Forage’s online internships have already enabled over 5,000 University of Westminster students to gain employability skills and valuable work experience – despite a global pandemic.
When, in January 2020, the University of Westminster announced its ambitious new Work Based and Placement Learning (WBPL) Project to embed employability across all undergraduate courses, nobody could have predicted the chaos that the global pandemic was about to cause. A vital strand of the University’s Employability Strategy, our aim was to enable 19,000 undergraduate students to gain valuable employability skills to help them prepare for a competitive job market and secure highly skilled jobs. With the onset of COVID-19, fast, innovative action was called for.
Ben Powell, the University’s Work Based and Placement Learning Project Manager, explained that initial research conducted by the University led to a key partnership with Forage, an open access platform designed to unlock exciting careers for students by connecting them with company-endorsed virtual work experience programmes. “It was clear to us the ethos behind the organisation was similar to ours,” said Ben, “to enable students, particularly from under-represented groups, to access online virtual internships to gain employability skills remotely, whilst also counting toward assessment.”
An accessible experience from top companies
Founded in 2017 in Sydney, Australia, by Thomas Brunskill and Pasha Ryan, Forage was designed to overcome the disconnect between the world of learning and work, where large corporations were seemingly intimidating and inaccessible to students without connections.
Since starting out with one global law firm, Forage now offers over 70 different programmes with innovative global companies including JPMorgan, KPMG, PwC Citi, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Linklaters and GE. Its virtual internships contain a series of resources and tasks designed to simulate the real-world experience of starting a career. The results are impressive: employers are twice as likely to advance a Forage candidate to interview and four times more likely to offer them a job.
Effective collaboration and partnership
Forage worked closely with the University of Westminster training academic and professional services colleagues initiating tailored programmes and platforms for different subject areas, setting up bespoke webpages, as well as dashboard reporting to monitor registration, engagement and completion rates.
Throughout, Forage have been accommodating of the University’s individual situation. Despite existing internship programmes being focussed more on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects and law, Westminster has successfully embedded work experience within coursework across management, law, international business, human resources (HR), marketing and psychology. Existing resources have also been adapted to suit the University’s needs, for example, tailoring Forage’s CV referencing guide to help support students and achieve project goals.
The feedback from students has been incredible with an average of 4.75/5 star rating (across over 1,600 reviews) and 5,198 students enrolled across 9,545 programmes, the most globally of any of its university partners.
Although initially conceived as an idea for a ‘temporary fix’, it is clear colleagues and students recognise the value and want to continue using this model, not just post-COVID, but also after the project is due to be completed in 2025. The initiative has spread far wider than the initial scope of helping undergraduate students find alternatives to placements during the pandemic – it is now embedded in both undergraduate and postgraduate delivery, with many students volunteering to complete more than one of the virtual experiences on offer.
Westminster Business School
Westminster Business School worked with Forage to create a core 'mega' module providing seven of the 35 hours of the work-based learning required for Level 4 students to be assessed at Level 5. The module People and Organisations has already been completed by 800 students and placement applications have been increasing.
"Forage was an easy company to engage with and provided invaluable insights into placement tasks across a range of industries. Students found it appropriately challenging and enjoyed being awarded the organisaiton's own certificate of completion to validate the work achieved. Our Master's course leaders became of the buzz around Forage and have now adopted it as a recommended preparatory step before interview for graduating candidates."
Nuala O'Sullivan, Employability Director
(Management and Marketing)
Westminster Business School, University of Westminster
Student feedback
JPMorgan Investment Banking Programme
"It has been a great experience that taught me new things you don't usually learn in traditional education, and that made it clearer what you can expect from the JPMorgan workplace."
"It has been a very useful and insightful experience that incorporated information and detailed explanations to carry out the tasks. I have gained new knowledge and practical skills to prepare me for the job market."
Clifford Chance Human Rights Law Virtual Experience
"The business and human rights module has truly been the most effective and best way for me to learn quickly how Clifford Chance operates. Importantly, it also gave me an opportunity at a time of uncertainty to improve my skills and better my chances at a legal career."
White & Case Commercial Law Virtual Experience
"Excellent and innovative way of providing real-life experience at such an amazing firm! It has been a really beneficial experience."
GE Human Resources Virtual Experience Programme
"Overall a great experience. Thoroughly enjoyed completing the tasks which massively helped in expanding my knowledge in my desired field."
"I believe this was an excellent way to gain different experience in the HR sector. The tasks to complete are explained and communicated excellently allowing you to understand correctly what GE is about and what they do."
Find out more
Work experience is a useful way for students to gain relevant, professional experience and knowledge of a particular industry, as well as potential references. University of Westminster students can find out more about the opportunities offered in collaboration with Forage by visiting our website.
If you are an employer who would like to offer internships or placements to our students, please contact the Careers and Employability Service by emailing [email protected].