‘Talented Europe’ a three year project which joins Bedfordshire with partners in Spain, Belgium and Slovakia will match students to job and internship opportunities across Europe.

Neville Hunt Senior Lecturer in Advertising and Public Relations and Senior Teaching Fellow at the University who conceived the idea said: “If you’re a business looking for young talent or a student looking for an internship or first career job, it’s not always so easy to find each other.

“It’s tough on a national scale, but even trickier if you want access to opportunities or talent across the whole of Europe.”

Dr Yanqing Duan, Professor of Information Systems and the project leader at the University, pointed out: “As a job matching facilitator, the app will be designed specifically to meet the unique needs of three separate groups: the students who want the opportunities; the employers who want the pick of the best students; and the universities who want to position their students among the very best in Europe.”

The app which will be available both online and on phone will provide students with instant access to a large database of vocational opportunities.

For employers it will make the job of finding talented students for either short or long term opportunities so much easier. In addition universities will have the advantage of being able to address the vocational aims of their students as well as providing a quality control role for employers in assessing and nominating the very best talent.

Mr Hunt explained: “This should level the playing field in that the best students will benefit irrespective of which educational institution they’re at.

“Finding placements and job opportunities is tricky. With the Talented Europe app, students can take more control and instead of waiting for opportunity to knock, they can ‘swipe’ it themselves whenever they like!”