The National Union of Students Scotland has voiced their concerns about the lack of summer jobs there is for undergraduates.

With many graduates leaving University in thousand of pounds worth of debt, summer placements were a good way to release the burdens of debt. The problem is the recession has meant many employers who would otherwise take on undergraduates are no longer doing so and the repercussions of this is becoming more and more evident.

The Scottish Government report, states that on average students build up about £1,300 in commercial debt. The NUS claims when you add this commercial debt to the government loans, you are in effect in about £16,000 debt.

This is an extremely large figure for graduates to manage, however what The Student Loans Company stated is that due to additional work and summer jobs the actual debt a graduate has, is in the region of £5,300, a much more manageable figure.

Liam Burns, president of the NUS in Scotland said “we have serious concerns about students getting into even further commercial debt and debt they can’t manage, ultimately that will mean students will start dropping out”

If you are looking for work then it is always good to speak to recruitment agencies in your region, who will have a better understand of local employment market.

Healthcare recruitment agencies are being called into action this week with many Out of Hours services unable to cope with the amount of phone calls NHS Direct is receiving. On average, Out of Hours calls have increased 3 fold and General Practitioners are claiming to be ill informed on the procedures of Swine Flu, Tammiflu and how long patients should stay at home.

Swine Flu is taking all the headlines at the moment with Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson making startling claims that if 30% of the population got Swine Flu, then a possible 65,000 people could die from the virus. This is of course worst case scenario but represents roughly 1 in every 300.

The World Health Organisation is currently set at phase 5 out of a possible 6 phases on the scales of seriousness of Swine Flu as a global pandemic, there is a real possibility that this could move to a phase 6. The main concern with Swine Flu is that whilst other flu viruses in the past would affect the elderly, this virus seems to cause serious health problems to young people as well.

There are plans to open up a National Pandemic Flu Service which will be manned by 2000 call centre staff, with the intention of identifying and dealing with these cases as quick as possible.

Recruitment agencies are being called upon to help out in this period, providing support and healthcare staff where needed.