Start thinking Graduates

Graduates are being "paralysed by fear" and put off applying for UK jobs because they believe the hype that no-one is hiring, top graduate recruiters have warned.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Deloitte – the top two graduate employers – have called on UK firms to promote the job opportunities that are still available despite the recession, to prevent talented prospective employees 'abandoning ship' and seeking alternative careers or placements abroad.

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is advising graduates to seek work abroad or volunteer to avoid unemployment this summer.

But Sarah Shillingford, graduate recruitment partner at Deloitte, told Personnel Today: "Statistically it is more difficult to get a job, but the reduction in vacancies is not as great as people think it is.

Concerns over a lack of UK graduate jobs were further fuelled last week when a KPMG/Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development survey found just 49% of companies planned to offer jobs to university leavers this year.

Sonja Stockton of PwC said,” We would be concerned if talented graduates felt they needed to leave the UK to get work. We could lose a generation of students, skills and experience on the basis of presumptions graduates are making about the jobs market through reports that are not fully reflecting the opportunities that exist. More than ever, students and employers need to talk the same language about the skills required in business, and how students can develop and demonstrate them."

Emma Pollard, senior research fellow at think-tank the Institute for Employment Studies, agreed employers should better advertise opportunities to work in the UK, including paid placements or work experience. "Graduates don't know what they can do and what the opportunities are," she said.

APA feels this is the perfect time to be recruiting graduates and firms should start now to identify needs and commence discussions with universities. We feel that many business graduates may look for senior PA roles and this could be a good time for established and experienced PAs to recruit and train a graduate assistant and then place them elsewhere in the business.

APA

From an article by Kat Baker, Personnel Today