As the economic gloom continues unabated in the newspapers, a whole generation of college leavers are preparing to look for work. Is the market really that tough and are opportunities scarce, or is it business as usual for Graduates?
One web-based survey concluded that the problems inflicting the financial industry are leading university leavers to consider alternative, less glamorous but more secure careers. This situation spells good news for those unsung sectors of the economy and also for graduates themselves as there is strong evidence to show that areas such as IT, Civil Engineering and the Public Sector are not cutting back in graduate recruitment.
The health service offers plenty of opportunities that many graduates may never think of simply because they haven't studied for a medical degree. Alan Simmons, an NHS careers consultant in Bristol, said students were often unaware of careers within the health service saying: "One of the myths about working in the NHS is that it's all doctors and nurses, but they make up less than 40% of the work-force."*
Within the 440 organisations that make up the NHS, there are 71,000 people employed in hotel services, property and estate work, 25,000 in health informatics and 68,000 scientists.
Opportunities are also set to explode right across UK infrastructure. Over the next five years, it is predicted to need about 90,000 new recruits to work on key infrastructure projects such as the 2012 Olympics, the Thames Gateway regeneration, the continuing expansion and renewal of the NHS and numerous private sector developments. And at least a third of these vacancies are expected to be for graduates.
Elspeth Farrar, communications director for the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services agrees that finalists and recent graduates shouldn't be influenced by talk of financial uncertainty and compulsory redundancies. "Many companies are maintaing their (graduate) recruitment levels. I think they have had their fingers burned with past recessions where they've backed out sharply from the graduate recruitment market and then, as things began to pick up, they suddenly found they had a big skills gap."†
The key to success for college leavers is to look around but also not to set unrealistic salary expectations. On average, students misjudge their starting salaries by more than £2,000, according to the research led by John Jerrim, a PhD student at Southampton University's department of social statistics. The survey of more than 3,000 students across 70 universities found that the average student overestimated his or her first annual wage by 12 per cent.**
The economic situation may be tough but the opportunities are clearly there for forward thinking graduates.
* Source: The Guardian – Money, 17/05/08
† Source: The Sunday Times – Life & Style, 17th May 2008
** Source: The Times – Education, 21/07/08
