Mixed picture on graduate jobs front - HE careers services
University careers services across the UK have reported a mixed picture during the third quarter of 2011*, both in the messages they are getting from employers and in the number of jobs they are advertising. While vacancies in some sectors are said to be up, there is increased competition for most positions.
University careers services work with a wide range of employers across all sectors and regions of the country, not just the big 'blue-chips', and so their experiences and views are a valuable gauge of the graduate job market.
(* AGCAS Quarterly Survey of Vacancies and Employer Activity 2011 Q3)
Positive signs
• Vacancies in many hi-tech areas of science, engineering and ICT are up. Many employers say they are having difficulty recruiting highly-skilled, technical graduates.
• Some universities report an increase in vacancies in areas such as retail, advertising, marketing and PR, for which most employers recruit from any discipline.
• Increased graduate recruitment by small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) is reported, especially by very small companies, some perhaps because they have realised for the first time that graduates might be interested in working for them.
• The need to think ahead means that large companies in all sectors are continuing to recruit, albeit often smaller numbers of graduates and with more frequent use of temporary contracts and internships. (In past recessions, some employers stopped recruiting for a couple of years resulting in problems years later in filling middle and senior management positions.)
• Recruiters are still visible on campus, especially at the larger graduate fairs, which they consider a cost-effective way of meeting committed students from a number of universities.
But
• Competition is fierce in most sectors, exacerbated by a backlog of graduates from the last two or three years still in jobs in which they don't see a long term future.
• Some recruiters are cutting back on the number of individual campuses they visit.
• There has been a continuing fall in public sector vacancies and in areas heavily dependent on them, such as the construction and legal sectors.
Anne-Marie Martin, AGCAS President and Director, The Careers Group, University of London, said:
"It's easy to get the impression that there are no jobs out there. On the contrary, there are lots, but admittedly competition for them is tough. Those who consciously improve their skills, accumulate work experience, proactively seek out 'hidden' vacancies and make the most of the resources their careers service offers will have a definite edge".
AGCAS messages to students and graduates
A degree gives you a big advantage in the labour market, but a degree alone is not enough:
• Make good use of the many opportunities university offers to gain experience and skills, eg through student societies, voluntary and paid work, as well as through your course.
• Reflect on, and learn how to articulate, your selling points and set about overcoming any weaknesses.
• Make use of your university's careers service to meet employers, and to ensure that your applications and your interview technique are as good as they can possibly be.
• Remember that your careers service can help you, even if you don't know what you want to do.
There are still plenty of great jobs out there (despite the impression you might sometimes get), but you will need to put effort into identifying suitable positions:
• Only a small percentage of recruiting employers will have a presence on your campus - you'll need to be very proactive and creative to find other openings.
• There are some great opportunities with smaller firms, where it's possible you will have the opportunity to get involved in more diverse roles. These may take more effort on your part to identify, but are well worth the effort.
• Make use of all the resources of your careers service, not just their vacancy listings - they will be able to show you how to dig out harder-to-find opportunities.
• In many areas of work, use of social media is becoming increasingly important in recruitment.
• You may need to consider taking more steps to get where you ultimately want to be than you would in a more buoyant labour market.
One of the respondents to the survey, Alice Burnett from the University of East Anglia, said:
"We say to students that if they don't use the careers resources available to them, it's the equivalent of taking out gym membership and never setting foot on a treadmill, or in a class, and expecting to see positive results".
Messages to employers and other stakeholders
AGCAS will be using the survey results to inform and influence employers and other stakeholders.
Martin Pennington, AGCAS Interim CEO, said:
"AGCAS encourages employers to extend their reach to all students and graduates, not just those at a small number of universities. We want to get across not only issues of fairness but also the business case that this is the way to be sure that they are selecting from the biggest possible pool of talented students.
We also want to get across how well-positioned university careers services are to help employers recruit and, beyond that, to ensure that while at university students are acquiring the knowledge, skills and experience that employers look for".
Tags: vacancy survey graduate labour market LMI graduate employment GLAM
Created on: 01 November 2011
Last updated: 01 November 2011