SPONSORSHIP |
Back in the day, employers were so keen to get graduates on their payroll that they were willing to fund them throughout their degree course (or in some cases, diplomas) - sometimes the students didn’t even have to go and work for the sponsor afterwards. That, unfortunately, was in the days before degrees in The Simpsons and beach volleyball, when every other person wasn't a graduate.
Nowadays, like the crocodile and the coelacanth who've survived everything evolution can chuck at them, there are still a few sponsorship deals left. But they’re the relics.
Depending on the deal, taking a sponsorship might be like selling your soul and, even though you may need the cash, you should always check what the Purveyor of all things evil, Satan’s going rate is these days.
In any case, virtually the only courses that attract sponsorship are the ones where employers have trouble recruiting talent. They tend to be hardcore sciences, technical subjects (such as engineering), business studies, and IT or vocational courses.
Don’t even bother looking for sponsorship to do philosophy, English literature or sociology. There are some sources out there, but you might as well spend the amount of time it would take to find one earning money the traditional way.
Nowadays, like the crocodile and the coelacanth who've survived everything evolution can chuck at them, there are still a few sponsorship deals left. But they’re the relics.
Depending on the deal, taking a sponsorship might be like selling your soul and, even though you may need the cash, you should always check what the Purveyor of all things evil, Satan’s going rate is these days.
In any case, virtually the only courses that attract sponsorship are the ones where employers have trouble recruiting talent. They tend to be hardcore sciences, technical subjects (such as engineering), business studies, and IT or vocational courses.
Don’t even bother looking for sponsorship to do philosophy, English literature or sociology. There are some sources out there, but you might as well spend the amount of time it would take to find one earning money the traditional way.
what's in it for the sponsor?
Sponsors don’t do it just because they’re being nice.
They have good commercial reasons and ultimately hope to gain at least as much, if not more, from the deal than the student. Highly capable and skilled people with management potential are a limited commodity and sponsorship is a way of getting in there before the competitors. It’s like knowing about the sales a day early or money-mad managers signing up pre-pubescent singing 'stars' of the future.
While it may feel like it's a great personal compliment if you’re jammy enough and smart enough to nab yourself a sponsor, they’ll probably be just as chuffed to have nabbed you.
They have good commercial reasons and ultimately hope to gain at least as much, if not more, from the deal than the student. Highly capable and skilled people with management potential are a limited commodity and sponsorship is a way of getting in there before the competitors. It’s like knowing about the sales a day early or money-mad managers signing up pre-pubescent singing 'stars' of the future.
While it may feel like it's a great personal compliment if you’re jammy enough and smart enough to nab yourself a sponsor, they’ll probably be just as chuffed to have nabbed you.
WHAT DOES A SPONSORSHIP INVOLVE?
Most sponsors expect students to work for them at some point before, during or after their course.
But it’s rarely a form of bonded labour. Often they’ll not only pay for the time you’re studying, but give you a decent wage while you’re working for them too. What’s more, when you’re working, the learning won’t necessarily stop. Usually there’s at least some element of on-the-job training.
This may sound suspiciously like a sandwich course and, sure enough, they’re one of the most lucrative ways to earn while you learn these days.
However, if you're counting on a tan you should know that sometimes you work for your sponsor during your summer breaks instead.
Either way, the employer-cum-sponsor gets a chance to train up and check out its sponsored students while the student gets a shufti at the company’s culture and working environment at the same time.
Obviously, everyone’s hoping the student will want to work for the company and the company will want to employ the student when they graduate. However, there’s rarely either a guarantee of a job or a requirement to work for them. Some students wouldn’t want a sponsorship even if they found one knocking at the door.
It can make you feel like your options are closing down around you faster than village post offices. You’ll have various commitments – such as giving up your summer holiday to work – and it may all be a waste of time if you decide you wouldn’t want to work in that industry anyway, let alone for that company.
If you don’t enjoy working for your sponsor, things could get awkward. After all, you’re going to feel obligated to them. You’re not going to want to turn round and say, ‘You know you gave me that huge bundle of notes? Well, thanks, but now I’ve got my degree I’m going to take it elsewhere.’
But there’s no need to feel bad. If there’s no commitment to them, don’t sweat it. That’s their lookout. You can bet that if the tables were turned and you’d blithely spent your student years thinking you’d waltz into their offices the day after graduation, but they’d decided they didn’t want you, they’d have no qualms about slamming the door in your face.
Indeed, most companies will get tough if you don’t keep your side of the deal, whatever it may be. They might stop your payments or demand you give them back what they’ve paid you if you don’t agree to join them after graduating. Things like that will be in the contract in the first place, so think about them before you sign on the dotted line.
How picky they are will usually depend on how much they’re sinking into you. Always check the small print and ask about anything that isn’t clear as glass polished by Mr Muscle himself.
And even if you do change your mind and want to back out, sponsorship is far from a dead loss. It’s almost unbeatable experience, it looks like gold dust on your CV and – with anything from a few hundred to a few thousand quid a year – the financial rewards can be sweet as honey-coated sugar cubes.
But it’s rarely a form of bonded labour. Often they’ll not only pay for the time you’re studying, but give you a decent wage while you’re working for them too. What’s more, when you’re working, the learning won’t necessarily stop. Usually there’s at least some element of on-the-job training.
This may sound suspiciously like a sandwich course and, sure enough, they’re one of the most lucrative ways to earn while you learn these days.
However, if you're counting on a tan you should know that sometimes you work for your sponsor during your summer breaks instead.
Either way, the employer-cum-sponsor gets a chance to train up and check out its sponsored students while the student gets a shufti at the company’s culture and working environment at the same time.
Obviously, everyone’s hoping the student will want to work for the company and the company will want to employ the student when they graduate. However, there’s rarely either a guarantee of a job or a requirement to work for them. Some students wouldn’t want a sponsorship even if they found one knocking at the door.
It can make you feel like your options are closing down around you faster than village post offices. You’ll have various commitments – such as giving up your summer holiday to work – and it may all be a waste of time if you decide you wouldn’t want to work in that industry anyway, let alone for that company.
If you don’t enjoy working for your sponsor, things could get awkward. After all, you’re going to feel obligated to them. You’re not going to want to turn round and say, ‘You know you gave me that huge bundle of notes? Well, thanks, but now I’ve got my degree I’m going to take it elsewhere.’
But there’s no need to feel bad. If there’s no commitment to them, don’t sweat it. That’s their lookout. You can bet that if the tables were turned and you’d blithely spent your student years thinking you’d waltz into their offices the day after graduation, but they’d decided they didn’t want you, they’d have no qualms about slamming the door in your face.
Indeed, most companies will get tough if you don’t keep your side of the deal, whatever it may be. They might stop your payments or demand you give them back what they’ve paid you if you don’t agree to join them after graduating. Things like that will be in the contract in the first place, so think about them before you sign on the dotted line.
How picky they are will usually depend on how much they’re sinking into you. Always check the small print and ask about anything that isn’t clear as glass polished by Mr Muscle himself.
And even if you do change your mind and want to back out, sponsorship is far from a dead loss. It’s almost unbeatable experience, it looks like gold dust on your CV and – with anything from a few hundred to a few thousand quid a year – the financial rewards can be sweet as honey-coated sugar cubes.
WHO MIGHT SPONSOR ME?
There are four roads to sponsorships:
- Employers: Especially the big boys like investment banks, engineering businesses and legal or accountancy firms.
- The Armed Forces: The Army, Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines all offer sponsorship (sometimes also known as cadetships) to potential officers while they’re in higher education.
Although the actual conditions vary according to the amount they give you and which service you join, they’ll usually demand that your course benefit them somehow and also benefit you somehow once you’ve joined them after graduation. So hairdressing’s probably out then.
Don’t go for sponsorship if you wouldn’t have wanted to serve in the Armed Forces anyway, because if in the end you decide these delights – travelling the world, meeting interesting people... using guns and other heavy artillery – aren’t for you, you’ll need the permission of your commanding officer to leave and they’ll want all their money back in full.
Students on most undergraduate bursaries remain civilians throughout their degree, but would be expected to spend a bit of time in the holidays on military larks. There are other options, such as sponsorship from sixth form onwards or starting military training before going to university.
Enquire at your local Armed Forces careers office or surf on to mod.uk for more information. - Professional bodies: Engineering students are the prime targets for many sponsors.
- Universities: Usually on behalf of employers.
These groups will see a few students through their education with amounts of money that allow them to live in the lap of luxury compared to other students (quilted loo roll, a bike with a bell and a basket etc.) but aren’t that much in the real world.
Sure, it’s partly about competitiveness in the capitalist world, but you might want to ask yourself why they’re so desperate. Is it because people like you really are an emerald among a sea of tinned peas? Or is it that something is putting everyone else off?
IS IT WORTH APPLYING FOR SPONSORSHIP AND, IF SO, HOW?
If you’re more ambitious and better at your chosen subject than a Mastermind Champion on spinach, then you're in with a good chance, especially if your subject is one of the really sexy disciplines such as engineering (sexy to sponsors, that is).
Research:
Various books that list the likely targets are worth looking at, but make sure you look at a recent edition as they go out of date quicker than milk bottles left in the sun. Chances are, the wonderful wide web will be your best bet on up to date info.
The more you can home in on what you want, the quicker and easier it’ll be to compile your list of potential sponsors. Check your facts, compare salary possibilities, investigate the pros and cons and, if possible, talk to other sponsored students to get the inside story.
Above all, ask yourself if you are the right kind of person for the potential sponsor and suitably committed to a future with them. And remember, although there’s usually a get-out clause for both parties, choosing a sponsor is tantamount to choosing a career.
Sponsorship doesn’t have to start from day one:
It may even start before your course - if you and your employer agree that rattling on the pearly gates of further education would benefit you and therefore your employer's company, you could go to uni courtesy of your employer's cheque book.
Or you might be offered sponsorship following some work experience in the summer before your course starts, for example, or during a gap year. But more often, sponsorships are set up during your course, often as part of the process of finding somewhere to do a placement. Then, sometimes, you’ll be doing a placement and it’ll be working out very cosily and eventually it turns into a longer deal.
And sometimes, it’s just a case of sponsor turning up towards the end of a student’s university career and deciding they want to muscle in on a bit of the action. By then, they reckon, you’ve have already proved your dedication to your course and they haven’t had to shell out for your first few years. Nearly a third of sponsors limit their schemes to final-year students.
Looking for a sponsor:
If you’ve already started your course, but you’re still interested in a sponsorship deal, just ask at the university’s careers service – they’ll have contacts with employers and will be able to advise you.
Most sponsors don’t advertise, there’s no need. So you’ll probably have to try a speculative application or two (or ninety-two). And don’t focus only on the ‘big name’ companies – the smaller ones may be better targets as they’ll get fewer applicants (and generally they’re friendlier places to work). Companies local to your home town are often a good bet, especially if you may know someone on the inside.
Bear in mind that for every sponsor, there are hundreds of other students probably as keen as you to take their dosh.
Research:
Various books that list the likely targets are worth looking at, but make sure you look at a recent edition as they go out of date quicker than milk bottles left in the sun. Chances are, the wonderful wide web will be your best bet on up to date info.
The more you can home in on what you want, the quicker and easier it’ll be to compile your list of potential sponsors. Check your facts, compare salary possibilities, investigate the pros and cons and, if possible, talk to other sponsored students to get the inside story.
Above all, ask yourself if you are the right kind of person for the potential sponsor and suitably committed to a future with them. And remember, although there’s usually a get-out clause for both parties, choosing a sponsor is tantamount to choosing a career.
Sponsorship doesn’t have to start from day one:
It may even start before your course - if you and your employer agree that rattling on the pearly gates of further education would benefit you and therefore your employer's company, you could go to uni courtesy of your employer's cheque book.
Or you might be offered sponsorship following some work experience in the summer before your course starts, for example, or during a gap year. But more often, sponsorships are set up during your course, often as part of the process of finding somewhere to do a placement. Then, sometimes, you’ll be doing a placement and it’ll be working out very cosily and eventually it turns into a longer deal.
And sometimes, it’s just a case of sponsor turning up towards the end of a student’s university career and deciding they want to muscle in on a bit of the action. By then, they reckon, you’ve have already proved your dedication to your course and they haven’t had to shell out for your first few years. Nearly a third of sponsors limit their schemes to final-year students.
Looking for a sponsor:
If you’ve already started your course, but you’re still interested in a sponsorship deal, just ask at the university’s careers service – they’ll have contacts with employers and will be able to advise you.
Most sponsors don’t advertise, there’s no need. So you’ll probably have to try a speculative application or two (or ninety-two). And don’t focus only on the ‘big name’ companies – the smaller ones may be better targets as they’ll get fewer applicants (and generally they’re friendlier places to work). Companies local to your home town are often a good bet, especially if you may know someone on the inside.
Bear in mind that for every sponsor, there are hundreds of other students probably as keen as you to take their dosh.
ALTERNATIVES TO SPONSORSHIP
These days, employers wanting to bribe graduates often go for a more direct approach than traditional sponsorship, ‘the golden hello’, where they pay thousands of quid to them just to join the company. Sometimes they even offer to pay off your student debts. Sweet.
A warning though: it’s usually only real high-flyers who get the dough from these deals and they’re usually attached to very particular jobs.
The Association of Graduate Recruiters, who represent the blue-chip big cheese of graduate recruitment, reckon that more than a third of these companies offer some kind of financial welcome. Have a look at their website agr.org.uk or the excellent graduate careers site prospects.ac.uk to get an idea of which employers it might be worth investigating further.
A word of warning – don’t count on getting a golden handshake. They may not be offering it by the time you’re ready and you may not get it anyway.
A warning though: it’s usually only real high-flyers who get the dough from these deals and they’re usually attached to very particular jobs.
The Association of Graduate Recruiters, who represent the blue-chip big cheese of graduate recruitment, reckon that more than a third of these companies offer some kind of financial welcome. Have a look at their website agr.org.uk or the excellent graduate careers site prospects.ac.uk to get an idea of which employers it might be worth investigating further.
A word of warning – don’t count on getting a golden handshake. They may not be offering it by the time you’re ready and you may not get it anyway.