Searching for a job after graduating is a hard nut to crack, especially if you don't have any work experience.

That was the problem facing Andrew Lowe, a 23-year-old Egham graduate, when he left university in 1996.

He said: "I had the qualifications but no experience to bridge the skills gap between academia and work.

"When the Surrey TEC SkillsPlus programme referred me to a job at North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT) I knew it would be the way to begin my career."

Andrew enjoyed a 15-week work placement at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington and they were so pleased with his work that, when a full-time position became available, they offered him the job. He said: "This is my ideal job. It's where I've always imagined myself working. I feel I've been very lucky and, if I hadn't had the work experience, I would never have got the job."

Accuracy

The National Physical Laboratory is the national standards laboratory which supports an infrastructure designed to ensure accuracy and consistency in every physical measurement in the UK.

Andrew works in the Centre for Time Metrology which maintains the UK national time standard.

SkillsPlus from Surrey TEC encourages local employers to recruit those people who have been unemployed for more than six months.

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