An industrial placement portal will solve the current difficult and clunky methods of finding placements and employment opportunities for students.

Workscan allows employers to post placements, students to apply for them and educational bodies to virtually administer the whole process.

Headed up by Ioannis Antypas, serial entrepreneur and author of The Persuasive Marketer, the portal will first launch in the UK but will have the potential to help international education bodies as well.

“The world of work is fundamental to survival,” London-based Ioannis said. “Bridging the gap between educational bodies and employment opportunities is essential to creating a workforce for the future.

“At the moment, when a student applies for a placement or employment opportunity, they must go through a long and involved process. They would have to go directly to their careers department, who would give them a paper sheet to sign up and apply for work – placing all the focus on the university to find and communicate the opportunity back to the student.

“This includes a lot of manual procedures, as the educational body has to get involved to legitimise the whole thing. There’s no waiting for communication to relay back – it’s all streamlined.”

Ioannis adds that, with Workscan, all of the students who have signed up for a placement year can join the portal through an invitational code from their educational body – bringing them to a centralised hub for finding, managing and completing placements.

A person sitting in a chair

Description automatically generated with medium confidence”Instead of every single thing going through the university, everything is streamlined via one digital platform,” he said. “Students and employers convene directly to organise the placement, the responsibility of the university is to legitimise the whole thing and check weekly to hear about the student.

“Everything is done digitally through our portal, meaning any communication happens all via the same platform. Whether it’s the employer messaging the educational body or students messaging the employer, it’s all replied to and recorded in one place.”

Workscan’s waiting list is live and whether you’re a student, employer or a member of academic staff you can sign up on their website.

The portal’s launch is expected in September – in conjunction with the start of the academic year.