Intern plan to ease graduate woes

Some 300,000 students will be leaving university in the summer

Students who are unable to secure jobs after leaving university may be offered paid internships, it has emerged.

Ministers are worried graduates could swell the ranks of the unemployed and have been holding talks with employers to try to find a solution.

Four top firms, including Barclays and Microsoft, will take on some of this year's 300,000 graduates.

The initiative comes as a study suggests that the UK economy is now at a 28-year low.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has suggested that the economy is likely to have shrunk 1.5% in the last three months of 2008.

Universities Secretary John Denham is drawing up plans for the internship scheme.

He revealed the proposals in an interview with the Daily Telegraph and said the internships secured under the national scheme would last for three months.

What do we do with them? We can't just leave people to fend for themselves Universities Secretary John Denham Economy 'now at 28-year low'

It is intended that internships will at least improve participants' skills and experience and may in some cases lead to full-time work.

They will be paid at a rate only slightly higher than undergraduates' income from grants and loans, according to the Telegraph.

Mr Denham told the paper: "At the end, they will be more employable, and some of them will get jobs. Employers won't want to let good people go.

"These are the children of the baby-boomers. They will be a very big group. What do we do with them? We can't just leave people to fend for themselves."

Universities have reported that firms have been cancelling spots on the annual "milk round" - when employers visit universities to recruit students - or simply focusing on elite institutions.

In the same interview Mr Denham declined to comment on suggestions the government could bring forward plans to raise the school-leaving age to 18.

A new requirement for youngsters to remain in education or training until they are 18 only currently applies to those aged 11 or under this year.