1 Feb 2010

Lakehouse has provided three more internships, providing graduates with valuable work experience that could help them get a permanent position, and possibly even a full time paid position with Lakehouse.

One of the new interns, Candice Homewood, has just completed a masters degree in environmental engineering at University College London. She sees internship as a "win-win for employer and graduate. They get to test us out, at no cost, and we use the internship as a springboard for our career." She adds that although her qualifications would allow her to work in the energy industry, her internship means she's set her sights on building, "I'm learning so much about construction now that I'd like to stick with the sector."

Lakehouse is paying its interns' expenses and hopes to offer at least one of them a full time paid job eventually. Jon Brookes, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, was instrumental in getting the latest recruits on board: "Interns are a perfect way to cope with a spike in workload. What's more, if you decide you need to make the post full time, then you have effectively been able to interview someone for several months. It also avoids recruitment agents' fees which can be anything up to 15% of a new starter's annual salary."

Lakehouse advertised for interns using a government website launched in August 2009 (www.graduatetalentpool.bis.gov.uk). It is free, and interns are allowed to continue to claim jobseekers' allowance for up to 13 weeks while on unpaid placement secured through the website. Graduates from 2008 and 2009 are eligible to use the site, where they can search for vacancies without registering.