Raising the Standard of Graduate Recruitment

This week Sarah Evans, the Senior Consultant at Discovery Recruitment and Training, a Specialist Graduate Recruitment Consultancy, was the first person to achieve the AGR Standard in Graduate Recruitment in the UK. The AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters) hosted the award ceremony on Wednesday evening at JP Morgan in London. The AGR Standard in Graduate recruitment and the associated AGR Standard Practitioner Development Programme was designed to act as a catalyst to enhance the skills and capabilities of the professionals working in Graduate recruitment and provides practitioners with the opportunity to constantly develop their knowledge and skills within in this ever-changing market place.

Sarah was the first person to graduate from the programme. She studied along side recruitment professionals working for KPMG, Logica and Transco among others. Sarah has been working within graduate recruitment for the last 5 years and is an expert in her field. She recognises the fact that although her knowledge is comprehensive, the graduate market place is dynamic and she believes that all recruitment professionals need to remain ahead of the game by developing their skills and increasing their understanding of the environment they work within.

ìWe represent a number of SMEs in the market who are very serious about Graduate recruitment but not members of the AGR. We are their outsourced Graduate Recruitment department. It is important to have a deep understanding of market place to relay back to clients. The AGR Standard has provided ongoing development; I have adapted many of the tools over the year and have planned to implement some of the more strategic aspects for our 2006 campaigns.î

As specialists in the graduate recruitment market, Discoveryís work ethos is simple; seek to understand graduate recruitersí needs, identify the most dynamic graduates in the country, and place them with clients who will benefit quickly from the new enthusiasm they have recruited. Discoveryís proactive approach to development of skills internally has resulted in their clients benefiting from expert knowledge. The AGR Standard provided new techniques for measuring and evaluating advertising and selection tools and explored the importance of questioning why an existing process is used, whether it is still relevant to the business objectives and the graduate marketplace.

Jonathan Evans the Managing Director of Discovery Recruitment and Training, encourages all employees to expand their expertise and understanding of the graduate market place.

ìThe AGR Standard PDP Programme has impacted very positively across all levels of the business. It has injected a new level of enthusiasm, professionalism and pride in the way we deliver Graduate Recruitment solutions. Our approach has always been different to the main stream recruitment companies and the inclusion of the AGR standard has proved immensely valuable in this respect because it helps reinforce in our clients minds the importance of a ëgood knowledgeableí recruitment partner and that we have a genuine interest in the market in which we work.

Sarah has a natural enthusiasm and professionalism regardless but over the course of the last year it has helped her establish herself as a true ëjob / industryí professional. This in turn reaps major benefits for her team and their continued development. We have also adopted a number of processes and systems in to our practice from the AGR Standard.î