How it works

Bite-sized work experiences

If you're a university student, lack of work experience is often a barrier to starting a career after graduation. Unisource enables you to gain invaluable skills and degree-relevant experience. By bidding to complete tasks for businesses, students can amass a portfolio of bite-sized work experiences to supplement a placement year.

Gain work experience

Graduate recruiters look for commercial awareness and clear communication, teamwork, negotiation and problem-solving skills. Building a portfolio of experience and reviews through Unisource tasks will give you a head-start.

Earning and learning

While studying, money is often tight. Part-time work can be low paid and might not fit around study commitments. By completing tasks on Unisource you can earn money and gain degree-relevant experience at your own pace. See our FAQs

Super-flexible, remote working

Our research shows that students appreciate the opportunity of more flexible, remote work experience. We have a pool of SMEs keen to give the next generation of talent greater opportunities to gain work experience - with options to work remotely or onsite.

Our four-step processIt’s easy for students to start connecting with our four-step process:

1 Register

Register and create your profile

2 Browse

Review the task posts that match your skills

3 Bid

Send your bid for relevant tasks

4 Connect

Communicate with businesses and start gaining experience

Start your career with confidence

Students are keen to access work experience opportunities through their university. Join our growing band of students to:

Improve your CV

First degrees have risen by 500%. Business leaders like Ernst & Young say they now focus more on work experience than grades when recruiting, which increases pressure to gain real-life commercial understanding.

Share know-how

Students often underestimate their inherent expertise. Through your studies, it’s likely you’ll be well-versed in the latest thinking in your specialism. You have fresh ideas and digital expertise that is second nature. Unisource helps you capitalise on your knowledge.

Find networking opportunities

With a bank of tasks and reviews under your belt and a network of connections and tangible relationships with local businesses, you’ll have a great opportunity to start your career through your contacts.

Expand your skills

Businesses need commercially savvy graduates, but some skills just aren’t taught at University. Completing tasks helps build skills in communication, teamwork, negotiating, problem-solving, leadership, organisation, perseverance, motivation, working under pressure and confidence; all vital for the workplace.

The National Centre for Universities and Business identified that participation in, and access to, work experience opportunities are important areas for its future research focus. A growing body of evidence suggests employers increasingly use work experience as an integral and intentional part of their recruitment strategy.

What’s more, the timing of opportunities appears to be shifting: short-term work, shadowing and internship roles are being offered to undergraduates at earlier stages of their studies, as employers attempt to engage with committed, motivated students before their competitors do.

‘We must encourage more students to undertake work experience of at least four weeks to give the desired boost to their career prospects.’

Jayne Rowley - Chief Executive of Prospects and HECSU

Young people with four or more episodes of work experience undertaken while in education ‘are five times less likely to be NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) later on.

The value of work: 40% of graduate recruiters say it’s ‘not very likely’ or ‘not at all likely’ that graduates with no previous work experience would be successful during the selection process and be made a job offer, irrespective of their academic achievements or the university they had attended.

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