There is an initiative called the Innovation Placement Programme to help you develop new products and other new activities in your business at relatively low cost.
Support could be available for you to take on a student from higher education to work as a full time employee over 8 weeks this summer to complete a suitable project which has a clear focus on INNOVATION.The support includes helping you define the project, recruit a suitable employee and pay for part of the employee's salary.
There have already been a number of highly successful projects under this programme with capable and enthusiastic students working with SME's for 8 weeks over the summer and having a major impact on a company’s business performance. For example, Cyclepods, an innovative cycle storage company recruited a student through this scheme who designed a new storage device for bikes in schools and as a result the company secured about £500,000 of more business.
Middlesex University is acting as an agent in collaboration with Enfield Enterprise Agency, mainly but not only in the north London area, for this regional programme which is funded by the London Development Agency and managed jointly with STEP Enterprise
The project will need defining and describing. Your company needs to be considered a SME (less than 250 employees). Students are initially attracted via their universities and a national website then recruitment to your project would be decided by you via a shortlist supplied by us. There will be support for induction and monitoring. The work would normally take place over 8 weeks in July and August. The student employees will need to be paid £190 a week but half the final cost will be reclaimable at the successful conclusion of the project and no national insurance or other deductions will be made.
If you are interested please contact Julian Rhys-Williams, Head of Careers at Middlesex on 020 84114128/5523, j.rhys-williams@mdx.ac.uk