Dear Students,

It has come to our attention rogue employment consulting firms out there are trying to get students (and in particular, international students) to pay a lot of money for placements in industry.

Basically, they charge students a fee to try and place them in a job that has been advertised generally on other platforms. The following is one example:

"In this specific situation, the student found an actual IT job advertisement listed by this company on a generic job site, applied for it and was subsequently phoned by a company to invite her in for an interview.

The student assumed it was an actual job interview but it soon became apparent that they only wanted to sell their suite of services that assist with things like resume writing and interview preparation (which students can of course access through us at the University for free). Some of the packages also offer up vague things like “access to our industry contacts” and an “8 week internship”. Students who are desperate for experience might be hooked in by this statement in particular."

Please be aware of this. Some of these agencies and firms have also been reported in the newspapers recently.

If you have any queries about such agencies, I strongly advise you to be in touch with Careers and Employment.