Council to launch graduate intern scheme

11.29.08am GMT Mon 8th Mar 2010

• RICHMOND Council is making almost £1 million available for initiatives to boost local economic recovery. The centre piece of this programme will be an intern scheme to support local businesses and help recent graduates to start their careers.

The Council intends to work with local employers to provide hundreds of paid internships for up to three months. The scheme will be aimed at recent graduates and others who are having difficulty breaking into the job market. The interns will be paid an allowance and be given the opportunity to get valuable experience. Employers will benefit from the services of talented and ambitious young people who will bring real additional benefits to their companies.

Cllr Serge Lourie, Leader of Richmond Council, said: "There are a lot of talented young people in our borough coming onto the job market at the moment and finding it difficult to get a break. Equally we have many employers who could give excellent experience to the right people while benefiting their business at the same time. We will use this programme to match the right candidates with the right companies. Many job hunters cannot afford to spend three months on unpaid work regardless of how valuable the experience might be. So they either move away from the area or take jobs for which they are less suited. This scheme will keep talented people in the area and enable them to maximise their talents while helping local firms at the same time. And we will support the employers to give them the best chance of benefiting from the placements.

"We have had some experience in the Council of taking on interns. When we get the right person working in the right team the results can be exceptional - for both sides. It is certainly not unknown for some interns to go on to get full time jobs with their placement company saving the employer thousands of pounds in recruitment costs in the process.

"In coming weeks we will work up details with partners and local businesses with the aim of launching the programme towards the end of the summer. "

Details of progress will be posted on the business pages of the Council's website.

The scheme is to be funded partly from the Local Authority Business Growth Incentives scheme. This is a pot of money raised from business rates, which councils are allowed to keep by Government, to help encourage business growth at a local level, leading to closer partnership and economic success and partly from the Council's underspend in the last financial year.

Related Link:

• Business pages of the Council's website