THE PROBLEM
Our findings conclude that university students feel underqualified, uncertain and unsupported in their transition from university into the workforce.
Students struggle to access project work, internships and industry connections, with a primary reason being that they are difficult to find. Students are also notoriously time-poor and often unmotivated to search for these resources.
This leads us to our opportunity: to establish an online meeting point that brings together students and organisations and offers opportunities to collaborate and connect in one easy and accessible space.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
We posed the questions to students about where they go to find resources for gaining industry experience, and whether they are satisfied with the current availability of such resources. We researched thoroughly ourselves.
What our findings show us is that:
72% of students feel there are not enough online support resources available to them to build their portfolios and gain experience as students.
50% say that it is difficult to find student opportunities online.
68% are not confident about networking within their industry.
82% feel worried about finding employment after they graduate.
Students working with genuine projects as opposed to hypothetical university briefs are furthermore found to be more motivated and interested
Unemployment and underemployment among young people in Australia is now at its highest in the last 40 years. We want to eliminate that fear and help students feel more connected and knowledgeable than ever before when they graduate university.
ORGANISATION EXPERIENCE
Most organisations are willing to hire student interns, but it’s often difficult to find a student who fits the desired qualifications or field of study and thus, there ends up being a gap in interest and knowledge throughout the internship. This just isn’t productive for anyone.
Adding to this is the complexity of the process. Communication channels, screening processes and program implementation all lack any sort of framework. We understand that organisations often don’t have the time, or resources, to manage an influx of student inquiries from all over the place.
“Having students contact [us] individually is both time consuming and in-effective. It is also hard to be able to directly communicate to a large pool of students for short notice needs.” Says Ian Kearney, RMIT University Associate Director of Industry Engagement Portfolio.
Ian attests to the difficulty organisations can have in engaging with students, and the need for a scalable system to do this.
So too does Volunteer Resources Coordinator of The Salvation Army Australian Southern Territory, Ciska Burrie. “We're trying to influence our organisation to move to a centralised approach for all work experience arrangements including student placements,” says Ciska. “Currently, our Volunteer Resources team takes student enquiries and redirects them to various services and programs in our organisation who we think may take on a student. The onus is then on the student to follow up with each individual contact we give them.”
Ciska also states that it’s difficult to “track the outcome unless the student comes back to us with an update or we discover by chance that the student did manage to secure a placement with one of our services. With such a large organisation with hundreds of programs, it is really hard to keep abreast of what sites will take on students, who can or can't take on any more, what qualifications the student needs etc. Hence a centralised approach is required.”
THE CURRENT JOB MARKET
It’s hard to connect with organisations and gain meaningful experience prior to graduation! As students ourselves, we’ve experienced the struggle firsthand. The job market is competitive, demanding and sometimes even exploitative.
Here’s what our research tells us:
Only 14% of internships are specific to students - meaning that you’re often competing with graduates and professionals with more time and experience!
Many companies advertise internship fees ranging up to $3,000. As students we often can’t afford to be paying money for unpaid internships on top of our university fees.
There was roughly 1 internship advertisement per 1,000 job ads, so they’re not always easy to find!
60% of unpaid internships in Australia are considered to be illegal
On average, it is estimated that each intern is missing out on $6000 for their labour.