VACANCY HANDLING POLICY
Vacancies We Advertise
The Careers and Employability Service (CES) can advertise the following kinds of vacancy:
- Graduate level vacancies for final-year students (i.e. with a future start date, normally within the next 12 months) or for recently-graduated students (i.e. with an immediate start date);
These vacancies should not normally require the candidate to have more than two years previous work experience
- Undergraduate placement schemes e.g. year-in-industry placements. Please note that University of Kent degrees including these placements require the student to spend a minimum of 45 working weeks with the employing organisation;
- Summer internships and vacation work for current students;
- Volunteer placements and internships for current students and recent graduates (subject to the conditions below).
Vacancies We Do Not Advertise
We do not handle any vacancies that, to our knowledge:
- Do not comply with the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or any other aspect of employment law;
- Have a reward structure which is entirely commission-based or where the basic salary before commission does not meet NMW requirements;
- Involve any form of financial investment by the applicant: this includes payment by the applicant to an intermediary for placing the candidate with an employer;
- Involve work in private households, especially those that involve work with vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly etc. However, we will consider advertising such vacancies if:
- the work is taking place under the supervision of an appropriately licensed agency providing all necessary training and relevant liability insurance;
- the advertiser is, or is personally vouched for by, a member of the University staff;
- We do not normally advertise work that involves any form of self-employment (including freelance work), but reserve the right to do so at our sole discretion. At minimum, we expect any organisation offering this kind of work to be willing to provide support and advice as needed with regard to tax returns etc;
- Following representations from academic staff, we do not advertise any organisations that provide essay, dissertation or coursework writing services.
As stated above, the Careers and Employability Service will not advertise any opportunities (including internships) that do not comply with national minimum wage legislation.
Although the NMW only applies to the UK, this CES policy extends to unpaid internships and other vacancies overseas.
We can advertise unpaid 'work experience' opportunities of no more than three weeks duration provided that they offer genuine and worthwhile experience or training to participating students.
Voluntary work opportunities should meet the definition of a “Volunteer” or “Voluntary Worker” role as set out in the BIS guidelines http://bit.ly/m6bXLS
It is ultimately the advertising organisation's responsibility to ensure any internship and voluntary opportunities they provide comply with NMW legislation and to provide the CES with evidence of this. If you require advice or guidance with regard to internships please see the following:
We may, at our discretion, advertise voluntary opportunities with registered charities, not-for-profit organisations or community groups in the UK, or overseas provided that they comply with the guidelines set out in the BIS document above.
The Careers and Employability Service is committed to equality of opportunity in keeping with the University of Kent’s Equality and Diversity Policy, and the AGCAS Equal Opportunities Policy and Code of Practice.
We will therefore not handle any vacancy that discriminates on the basis of race, gender, disability, religion, age orsexual orientation, unless:
- There is a genuine occupational requirement, covered by the relevant legislation, which permits exemption from this legislation;
- The vacancy aims to provide people from a particular group (or groups) the opportunity to compete for work in areas in which they have previously been under-represented or absent.
In both the above cases, employers must quote the relevant section of the applicable Act when submitting the vacancy.
In addition to the criteria outlined in the above two sections, the Careers and Employability Service reserves the right to refuse to handle any vacancy where we feel that the nature of the work, the eligibility criteria for the vacancy or the nature of the employing organisation would make it inappropriate for us to promote the vacancy to our students and graduates.
We do not post advertisements for students to register with an agency on our vacancy database. We do provide links to a wide range of recruitment agencies on our website at www.kent.ac.uk/careers/recruit.htm
We do advertise specific vacancies for named employers that choose to act through a recruitment agency, on the following terms:
- The agency must supply direct contact details for your liaison with the end employer, so the CES can verify their wishes if necessary (these contact details will not be made available to candidates without the permission of the employer and the agency acting for them).
- If more than one agency submits the same vacancy we will act in favour of the first agency to contact us unless instructed otherwise by the employer.
- If an agency submits a vacancy already advertised by the employer in their own right or the employer submits a vacancy already sourced through an agency, we will advertise the employer’s own vacancy (removing / rejecting the agency versions as necessary) unless instructed otherwise by the employer.
Vacancies must be submitted by one of the following means:
All vacancies submitted must include the following information:
- The name and full postal address of the advertiser
- A contact landline telephone number
- Full details of the organisation and the vacancy to be filled including an outline job description, the geographical location of the position and salary details
- Any degree subjects which are preferred or required for the post, or whether it is open to students/graduates of any discipline.
- Clear information about the method of application to be used by candidates (including the URL for online applications)
- Employers should either provide a closing date or notify the CES when the vacancy has been filled or state if recruitment is carried out on a continuous basis
- Employers giving a salary figures based on “OTE” should also indicate the basic salary offered;
The CES will make vacancies available to all students and graduates of the University and to graduates of other universities who may access these vacancies through our website.
We do not pre-select candidates for employers
Vacancies will be made available to students and graduates through the CES online vacancy database;
Vacancies which are submitted to us by email may be forwarded to appropriate departmental contacts – please advise us if you do not wish this to be done.
Period of Advertisement
If possible, all vacancies should have a definite closing date. If no closing date is provided we will assign one of one month from the date of release.
Vacancy details will be released on the CES online vacancy database within three working days of submission by employers. If you wish for any delay in the release of a vacancy, please state this clearly when submitting the vacancy and give the required date of release;
Where recruitment is “continuous” or “ongoing”, these vacancies will normally be displayed until the end of the academic year in which they are received.
Vacancies may be removed from the database at any time by, or at the request of, the employer.
Please note that we cannot guarantee to advertise any graduate level vacancy with a closing date of less than two weeks from the date of submission.
- Our vacancy advertising services are free of charge.
- All information provided for advertisements must be true and not misleading in any respect.
- The CES reserves the right to alter or edit advertisements at our sole discretion.
- The CES reserves the right not to accept, or to withdraw, any notified vacancy
- By sending your advert to us you are requesting that the advert appears on our website and may be included in email bulletins sent to targeted groups of students and/or recent graduates.
- Although we attempt to limit access to some advertising services to Kent students and graduates only, any information sent is still being placed in the public domain and could potentially be accessed by anyone.
- The CES cannot guarantee the level of response to any employer’s advertisement and can do no more to promote individual vacancies to students than is set out in (5) above
The University does not give any warranty or other assurance as to the material content, operation, description of any job, quality or functionality or fitness for any particular purpose of these vacancy advertising services and limit all statutory or other liability to the fullest extent permissible by law and disclaims all responsibility of whatsoever nature for any damages or losses, including, without limitation, financial loss, loss of business, or any other consequential loss arising in contract, tort or otherwise from the use or otherwise of these services.
This policy is reviewed annually and was last reviewed in April 2013
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The information and advice given in these pages is primarily for
the benefit of University of Kent students and graduates.
You are most welcome to link to these pages but should not use content in other ways without our permission.
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