The SME employer often has very specific and individual needs of their young employees; needs that cannot be met by general training methods. A lack of in-house training can lead to an imbalance of expectation from both employee and employer and put an unfairly large burden onto a young employee who is perhaps experiencing work for the first time.

The Bridge to Work  programme is specifically geared to address this imbalance by acting for students both before and after they enter the job market.

In the run up to finding a job and for their first 12 months of employment each student is provided with open access to personal mentors drawn from the SME business community who understand what is required to make a successful transition from academia to employment. Whether it is covering such diverse areas as integrating with other staff, how to handle conflict in the workplace, why profit is so important to SMEs, or even the importance of taking personal responsibility The Bridge to Work offers the support, advice and coaching that cannot be found under any other programme.

By signing up for The Bridge to Workprogramme students not only become a more attractive employment proposition to SMEs they are also more likely to become productive employees more quickly and improve their long-term job retention prospects.