Apparently the fast stream isn't cancelled after all 🤔

Jun 22, 2022

This week: What we really think about apprenticeships, PwC reveal their application numbers, and a few early talent leadership roles hit the market… 👀

⬆️ TOP UPDATE

Government departments get green light to run grad schemes despite fast stream freeze

The Financial Times reports this week that - despite Boris Johnson’s plans to freeze recruitment onto the Civil Service Fast Stream - individual departments will still be allowed to hire their own cohorts of new graduate talent.
The decision to halt the 1,000+ headcount scheme has come under heavy criticism from politicians and the media, as it is widely regarded as having brought diverse talent from a wide range of backgrounds and degree disciplines into government in recent years.
Exact plans for the new departmental schemes are yet to be finalised, but the FT suggests that the Treasury could be one of the first teams to recruit outside of the fast stream programme.
If departments go ahead with their own schemes, there could be knock-on competition and salary impacts to the external market. A major consideration is whether having to apply for multiple civil service roles will limit graduates’ interest in submitting applications to other organisations.

📈 LATEST FIGURES

Overwhelming public support for apprenticeships in new opinion poll

A new study by YouGov released this week reveals that only 4% of the British population think that university is the best career option for school leavers. Almost half of those surveyed believed that apprenticeships were better at preparing young people for the future.
When asked which route they wanted their children to take, 44% of parents said they would prefer their child did an apprenticeship, over 36% who would rather they choose to study at university.
The differences between graduate and non-graduate respondents was stark, with a 22-percentage point difference in the value of apprenticeships between those that went to university and those who didn’t.
The findings suggest that recruiters hoping to sway parent decision-makers should consider the educational backgrounds of parents when designing their talent attraction strategies for apprentice hiring.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

PwC have reported an almost 30% increase in the number of applications to its entry-level programmes in the UK this year. With an application to hire ratio of 48:1, the figures appear to show that the professional services firm has recruited less than 2% of the candidates who have applied so far in 2022. - eFinancialCareers
The AGCAS Internationalisation Task Group shared the initial findings of their research into post-Brexit recruitment of international students, revealing that recruiters’ limited knowledge of the graduate visa scheme left students feeling that they weren’t wanted by UK employers. - HEPI
In an increasingly competitive graduate talent market in China, several universities have been told by the government to stop cheating on their graduate employment figures after it was discovered that they were withholding degree certificates from graduates until after they had secured jobs - THE

💭 THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Sharon Blyfield: “If you think to yourself about social mobility, how on earth can you expect anyone to live on an apprentice wage? My one ask would be to get rid of that apprentice hourly rate. Morally it doesn’t feel right.” - FE Week

🔥 HOT JOBS

The Digital Business Services team at HSBC are looking for a Head of Emerging Talent to lead a team of 11. Applications close Tuesday - Apply
Lloyds Banking Group are on the hunt for an Early Careers Manager paying up to £64k and they’re flexible on location. Apply before July 5th - Apply
The emerging talent director at the London Stock Exchange Group is hiring for a new graduate and intern recruitment lead based in London - Apply
Teach First have 3 permanent and 1 fixed-term university recruiter positions open in various UK locations paying £31.5k. Closing July 3rd - Apply

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