Recession, graduate recruitment and the media
Media coverage of the impact of the recession on graduate employment has intensified in recent weeks. While not suggesting that graduates are going to have an easy ride in 2009, AGCAS feels it has a responsibility to put some of the coverage in perspective.
More targeting?
The Times, for example, on 10 January 2009 claimed: 'Big companies have already narrowed their search to five elite universities as they cut back on recruitment'. It offered no evidence.
The Guardian, on the same day, quoted Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London and chair of the Russell Group, as saying: 'Firms are already narrowing their search to a small number of universities - Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE, UCL and Imperial - and I think that's a shame'.
The Daily Telegraph on 14 January 2009 chipped in with: 'The study (an annual survey by market research company, High Fliers) suggested that companies were still concentrating their recruitment drives on an elite group of institutions, including Manchester, Warwick and the London universities'.
Most AGCAS members know that some recruiters have always targeted particular institutions and that the High Fliers survey covers the graduate recruitment schemes of only a hundred or so companies. Even before the current recession, they accounted for a very small number of graduate jobs. Twenty thousand or so of almost half a million HE leavers get jobs on schemes covered by the survey. A decrease of 20% in the number of places available is, of course, bad news for those interested in applying but in fact would mean 3-3.5% of HE leavers joining them rather than 4% or so. The same percentage decrease is not necessarily expected across the graduate labour market as a whole. Some sectors are even predicted to grow.
Employers still 'in touch'
However, it can be hard work getting the media interested in facts like these or in putting across messages that will help students rather than cause panic.
Margaret Dane, AGCAS CEO, in a letter published in the Guardian (14 January 2009) said:
'Graduates, students, prospective students and their parents should be assured that all sensible recruiters will try to attract the best talent they can and know that it is to be found at a wide range of HE institutions across the whole UK. HE careers advisers around the country will confirm that many employers, SMEs as well as the biggest recruiters, are still in touch with campuses around the country, taking part in events for students and advertising the opportunities they do have widely'.
The letter was edited - they missed out completely the paragraph that read:
'HE careers services and employers are already working together across the country to provide extra help to students and graduates, encouraging them to start early, develop their skills, use the support services available, consider a range of options and to think long-term'.
But we'll keep trying.
Your experience?
In the meantime, we'd appreciate any information that you can provide (qualitative data or anecdotal evidence) about changes in the behaviour of recruiters or students and about anything HE careers services are doing differently. AGCAS members who are registered and signed into this site can comment below. Or email Chris Jackson, AGCAS Communications and Marketing Manager.
You can keep up-to-date with media coverage of issues relevant to HE careers professionals via the media round up on the this website.
Tags: recession GLAM graduate recruitment media
Created on: 14 January 2009
Last updated: 15 January 2009