Despite a fairly widespread belief that graduates are shunning jobs with smaller businesses, a survey of undergraduates and small business owners paints a very different picture. At last week’s AGCAS Biennial Conference of more than 500 careers professionals, GTI Media and STEP revealed preliminary findings which showed that:
-
87 per cent of undergraduates would be ‘willing’ or ‘very willing’ to start their career with a smaller employer.
The problem is that smaller businesses don’t have much of a presence or brand on campus and it’s therefore much more difficult to find out about their opportunities.
-
A third said they had heard NOTHING about smaller employers on campus
-
68 per cent said that SMEs had a ‘limited’ or ‘very limited’ profile as potential recruiters
In the parallel survey of 250 smaller businesses, we were pleased to note that SMEs were keen to develop more contacts with universities to recruit students for jobs and internships and that they had a positive view of the benefits that graduates bring to smaller businesses. They found it difficult, however, to promote their opportunities and fill their vacancies.
-
60 per cent found it ‘a challenge’ to recruit graduates from universities
Chris Phillips, Research and Information Director at GTI Media says: “This is a serious national issue. There is little growth in vacancies amongst the big brands of graduate recruitment but it’s far more difficult for students to access opportunities with SMEs and far more difficult for smaller businesses to recruit from universities. We need to take action now to bring willing students and willing SMEs together.”
Read more here: gtimedia.co.uk/expertise
GTI Media and the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), in partnership with STEP, is holding the very first Graduates into Smaller Businesses Conference in Birmingham on 26 November where we will bring together universities, smaller businesses, small business organisations and graduates to discuss practical actions to increase awareness on campus and make it easier for graduates to find work with SMEs. The Conference is supported by the NUS and CIPD.
To address the key issues of awareness and availability, GTI Media has recently recruited a specialist team of sales executives to increase the number of opportunities in smaller businesses open to graduates on our site targetjobs.co.uk
