.

This blog post is an edited version of a longer article published by Smart Futures on the medical technology sector. Thanks to Discover Science & Engineering for permission to use this material.

Apart from filling out job applications, one way a recent graduate can occupy their time is by starting a blog. These don’t cost anything to set up and can be enormously fun to write. But will they help you get a job? The answer is that it depends.

It is unlikely that you will get an interview or a job solely on the strength of your blog. But, like other extra-curricular activities, it is the kind of thing that may tip the balance in your favour in a close race. A recruiter may not necessarily find your blog by doing a web search for your name but if you are confident in what you write, it might be a good idea to direct them to it.

A blog about the industry you intend to work in will, of course, be more worthwhile to the job hunter than a personal blog. It shows that you are passionate about the sector and that you keep up to date with industry trends.

‘Dead’ blogs look very poor, so you should make sure that you frequently update yours. Even if it fails to get much traffic, it will still highlight skills you possess such as work rate and commitment. You should also be careful with your spelling and grammar and keep your language professional.

Attempt to publicise your blog through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. By managing to find an audience, you will demonstrate that you are able to effectively market yourself. This skill, together with others like commercial awareness, is sought after in far more occupations than marketing these days.

In conclusion, while blogging might not get you a job on its own, there is no harm in starting one. And in a close race, it just might tip the balance in your favour.

For more tips on job hunting after graduation see gradireland.com.

The Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) hosted an interesting and wide-ranging Diversity conference in Dublin on 12 December. Many topics were covered, including issues around mental health problems in the workplace , difficulties faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in the application process or their workplace; and problems confronted by students with disabilities in key issues such as access to jobs, applications, disclosure and employee support networks.

The conference was notable in that it brought together employers and careers professionals alongside NGOs such as Headstrong and GLEN to meet and discuss issues around creating a diverse working environment that is truly inclusive. Ann Heelan from AHEAD told us that there are over 7,000 students with disabilities within Irish higher education institutions; Davin Roche from GLEN observed that approximately 8 per cent of the Irish workforce is LGBT. Employers who do not seek to create a diverse workforce are needlessly cutting themselves off from a talent pool of potentially brilliant candidates. A key theme of the discussions was set by Dr Tony Bates from Headstrong when he commented ‘it’s not about what’s wrong in people, but what’s strong in people’.

Several employers who take part in AHEAD’s Willing, Able and Mentoring (WAM) programme discussed their work in actively seeking to create a diverse and inclusive working environment, and their recruitment strategies in this area. Nearly all of the companies raised as an issue the difficulty faced by students and graduates in identifying companies that actively seek to recruit talented individuals who may, for example, have a disability of have suffered mental illness. Equally, they found that it was difficult as a recruiter to effectively promote themselves as an employer with opportunities for disabled students.

These employers, listed below, are all actively seeking to recruit a diverse workforce, and have systems and processes in place to support both this activity and their employees.

Dell Ireland employs approximately 2,500 staff in Ireland (totalling 65 nationalities), roughly 15 per cent of whom are disabled or directly impacted by disability (eg of a close family member). The company has partnered with the WAM programme to ensure that graduates with disabilities hear that Dell is an open, inclusive and welcoming place to start their careers.  You can find out more about their diversity policy on their careers website.

Abbott Ireland is the current holders of the gradireland Diversity Recruitment Award and has set up successful employee networks to ensure that ability is recognised throughout their organisation. These networks remind people with disabilities, specific learning difficulties and mental health conditions that they are listened to, feel valued and feel successful.  Again, there is more information on their own website.

Citi has between 75 and 100 vacancies open at any one time and actively seeks to give opportunities to students and graduates from all backgrounds. The company positions itself as an organisation that offers opportunities to candidates with disabilities; it recognises diversity as a source of strength and is developing (with WAM) inclusive recruitment practices for students with disabilities.

Electric Ireland is championing an emerging trend: the creation of internal disability networks with forums for employees to share knowledge.

Most of these employers commented that they struggle to drive applications from graduates with disabilities. Maybe this blog will help encourage some of you to identify and approach companies who have supports in place to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, and build great careers in companies where ability is the only issue.

Advice from gradireland.com on equal opportunities.