EMPLOYERS are being encouraged to take part in a leading work placement programme for students.

The Shell Step programme places more than 600 undergraduates with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) every summer.

This year, as unemployment soars throughout Britain, the scheme is being extended to include graduates for the first time.

An appeal has also gone out for more Sussex-based businesses to take part in the scheme.

To qualify, firms must have fewer than 250 employees.

According to Step, the eight-week placements can deliver substantial financial rewards.

In 2008, 48% of work placement students added more than £5,000 of value to their host businesses, while 17% added more than £30,000.

Patsy Sutcliffe, internship manager at Step, which is based at the Sussex Innovation Centre on the University of Sussex’s Falmer campus, has been placing students in firms across the county since the scheme began in 1986.

She said: “I have got hundreds of students but not an awful lot of companies.”

Students taking part are given the chance to to run business development projects tailored to their individual skills and career ambitions.

One Sussex company which has benefited is Oban Multilingual, based at the Sussex Innovation Centre.

The firm, which specialises in search engine optimisation, took on student Mark Challenor in summer 2007. He has now gone on to become an important member of the team Greig Holbrooke, managing director of the company, said: “Step has been a boon for us.

“We took part in the scheme as an experiment and were very impressed by the calibre of person we got in on the placement.

“It gives companies the opportunity to work with intelligent people with low risk in case things do not work out.”

Mr Challoner said the programme was useful because it was open to smaller companies which can offer students better work experience opportunities.

He said: “I had the option of going to a government agency but you get the chance to do a lot more work in a smaller company.

“Obviously, I was working on my project but if there was something I wanted to get involved in there were no restrictions as long as it was a good idea and it could make some money.”

Undergraduates and recent graduates can find out more at www.shellstep.org.uk.

SMEs with a potential project opportunity for the summer should call the programme team on 0844 2488242 or visit the website for more information.