A growing concern among international students in the UK has prompted universities and student platforms to launch a campaign against employment scams. These scams, which have resulted in students losing thousands of pounds, typically involve fraudsters posing as recruitment agents and promising sponsorship certificates for a fee.
According to a BBC report, some students have paid up to £17,000 for sponsorship certificates that should have been free. In response, job-readiness platform Student Circus has launched an awareness campaign to educate international students about common job scam warning signs and provide practical tips to help them avoid falling victim to such schemes.
A platform highlighted the case of Maya, an international student who fell victim to a fraudulent IT training and recruitment company. Maya was asked to provide personal details and pay a £2,500 deposit for supposed “training costs.” After completing a cheap third-party e-learning course, Maya was pressured to lie in the interview about her work experience at the company, realizing too late that she had been scammed.
Although there has been a recent drop in permanent job listings, there has been a notable increase in international students seeking UK work visas. As per a BBC article, student applications for UK work visas have increased six times, climbing from 3,966 to more than 26,000 from June 2022 to June 2023.
However, report by a source has discovered that possessing a sponsorship license does not guarantee that an employer will recruit international graduates. The report highlighted that merely 10% of employers holding a sponsorship license may be suitable for international students. The initiative seeks to inform international students about the dangers of job scams and equip them with the necessary tools and resources for their protection.
