Edinburgh Napier University #1 in the UK for Forage engagement

With the Covid-19 pandemic impacting hugely on the availability of real-life work experiences, the Student Futures team at Edinburgh Napier University made it their mission to find other options which would allow our students to develop their workplace skills. What they found was Forage – a virtual internship platform that would be free to all students across the University.

In November 2021, the Placements team led the implantation of? Forage . This consisted of creating bespoke pages for our students to access Forage through the?Student Futures Career Hub. There are now dedicated pages set up for all 6 schools and the internships on these pages are tailored to each school. There is also a generic Student Futures page that has all virtual internships available. Forage is the perfect way to give students choice and autonomy over their work experience, and is convenient as they can work through their virtual internship at their own pace. On completion of Forage, students will also get an official certificate which they can share on social media and upload to LinkedIn.

In September 2022, the Careers and Skills team worked with academics in the Business School to integrate Forage virtual internships into the Employability Skills Programme (ESP). All 2nd-year students were required to undertake an internship of their choice and then write a 750-word reflective report on their experience. They attended an information session where they were introduced to the Forage platform and the wide range of internships on offer. They then had a week to complete the internship and write their report. Students have seen the benefit of completing an individual internship, and they will take their learning through to their next ESP assignment where they are required to undertake a group project, making recommendations to a fictitious company about the pros and cons of offering a virtual internship.

The feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive with students commenting that:

"It gave me a good feeling of what it would actually be like to work in law..."

"Very memorable, I was able to put what I know into real-life situations!"

"The overall experience of the programme was great. It explained the steps clearly and allowed me an insight into the work that takes place in finance."

To date, we now have 439 completions with 1,150 enrolments by 767 students. This now makes? Edinburgh Napier University ?the number 1 university in the UK for Forage engagement so far, this academic year!! The increase comes directly from Forage being integrated into the ESP programme. This has resulted in us seeing an increase of 1934% compared to last year.

Student Futures Careers & Skills Development and Placement Team.