Intern plan to ease graduate woes
Students who are unable to secure jobs after leaving university may be offered paid internships for three months.
Ministers are worried graduates could swell the ranks of the unemployed and have been holding talks with employers to try to find a solution.
Four top firms, including Barclays and Microsoft, will take on some of this year's 300,000 graduates.
It is part of a package of measures due to be announced when Parliament returns from its Christmas break this week.
Ministers are due to hold an economic summit, where they are also expected to outline plans for more guaranteed loans for small businesses.
In November's pre-Budget report, the government pledged £1bn to firms via a temporary Small Business Finance Scheme.
The initiatives will come as a study suggests that the UK economy is now at a 28-year low.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has suggested that the economy is likely to have shrunk 1.5% in the last three months of 2008.
'Milk round'
Universities Secretary John Denham is drawing up plans for the internship scheme.
He revealed the proposals in an interview with the Daily Telegraph and said the internships secured under the national scheme would last for three months.
It is intended that internships will at least improve participants' skills and experience and may in some cases lead to full-time work.
They will be paid at a rate only slightly higher than undergraduates' income from grants and loans, according to the Telegraph.
Mr Denham told the paper: "At the end, they will be more employable, and some of them will get jobs. Employers won't want to let good people go.
"These are the children of the baby-boomers. They will be a very big group. What do we do with them? We can't just leave people to fend for themselves."
Although welcoming the move, the Conservatives said it was not enough.
Shadow skills secretary David Willetts said: "A small number of businesses taking on graduate interns is welcome but this does not match the scale of the crisis facing young people trying to find jobs.
"That is why we have proposed focusing more than £500m in the 'train-to-gain' program, on helping young people get apprenticeships and worthwhile job opportunities."
Universities have reported that firms have been cancelling spots on the annual "milk round" - when employers visit universities to recruit students - or simply focusing on elite institutions.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/7821629.stm
Published: 2009/01/10 10:07:34 GMT
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