Putting the Good in Graduation
As exam results are revealed and the children of our future look toward furthering their education, internships and career paths, H&H Land and Property share their thoughts on supporting placement schemes and graduates.
Every year more than 200,000 Graduates finish University and make the transition from education to the work place. In a struggling job market over a third of these graduates find they are forced to take unskilled positions in jobs they are completely overqualified for, with the student loans to match.
H&H Land and Property with offices based at Borderway Carlisle and Durham, not only consider work placements and graduate employees, but thrive off of the fact that they can help introduce gifted young individuals into the world of land management.
The placement year according to Harper Adams University provides students with an opportunity for on-the-job training to produce practical, interpersonal and business skills. And this year H&H Land and Property have two students completing the mandatory placement year in their courses. Both are local and both have their Chartered Surveyor career paths in sight. Firstly completing a placement year is Gavin Johnston from Great Orton who is working for the Company from the Lonsdale Estate Office. His day to day role includes dealing with agricultural tenancies, and minerals. The second student employed this year is Matthew Wallace from Gapshield Farm near Brampton who is working out of Borderway and dealing daily with planning applications and Higher Level Stewardship Capital works.
Gavin commented on the opportunities that the placement year presented him with;
“This is time in the field and it allows me to put all I have learnt sitting in a classroom over the past two years into practice. In the long run I hope that this will lead to more within the company upon finishing my degree next year”.
Both personal and professional development appears to be the recurring outcomes of the placement year. Ideal for preparing individuals for employment and independence from the education system.
For some the placements are just the first step onto the career ladder, Thomas Armstrong and Matthew Bell, both 24 and both qualified Chartered Surveyors have now been fully employed with the company for almost two years. They both began their careers with H&H Land and Property on placement years as part of their degree courses at Harper Adams University.
Thomas from Milburn just outside of Penrith, tells us what the placement year meant for establishing a career within a struggling job market,
“It was invaluable really and contributed greatly to my final year of study, as everything I learnt I could apply to my experiences, you could really see where you were going and the way forward.”
“The placement year was a step up and essentially a twelve month interview for the dream job. In terms of how having placement students benefits H&H Land and Property it is a two way street, we get such an insight into the industry and for H&H Land and Property we are full of fresh ideas and knowledge and they can look at each individual in a ‘try before you buy’ scenario before permanent contracts are issued”.
Matthew from Rosley said that the placement year was an integral part of the course and meant he could apply a considerable amount of the class work in his final year and that it greatly helped the production of his dissertation as well. His advice to those studying or looking into courses that include work placement is to make sure you take as much as you possibly can from your work experience as it will hold you in good stead in college and in your future career.
The company’s policy says Brian Richardson, Managing Director of H&H Group PLC is to develop skills for the future of all employees and the business as a whole.
“Across all the businesses we are looking to develop young people and the work placement route provides an excellent opportunity for both potential employee and employer to get to know each other and understand the business requirements. We do spend a lot of time selecting work placement staff as we see it as a commitment by us to develop them and not just use them as cheap labour.”
“We are lucky as a business being able to do this because of our clear aim to expand the business which makes room for new staff to come in. Just because these staff join us with a degree does not mean the end of their development, we continue to train and develop them both technically through them completing their own qualifications but in the more practical management skills they need to develop their own career. H&H has its own development programme for staff across the Group which provides development training and won the 2010 CN Group training award.”
“We constantly look to recruit the best we can young and old, graduate and no graduate, it’s terrifically important to the future of the business. As a leading business in Cumbria that is successful and expanding our people are our most valuable asset, but of course never appear on any balance sheet. This applies just as much to the staff who have been here for a long time and we have an appraisal system that all staff are involved in to identify development areas and where an investment in training might be helpful. It is a 2 way discussion but we look to give all staff the chance to develop their career with H&H”.
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