Please early careers manager, can I have some more grads? 🤲

Jul 8, 2022

Don’t worry, you’re not alone! New data confirms that we’re all facing the same challenge: how to hire even more grads despite an ever-competitive market.

⬆️ TOP UPDATE

Almost half of employers planning to increase their grad intakes next year

At the ISE Student Recruitment Conference in Brighton, early careers platform Handshake gave attendees a sneak peek at their latest research into the academic year ahead for graduate recruitment teams. The headline finding is that a significant number (47%) of their employers are planning to increase their early talent hiring.
The research also shows that Covid is still top of mind for early careers managers, with 59% saying that young people have less work experience as a result, and 68% saying that the Covid skills gap is disproportionately affecting candidates from less advantaged backgrounds.
Speaking to People Management magazine, spokespeople from Business in the Community and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation both stressed that graduate recruitment teams need to ensure that they continue to provide equitable access to opportunities whilst managing increasing hiring demands.
What it means for you: With almost all employers surveyed saying that D&I is their top priority in 2022/23, demand for diverse talent will likely be fiercer than ever. What steps are you taking to meet your diversity targets and how will you remain competitive this year?

🎒 NEW SCHEME

Meet the UK’s first ‘flexi-job’ apprentices in the media sector

Ten apprentices have been selected to trial the government’s new ‘flexi-job apprenticeships’, with the first programme in the media sector being hosted by the BBC in Birmingham and across the West Midlands.
Flexi-job apprenticeships are a new kind of apprenticeship where one employer (in this case, the BBC) acts as the ‘apprenticeship agency’ and the apprentice works for a number of organisations during their programme (in this case, various broadcast and production companies). It is intended to boost apprenticeships in sectors where most staff are freelancers or agency workers, such as in the media and construction industries.
BBC Head of Early Careers, Sarah Moors, is keen to grow their apprenticeship agency, called the ‘BBC Apprentice Hub’, with the aim of placing 50 apprentices into roles with their creative partner employers by the end of the year.
One of the first apprentices, 24-year-old Chantelle, is grateful for the opportunity to break into the sector, saying: “I’ll be working on the Great British Menu for the first six months … I’m looking forward to learning about videography and sound design, and discovering what it’s like to put a set together.”
What it means for you: If you work in an industry where short-term contracts are the norm, have a read of the Department for Education’s first industry guide on how the new scheme works. More guides for other sectors are set to follow but this gives a great overview of the core components that are applicable across industries.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

With so many new hires now joining the post-pandemic workforce from their bedrooms, some firms are using VR to welcome their hires to the workplace. Take a look at how Accenture are rolling out virtual onboarding to their new joiners. - Silicon Republic
‘What’s the work-life balance like?’, said every candidate ever. But do early career hires have to earn the right to a work-life balance? And, in the new hybrid working world, what does the phrase even mean anymore? - BBC Worklife
Worried about overselling your grad scheme to candidates? Rest your fears by having a read of this fascinating story in the FT on how a Chinese government-backed hacking group lured recent graduates into a dubious grad scheme to spy on the West. - Financial Times

💭 THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

“Bonkers.” - Julian Smith MP, on the civil service fast stream freeze - Twitter

🔥 HOT JOBS

Insurance firm Chubb are recruiting for a European early careers lead to manage their programmes across the EMEA region - Apply
Don’t miss: The brilliant Anastasia Womack (worth a follow on LinkedIn!) is hiring an early talent experience manager for her team at Capgemini - Apply
The British Library are making a junior early careers manager hire in either London (£39k) or Yorkshire (£35k), applications close 17 July - Apply
Citi are hiring for a senior early careers recruiter to look after their EMEA analyst and internship programmes for the investment bank - Apply

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