STUDENTS at the University of Worcester could be helped to stay out of the dole queue this year.

Graduate interns joining the year-long national programme will get four days a week paid employment together with a £2,400 bursary if they join a new scheme.

They will also spend one day each week studying for a postgraduate certificate in applied business management.

The internship scheme, which is open to graduates of all universities from September, has already won support and practical commitment from businesses ranging from banks to furniture distributors, regional leaders of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), chambers of commerce and local coun-cils. Internships already being advertised include a software engineer, a marketing assistant, a project officer and a range of professional vacancies at Worcester university itself.

Vice chancellor and economist Professor David Green estimates that the university – which launched the scheme with the aim of aiming providing a minimum of 50 internships – may now accommodate many more.

Nationally, thousands more graduates could be saved from the dole queue if the scheme were to be rolled out nationally and adopted by other universities with support from business leaders.

Prof Green said: “The fundamental purpose of these internships is to avoid a waste of human potential which will have long-lasting negative economic and social implications. They will also enable graduates to make a practical contribution to improving the business in which they will be employed, while simultaneously further developing their own higher level business, entrepreneurial and all-round skills in ways which will be invaluable to society in the years to come.

“We are very grateful to the businesses and organisations that have been so quick to support this scheme.”

The launch of the programme follows a warning from the Higher Education Careers Service Unit that the number of graduates unable to find a job could double this year, leaving an estimated one in 10 out of work.

Chris Clifford, CBI West Midlands regional director, said the internships programme offers a “win-win situation” for employers and graduates.

He said: “This scheme will be of interest across the board to industry locally, reg-ionally and nationally.”

Mike Ashton, chief executive of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, said: “This is a practical and imaginative way for the University of Worcester and members of the chamber to work together to help business and graduates through the recession.”