Member Article

Can students facilitate SME expansion?

Problems facing small and medium enterprises and students, including recent graduates, are more inextricably linked than commonly believed.

Small and medium enterprises wish to grow and expand, but in an economically frugal environment, this can prove difficult. Just one extra member of staff would increase productivity and assist expansion, but finding the extra funds to pay this individual can be difficult. Even if the funds are available and even though the economy looks to be creeping out of its recession, forward steps should be taken in a tentative manner and long-term commitments may not be ideal.

The problem for graduates is that they may find themselves in the vicious circle of not being able to kick-start their careers due to a lack of experience, but not being able get any experience due to having held no previous position in a specific field. Having likely to have undertaken unpaid work experience throughout their degree, it is highly unlikely that graduates will be willing to undergo unpaid work again.

Seeing these two problems in the same light, Norwich based company Fountain Partnership have teamed up with the University of East Anglia(UEA) to launch the University Writers Service, a scheme which provides current undergraduate students with paid experience in the digital marketing industry. Not only does this combat any worries students may have regarding the extent of their experience, it also provides Fountain with valuable work and puts them into contact with potential employees – a smart business plan indeed.

Each party involved in this scheme is undoubtedly setting a precedent that others should follow. The Careers Centre at the UEA has been working with local businesses to increase opportunities for students to be paid for the internships they undertake. This is a move that should be applauded, particularly due to increased awareness surrounding the illegality of unpaid internships. The University acts as an intermediary between business and student and provides security via contractual arrangement. Additionally, the very existence of the service reveals that UEA determined to make increased tuition fees go the extra mile.

Rebecca Lewis Smith, managing director at Fountain Partnership, praised the University Writers Service. “Offering paid work rather than unpaid internships is the way to go. We value the work the students do for us – they are skilled writers and bring a fresh and innovative approach to the projects that our internal team work on every day.”

“The University Writers Service is our way of trying to help students as they enter the job market, while helping our company to find excellent new talent in the coming years.”

This intelligent, mutually beneficial service can be adopted by businesses in other sectors and will allow SMEs to grow whilst allowing them to harness the talents of the undergraduate student.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Billy Sexton .