Her job is split between the facilities unit and personnel department of International Distillers and Vintners. Partially sighted since birth, she uses a guide dog outside, but her day- to-day work requires little adaptation. She uses a large monitor on her PC with large-print software – the latter cost her employers nothing – but the applications, such as Microsoft Word, are standard.Ms Woskett says careers advisers, at school and university, could not really give her useful advice: “I had to find most of the answers myself.” Workable’s assistance has been more successful.She feels that before the placement she was underselling herself by putting her disability high up her CV, before the skills that might make a recruiter read further. Overcoming that, coupled with practical skills gained at a world-renowned company, should stand her in good stead.Workable shows candidates how to make the most of their experience and skills and how to present them in a manner that is attractive to employers. But it also provides links into companies open to applicants with special needs, and can advise both parties on what is required for the placement to be a success.One in three of Workable’s placement candidates finds graduate-level employment.

“There reaches a stage on a person’s CV when a work experience placement is critical in how they will be viewed by employers,” says Richard Perrott. “If you can get some good employers’ names on your CV, it works very well.”. Graduates are being invited to job interviews with financial services companies unaware that some will expect them to work unpaid initially for several months. The direct sales jobs with insurance and financial services companies are regulated under the Financial Services Act, but job advertisements sometimes fail to reveal that salaries are largely or exclusively commission- based and fees are not usually paid during training periods of up to a month. Commissions earned as new sales staff pick up experience are not normally paid for at least two months, in case new clients exercise their right to cancel contracts under “cooling off” regulations.
University careers services are aware of the practices, which are not illegal.

Some refuse to carry advertisements in vacancy bulletins unless they are explicit about their salary arrangements, and others issue periodic warnings to graduates to “ask searching questions” at interviews.For the few graduates who are good at selling, the rewards can be high Fees of pounds 100,000 are not uncommon. But many who accept jobs drop out after a few months.Lanze Gardiner, a 25-year-old Leeds University law graduate, applied for a job with City Financial after taking his solicitors’ finals. He was attracted by an advertisement in Prospects Today, a fortnightly vacancy list published by the Careers Service Unit (CSU), which stated that those aged 23 to 35 “with the qualities of intelligence, personality and ambition” could be set for a career with the company. “Training and opportunity” would be provided by the company but the advert made no mention of salary or the basis for payment.Mr Gardiner attended an interview at the company’s London offices He spent pounds 50 on rail fares from Leeds. When he asked about travel expenses, he was told that the company did not pay them.