Helping hands

Giving work experience to qualified people looking for a leg up in your industry can help you develop your business and find talented new employees. Afsheen Latif finds out how to set up and benefit from work placements
Work placements come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from internships linked to universities to informal arrangements with people who knock on your door. But they all give you an opportunity to develop your business at minimal cost.

In order to achieve this, you will need to set clear objectives to the incoming person and support them to meet these targets. You will also need to be clear about why you want to bring fresh hands into your business.

The benefits

"Most people on work placements are looking for a good reference, so they are likely to work hard," stresses Yvonne Gill, Graduates for Business programme manager for Entrust enterprise agency.

"By offering work placements, you can access fresh, up-to-date knowledge and skills and help free up full-time employees. A work placement person with a specialist degree could also help you by working on specific projects." she adds.

Work placements can be useful recruitment tools, too, and save you paying for job adverts, sifting through CVs and interviewing candidates. Because you have spent time working with somebody, you know they are right for your business.

Setting up

Finding the right person depends on your sector and the type of placement you want to set up. If you are interested in an informal arrangement, it might be best to begin with CVs that have been sent to you speculatively.

If you need someone with specialised skills, speak to your local university's careers service. Some vocational degree courses place students in industry for fixed periods, as part of a formal learning programme. Structured placements can also be set up with the help of enterprise agencies, many of which run funded programmes.

"On the first day your work placement person arrives, set objectives, assign tasks, and monitor these to get the most out of the placement," explains Gill. "Remember, someone with a less vocational degree could have skills you could utilise: a history graduate might have very good research skills, for example."

Expenses and obligations

"Payment is discretionary," notes Gill. "People are often happy to work for free to build up experience. But they may have no other income, so I would recommend you pay for travel expenses at least."

If you do choose to pay your work placement person, you must inform HM Revenue & Customs. If you are self-employed and work alone, you will need to take out Employer's Liability Insurance. You must also explain your health and safety policy.

Like payment, a contract is discretionary - but it can be a good idea. "You might decide to have a contract to protect sensitive information," says Gill. "For our scheme, we have a contract which states that if an individual creates something while in their placement, they don't have ownership rights because it belongs to the business."