When Danielle Abbiss graduated from Lady Margaret Hall , Oxford, with a 2.1 in English last summer, her CV looked sparse. Despite strings of As and A*s and an Oxford degree, Abbiss, 22, lacked work experience. Graduating at a time when the economy was plunging, she soon realised that academic qualifications were not going to be enough to secure a job in the competitive world of publishing.

“I needed to get some experience, so I e-mailed my CV and a personalised cover letter to 300 publishing companies in the UK,” said Abbiss. “It took days and I was a bit surprised to hear back from only six companies, especially since I was offering to work for free.”

One of the respondents was Wiley-Blackwell, a publishing firm based in Oxford. Abbiss is now three weeks into a ten-week internship at the company.

It’s a huge effort. As she lives in Cheltenham, Abbiss has to get up at 6am and commute for two and a half hours by coach to Oxford. She is reimbursed only for travel expenses, but feels lucky to have the opportunity. “From day one, it has been great experience,” she said. “It’s very structured – in my first week, one of the commissioning editors set up an hour-long meeting for me to meet other editors and editorial assistants and organise my work. I’m busy all the time, interacting with authors, doing market research, e-mailing reviews and book proposals. I’m hopeful that I might be offered a job here in the future but, even if not, the experience will make me more attractive to employers.”

In today’s depressed job market, with the Association of Graduate Recruiters, an employers’ body, reporting that graduate job offers are down by 5.4%, the buzz word is “employability”. A recent report published by the CBI employers’ organisation makes 230 references to employability – “the attributes that help people respond to the changing demands of the workplace and contribute positively”.

The report concludes that a CV full of university-learnt skills is not enough for today’s recruiters, who can afford to be highly selective and want to see work experience.

“The class of 2009 will be leaving university and entering the labour market at the worst time for many years,” said Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI. “In addition to acquiring strong academic and technical knowledge, graduates need employability skills. Even in a downturn, they must have the opportunity to experience the world of work – through work placements, summer internships and more contact with business during the course of their studies.”

The CBI’s report highlights the work experience offered by firms such as Marks & Spencer, accountancy firm KPMG, and Centrica, owner of the energy company British Gas. While many work experience schemes are unpaid, Katie Alloway, 23, who took part in a 12-week summer placement at Centrica, said a well-organised scheme can pay dividends – although she was paid for her summer’s work.

“I applied for holiday internships in accountancy, consultancy and energy firms,” said Alloway, who graduated with a 2.1 degree in history with French from Durham University. “I didn’t think my degree alone would make me stand out from the crowd. I decided to do the placement at Centrica, because while it’s a big firm it took on only about 50 graduates, so I hoped the scheme would be well run.

“Once I started, I was given three projects, including one looking at how British Gas’s competitors were contacting their customers. At first I was a bit surprised at how much responsibility I was given, but my manager supported me a lot and it paid off, because at the end of the summer I was offered a job.”

Alloway believes that “now, more than ever, it’s important to get a placement on your CV – it makes you stand out from the crowd”. But she acknowledges that not all forms of work experience can benefit graduates. “One of my friends was really pleased to get an internship at an engineering firm but he was just given monotonous admin and spreadsheets to fill in every day. It ended up putting him off working in the sector completely.” Abbiss, too, admits that some work experience opportunities may not be worthwhile. “I did some work experience at another firm last summer and ended up just following the boss around. There was no structure and I felt really useless. Equally, other graduates I know were just being bought into firms as free labour and had to do endless administrative work without ever learning anything. If you are not being paid, you need to be getting something out of the work.”

Some graduates feel nervous that businesses will use the excuse of the recession to exploit free labour, but the CBI claims that is unlikely. Richard Wainer, its head of education and skills, said that in a recession firms are more likely to turn away from offering work experience because they don’t have enough work. “We know it’s more difficult for businesses to take on interns during the recession but, for those that can, it’s often a good way to meet potential recruits and is part of being ready for when the upturn comes,” he said.

All graduates are adamant that employers should only offer work experience if they are prepared to invest in a scheme. That was the experience of Ali Raja, 25, who graduated with a masters in banking and finance from Southampton University in August. “I had applied for a few full-time jobs without hearing back when I learnt that I had been offered an internship at [the accountancy firm] Price Waterhouse Coopers,” he said. “I wanted to work for them, and I thought that getting some work experience might be the best route in.”

Raja was offered three months’ experience, working in auditing. “I was given the same responsibility as a newly joining employee and that gave me an exact idea of what it would be like if I had a job at the company,” he said. “Employers should offer structured internships, to provide a diverse experience and help graduates to find out what the actual workload is like.”

For most graduates, the best possible end to work experience is a job offer, and Raja was one of the lucky ones. After completing a three-month internship working in auditing, he has started at PWC as a graduate trainee. “Work experience should work both ways – yes, employers should use it to see how competent someone is, but graduates should also have the chance to test out a job and see if they like it,” he said. “My internship won me my job, but it also meant that on my first day at the firm I knew what to expect.”

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