Member Article

Sheffield City Council creates 80 internships as it reports £600k value of RISE scheme

Sheffield City Council has reported an 80% retention rate of its 2013 RISE programme interns, with a value to the city’s economy in excess of £600,000, as it launches its second wave and are launching up to 80 new RISE placement.

Councillor Leigh Bramall, cabinet member for business, skills and development, said “Sheffield is determined to be a high skills city.

“RISE is playing a crucial part in this, by enabling our innovative small and medium businesses to take on graduates, helping these businesses to grow and retaining talented graduates in the city by giving them exciting career opportunities.

“Our commitment to skills has also seen a higher number of young people move into apprenticeships in Sheffield than in any other big city. We want a skilled workforce to drive the economy and give a better life for people living here.”

RISE specifically arranges internships for Sheffield’s graduates in small and medium sized businesses throughout the city.

Angela Stead, programme director at Switchstance, said: “As a small business in Sheffield it was very frustrating because we have two Universities on our doorstep but were finding it hard to attract graduates in the recruitment we were doing.

“RISE has enabled us to bridge this gap, and I can’t recommend it highly enough to other small businesses.

“Recruitment was such a drain on our limited resources and the RISE team has given us an amazing level of support with this, which has been absolutely invaluable.”

Paul Helm, assistant director of Student and Learning Services at Sheffield Hallam University said “RISE is an excellent example of the Council and both universities working together with local businesses to provide graduate employment opportunities in the region.

“Lots of big employers run graduate recruitment programmes, but RISE provides a unique opportunity for SMEs to benefit from the fresh talent provided by graduates from the city’s two universities.”

Steve Fish, Careers Service Director at the University of Sheffield, said: “RISE is the first scheme of its kind which is not only making a huge difference to the talented graduates who gain internships, but also the growing number of SMEs in the region, something that will really give the city’s economy a boost.

“The city of Sheffield is full of interesting businesses going interesting places and when you take this energy and innovation and add bright, graduate talent, the potential to rise is tremendous.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .