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UK graduates 'flocking to China for internships'

Published: Friday, 30 July 2010   Category: Work Experience

Graduates are increasingly seeking out internships in China, according to new research published today (July 30th).

Specialist placement company CRCC Asia organised 200 one and two-month internships with firms in Beijing over the course of 2009, People Management reports.

However, the group has now announced that it had already rubber-stamped 405 placements by July and expects this figure to rise to 500 before the end of the year.

"It's a combination of increasing recognition of China's importance as a centre for international business and a growth in media coverage after the 2008 Beijing Olympics," director Edward Holroyd Pearce told the news provider.

"When you tie that in with a difficult jobs market in the UK and a lot of doom and gloom about the recession, I think it has created the right conditions for demand to really grow fast."

Mr Holroyd Pearce also paid tribute to UK graduates, explaining that Chinese firms have described them as "hardworking and creative".

The news comes after the Federation of Small Businesses recently urged the government to create 5,000 new internships in order to tackle graduate unemployment.