Not surprisingly, the best pay rates are on offer at the largest organisations and in the private sectorGraduates will graduate into the UK’s most attractive job market for a decade, a study says.
The High Fliers study of the graduate market in 2015 predicts recruitment will be at its highest for a decade, as the first batch of Graduates who paid the higher rate of tuition fees will graduate this year.
The study suggests that the key to securing a top role is undertaking work placements at the firm in question, with a third of jobs expected to be offered to graduates who have managed to do this.
Over 13,000 paid work-experience programmes for students and recent graduates are available this year, with more than four-fifths of the UK’s leading graduate recruiters offering these schemes.
Two thirds of recruiters have paid internships during the holidays for final-year students, while half make industrial placements available as part of degree courses.
Placements for first-year undergraduates are also on the rise from an increasing number of firms. The study says that those with no work experience are unlikely to be successful applicants and have “little or no chance” of receiving a job offer through graduate programmes, half of the recruiters said.
Overall the UK’s leading employers plan to expand graduate recruitment even further in 2015, with 8% more vacancies predicted than last year. This follows a similarly-sized rise in 2014 and represents the third consecutive annual increase.
Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said that students leaving university this summer will find a buoyant graduate job market, said
The UK’s top employers would also be providing “more than 13,000 paid internships, vacation work or course-based placements in 2015”, he added.
Universities minister Greg Clark said: “Confidence in the economy continues to grow, and this is reflected in the fact that Britain’s top companies will recruit more graduates this year than they have for a decade.
“This report will be warmly welcomed by the record number of students who started university this year and highlights how a degree remains one of the best routes into a rewarding career.”
