Topic: Work Experience
Company name: Procter & Gamble
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 Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a consumer goods company. It's based at 12 locations in the UK, with the head office in Surrey, and 6 locations in Ireland.

Total number of employees
5000 approximately.

Operational countries
80 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 work place experience.

Project name
Work experience programme.

Project manager
Functional Coordinators around the UK sites.

Length of scheme
Procter & Gamble have been offering work experience placements for 22 years, offering students 10-week placements.

Work experience structure
• The programme starts with a three-day corporate training course, which covers company structure, principles and the different functions. These days also include case studies, group work and talks from senior management.

• The following two days include functional specific training, where placements are split into their chosen functions to learn about what their role will entail.

• The individuals then work on their projects and are assessed both during and at the end of their placements against the same criteria that full-time employees are assessed. 

Benefits
• The work experience programme provides similar benefits for both the company and the individual.

• Procter & Gamble is able to assess whether an individual is a good fit for the company but similarly the individual gains first-hand experience of what it would be like to work for the company.

Results
• The expectation is that a high proportion of students that work with the company will be successful and be offered a full-time position, whether this is straight after their placement or following the completion of their education.

• The company benefit from a higher retention rate in employees who started their career as a placement student.

• Procter & Gamble are finalists in ‘Over 250 Employees – Up to 3 Month’ category at the 2008 NCWE Awards.

Lessons
• It's important to gather feedback from students. Each year Procter & Gamble gather feedback from placement students and make adjustments to the programme based on their suggestions.

• These may include changes to the course content, how the logistics are managed etc.

Future plans
• Procter & Gamble will continue to recruit a large proportion of placements to work each summer, lasting 10 weeks in duration.

• There are also plans to run longer placements at other times of the year, lasting six months or one year.

Key tips

1. Ensure you have meaningful projects for the individual to complete so that the work they do is of benefit to the company, and the individual feels they have made a valuable contribution.

2. Ensure their manager and team are trained and prepared to receive them and work with them.

3. Ensure they target universities/colleges at the right time of the year, i.e. when students are looking for placements and not completing exams.

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