Apologies for the long post. I've followed this debate with interest. I am a university lecturer and I used to manage the Industrial Placements Unit at the School of Computing and IT at the University of Wolverhampton. One option that is often overlooked is that of university placement students. Most universities run one or many Industrial Placements Units, who assist in the process of finding placement opportunities for university students who are on a four year "sandwich" degree. Employing placement students has a number of benefits: - they have had 2 years of current university education - they are comparably VERY inexpensive than a "trained" employee, yet are typically productive in a shorter timescale than an unskilled trainee - they are with the organisation for 1 year, so if they don't fit the needs of the organisation, there are no issues involving termination or renewal of contracts - if they do fit the needs, there are opportunities to employ the person, and allow them to complete their education part-time, or a "promise" to employ at the end of the degree, or other negotiable positions between the student and organisation - the students are typically extremely eager and grateful for the opportunity to be productive in the "real world", and are typically very well motivated to achieve and succeed Whilst I'm obviously keen to promote my own university, I would encourage you to look to advertising your available positions with any/all/local universities - most students will relocate from their university or home location for the right opportunity. I hope this is useful - apologies for the long-winded lecture! :-) Matthew Green
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