Topic: Work Experience
Company name: Controlled Therapeutics (Scotland) Ltd
Scheme partner: National Council for Work Experience (NCWE)

About NCWE
The National Council for Work Experience is part of HECSU, the Higher Education Careers Services Unit. It promotes, supports and develops quality work experience for the benefit of students, organisations and the economy.

About Controlled Therapeutics (Scotland)
Controlled Therapeutics is a drug delivery company, based in East Kilbride, near Glasgow, Scotland. The company’s objective is to develop, manufacture and license pharmaceutical products based on patented drug delivery technologies.

Total number of employees
64 employees in the UK.

Operational countries
Controlled Therapeutics market their main product for childbirth in 52 countries worldwide.

Challenge
Often work experience is marred with images of tea-making and filing, but this is not the case with modern work-experience programmes. Employers today face the challenge of implementing and maintaining a quality programme that benefits both the company and the individual. Structured programmes can enable companies to complete projects, recruit new employees and allow the student invaluable workplace experience.

Project name
Work experience programme – part of the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme Programme (STEP).

Project manager
Dr Janet A Halliday, director of Research and Development.

Length of scheme
Controlled Therapeutics has been offering work experience placements for six years. The placements last 12 weeks, during the summer break.

Work experience structure
• The programme matches applicants’ talents to the specific projects offered by the companies, who then interview the candidates and choose the person that they feel would be best suited to the project and the company.

• Students also write a report on their placement.

Benefits
• Supervising members of staff benefit from increased confidence from working with and supervising work experience students.

• Placements also increase awareness of the company in the local community and in the nearby Further Education establishments. Due to the nature of work given to students, in the form of real projects, the company also gets work done that would not otherwise have been given resources.

• Students who have who have previously taken part in the scheme have reported that they felt increased confidence as a result of the placement and that they had more of an understanding of the role they could play in the workplace.

Results
• The company regularly receives applications from students who have completed work experience with them.

• The project work by students has enabled experimental redesign work on the company website which would not have been supported by the usual resources.

• Controlled Therapeutics has employed three people who were previously placement students.

• Controlled Therapeutics are finalists in the ’10-25 Employees’ category at the 2008 NCWE Awards.

Lessons
• Controlled Therapeutics now offer a minimum of 12-week placements, as the original eight week placement was not enough time for a useful placement.

• It's important that a member of staff has daily contact with the student, and so while a manager may be responsible for the overall placement, it's useful for a less senior member of staff to oversee the day-to-day running of the placement.

Future plans
• Controlled Therapeutics will continue to recruit three or four placement students per year.

• In addition they are creating a link from the company website to the various student work experience schemes to enable easy access for students who wish to apply via that route.

Key tips

1. Have a specific project in mind that will benefit both the student and the company.

2. Make use of professional guidelines, such as Shell STEP or NCWE, for useful advice on running work experience placements.

3. Support the student throughout the placement ensuring that they are treated as if they were a permanent member of staff.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The National Council for Work Experience is part of HECSU, the Higher Education Careers Services Unit. It promotes, supports and develops quality work experience for the benefit of students, organisations and the economy. Its role includes disseminating information and good practice, encouraging the development of quality standards and encouraging more employers to provide placement opportunities. NCWE run an annual awards scheme to encourage and reward organisations that display good practice in work experience.


National Council for Work Experience and the Quality Mark accreditation scheme:
T: 0161 277 5267
E: workexperience@prospects.ac.uk
www.work-experience.org


ADDRESS:

National Council for Work Experience
Prospects House
Booth Street
Manchester
M13 9EP