px Limited. NCWE 2009: Best Employer 10-250 employees and Best placement for international students 05/10/2009

Category:

Work experience

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px delivers award winning professional, competent and high quality Operations, Management and Maintenance (OM&M) solutions. Since 2002 px have employed more than 30 students, many of whom have progressed to the graduate scheme or full-time employment with px.

NCWE

Total number of employees

200 approx.

Operational countries

UK.

Challenge

px implemented a work experience scheme to support the development of potential future employees and provide the opportunity to develop their skills and take on real responsibilities in preparation for their future careers. The px Undergraduate Development Programme originally started in only one business area on one operational site. It's now a business-wide programme benefiting numerous departments at a number of our sites.

Project name

px Undergraduate Development Programme

Project manager

Tracy Fairbotham

Steps to implementation

We really value the contributions that undergraduates make at px, and see them as a valuable asset to our organisation. The px Undergraduate Development Programme has a 100% success rate with many undergraduates excelling so much that they are offered sponsorship throughout their final year at university and a place on the px Graduate Development Programme, a two year extensive development programme when they complete their studies.

Benefits

Hiring work experience students acts as a means of remaining competitive in the undergraduate recruitment market and contributing to the development of future leaders in our organisation, industry and region.

Results

We have recently gained accreditation from the NCWE for our undergraduate programme. Gaining accreditation has given our programme the credibility we always believed it had. As one of the first organisations based in the North to gain accreditation, we believe that we will stand out from our competitors, and continue to attract and employ innovitative and successful undergraduates onto the px Undergraduate Development Programme.

Lessons

Future plans

We continuously implement improvements in order to attract ambitious and innovative undergraduates that have the potential to make a big impact on our organisation. Our future plans are to keep on doing what we are doing and work on incorporating the NCWE feedback into our programme.

(Picture caption L-R: Roz Gilbert, student recruitment officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Tracy Fairbotham, HR graduate, px limited; Jenny Mackness, broadcaster Laurie Taylor; HR generalist manager, px limited.)