Ticket to ride?
Midlands universities may be producing some of the UK's top graduates, but can regional recruiters retain them? Claire Robson investigates
Higher education institutions in the Midlands produce about 50,000 graduates a year, but with the poorest record of graduate retention in the UK, the region is failing to capitalise on their talent.
With many sectors still struggling to fill the skills gap, tomorrow's business leaders are choosing to embark on their careers elsewhere.
The problem is particularly acute in the East Midlands. "If we're going to meet our economic targets we need to fill another 100,000 graduate level jobs by 2010," says Sally Bassett, the East Midlands Development Agency's (Emda) skills development manager. "But we're losing our graduates to other regions."
Only around 40 per cent of those graduating in the East Midlands stay on to find employment there.
"Often graduates don't believe the right jobs are available here," says Bassett. "Similarly, many small businesses underestimate the impact graduate employees can have on their business.
But if you can bring the two together they soon change their minds."
Emda is doing exactly that. Its Graddtobusiness scheme helps graduates find short-term placements with regional businesses. For recruiters, such placements provide a low-cost taster for what graduates might have to offer, while allowing the graduate a chance to test drive the job without committing to a full-time position.
For those seeking permanent employment, the HotProspects programme helps fill regional vacancies with high- calibre graduates. Launched In June 2006, the recruitment service mainly targets smaller employers who may never have had a graduate on their payroll. They register their vacancy on the website and pay a flat fee of £31,000 if the HotProspects can match them up with a suitable candidate.
HotProspects' Elizabeth Wilson says: "So far we've filled 124 vacancies and aim to get that figure up to 300 by the end of March 2007. We've had 310 businesses and 1,646 graduates register with us and are currently advertising 193 live vacancies."
Businesses can also sign up for added services. They include managing the entire recruitment process from job descriptions to contracts, sourcing graduates for specialist roles and help in retaining graduates by providing a comprehensive induction and career progression programme.
A similar scheme could soon be launched in the West Midlands.
Recent research by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) has found that only around 20 per cent of those employed in the private sector have graduate level skills.
"It's a hard nut to crack," says AWM's director for skills, Pat Jackson.
"We require a higher level of skills to improve business performance and need to fill another 3,000 or 4,000 graduate level positions a year to meet our economic targets. We are trying to understand the underlying issues and learn from what's been achieved in the East Midlands."
Jackson is hoping to build on the work already carried out by the region's higher education institutions.
Their careers services work together to deliver Graduate Advantage. Aimed at developing links between academic institutions and local employers, it provides a free online graduate vacancy service as well as subsidised student placement and training programmes.
The service recently teamed up with professional network and lobbying group Birmingham Forward to launch the Graduate Apprentice programme. Following a similar format to The Apprentice television series, students compete for a 12-month placement with three separate regional employers.
"We had more than 100 applicants for the 2006 programme and want to expand it in 2007," says Richard Brennan, chief executive of Birmingham Forward. "It proves that Birmingham's financial and professional services sector is taking the lead in showing graduates just what it has to offer."
It has little choice. The sector is projected to grow by 20,000 jobs over the next decade, but employers are struggling to stem the brain drain to London.
Birmingham Forward is taking its graduate fair on tour throughout the region's campuses to try and drum up new recruits, incorporating seminars, business simulation and sessions with potential employers.
"Our members are telling us they need to seek out graduates at a much earlier stage than before," says Brennan, "to sell the benefits of working in the Midlands."
Big four accountancy firm Ernst & Young enrols around 1,000 graduates a year onto its training programme, including around 40 destined for its Midlands offices.
Ernst & Young's campus teams work all year round to raise the firm's profile with local student populations. Made up of up to 20 employees, the teams are active in Nottingham, Loughborough, Birmingham, Aston and Warwick universities sponsoring events, publications and sports teams.
"It's a competitive market," says head of HR for audit and insurance, Jim Fennell. "All the major firms are chasing the same talent and many graduates are still drawn to London.
But we're building long-term relationships with the regional universities and in 2006 all 15 new recruits into the Nottingham office came out of Nottingham University."
And Eleana Portis, graduate recruitment manager for rival advisory firm Deloitte, says: "We are having to make a concerted effort to persuade graduates they can enjoy the same training and career opportunities in the regions as they can in London.
"The best way of doing that is having a presence on campus and engaging with students on a one-to-one basis. We sometimes bring them in to our Birmingham office, where they're given a talk and tour by one of the partners. It helps dispel myths about what the city has to offer."
For smaller businesses who want to attract talented graduates, but lack the resources of an international accountancy firm, there is still plenty to choose from.
"Not all get onto a graduate programme," says Philip Delaloye, West Midlands regional chairman of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation. "Those who are left over often end up stacking shelves and tend to be overlooked.
"When an employer looks at their CV and sees they have no relevant experience they immediately think that if they were any good they would have already got a job. That's clearly not the case. They just need to be given an opportunity to prove themselves.
"Recruiters need to keep an open mind and understand it's not so much about what someone has done in the past, but what they might achieve in the future. They bring to the business a new way of thinking, a more analytical approach to problems and commitment to developing a long-term career," he says.
And once they're through the door the real work begins. "Salaries are important but what graduates really want are good career prospects," says Fennell. "The challenge is to provide them with all the opportunities, training and development they need so they won't just use you as a stepping stone and start to look elsewhere."
