Work placement added to UCC course

A SIX-month work placement has been added to the commerce degree programme at University College Cork to give students a taste of real life in the business world.

The BComm Work Placement Programme unveiled yesterday will make UCC’s commerce students the first from an Irish university to benefit from such an initiative.

They will spend April to September of their third year on the four-year degree course working with a host organisation.

The plan has the strong support of the local business community, with almost 50 employers already signed up to enlist students. Cork Chamber chief executive Conor Healy last night urged all businesses to engage with the programme and experience the significant added value it will give them.

“It is most important for the graduates of today to have an understanding of the business environment.

“It gives them the opportunity to identify particular areas of interest at an earlier stage, while also directing many to an appropriate field of postgraduate study,” he said.

The BComm has an annual intake of 185 students, who can specialise after two years in a range of subjects.

Dr Edward Shinnick, assistant dean of UCC’s commerce faculty and director of the BComm programme, said its students are very high achievers, with the average entrant scoring 470 Leaving Certificate points out of a maximum of 600. Almost three-quarters of the current crop of third years, who will be the first group to take part in the work placement programme next year, achieved the top two possible grades in last summer’s exams.

“Employers who hire UCC commerce students will be assured of top-calibre employees, which will generate a feeder pool for their graduate hiring needs and build their management capability for the future,” Dr Shinnick said.