Forthcoming Shortage of Primary Teachers?

Student Teachers at University of Cumbria

Last Friday's 'Independent' reported research by Pearson Education which indicated that, while applications for primary teacher training places have dropped by 17%, primary school and nursery roles are set to rise by 8% over the next three years, leading to speculation of future shortages of qualified teachers.

Researchers also found that 55% of Primary Headteachers reported a decline in staff morale and had found it more difficult to recruit teachers than last year. Suggestions of a recruitment crisis have however been stringently denied by the Department of Education.

Comment: Some of our recent Primary graduates may be surprised to learn that it is becoming easier to find teaching jobs.  Any easing of the currently highly competitive recruitment situation at Primary level will of course be good news - but one wonders whether any benefits will be equally spread across the country.  What happens in Stratford may not come about so readily in Cumbria.

Which Company Is The Biggest Recruiter of Graduates?

According to work done by The Complete University Guide based on the national graduate destination survey, the answer is a little surprising.

You might not have guessed that the biggest recruiter of 2011 graduates was Boots Pharmaceuticals of Nottingham who took on 520 across their various divisions. In second place was the NHS Graduate Management Scheme, accounting for just under 500 graduates.

Seven of the other top ten places were occupied by banking and financial concerns.  The exception was Tesco who came in sixth as the largest UK retail employer.

Incidentally, a recent survey of 2,000 employers by REED suggested that many did not feel that the 2.1 degree stipulation enforced by many top firms was a good criterion for successful recruitment.  96% said that they would prefer applicants who had the right skills and mindset than those with a 2.1.

Careers Advisers have often felt that the rigid insistence on an Upper Second by many companies was an artificial barrier that meant companies were indirectly favouring applicants from more privileged backgrounds. But whether many companies will abandon the 2.1 requirement in favour of more objective criteria in the foreseeable future remains to be seen.

Wetherspoons Careers Recruitment Day - Carlisle

Hot Press news is that Pub Chain J. D. Wetherspoon are holding a Careers Recruitment Day at Lloyds No 1 Bar Carlisle on Wednesday 29th February between 10.00 am and 4. 00 pm.

A poster on the bar in Lloyds invites applicants for posts as bar and kitchen staff as well as Trainee Managers.  Simply turn up on the day or apply via the Wetherspoon Jobs website if you can't make it.

It's not clear from the site if, as with their various festivals, other branches of 'Spoons are running a similar event on the same date.

Do Employment Agencies Use Shady Practices?

A recent encounter with a disgruntled job seeker (who understandably wishes to remain anonymous) has drawn attention to a number of websites that suggest that some employment agencies are prone to using some rather iffy practices. The key accusations levelled are: mentioning spurious vacancies, knocking down clients' salary expectations in order to increase profits and elliciting unnecessary information from clients to promote the agency's own interests.

A quick google leads to web pages such as http://www.contractoruk.com/agencies/recruitment_agency_tricks.html http://www.it-training-advice.com/it-recruitment-agency-tricks.html or http://www.employmentking.co.uk/job-information/recruitment-agencies-a-bit-trickly/ which tell of similar tricks, and a few more besides.

But is it all true? Are some agencies simply disreputable 'bad apples' that let the responsible ones down, or are all agencies prone to using certain 'tricks of the trade'?

A look at the above websites will at least give you a good idea of things to watch out for when dealing with agencies. But how does this all tally with your own experience of employment agencies?

Comments welcome...

News from the Financial Services Sector

A recent meeting of Carers Advisers with members of the Association of Graduate Recruiters turned up some interesting facts about attitudes of employers in the Financial Services Sector:

-Some employers have started recruitment schemes for school leavers, sometimes including degree sponsorships

-Accountancy firms are often not keen to recruit applicants who are already part-qualified and the same attitude applies generally to applicants with postgraduate qualifications

-Several employers report that graduate recruits from 'non relevant' degrees perform just as well as those who have studied relevant degrees

-Barclays Corporate are no longer using UCAS points as a selection tool

-All firms are predicting increased recruitment of graduate trainees, and for 12 month and summer internships over the next two years

-The quality of applications is rising but key student failings are the inability to explain their motivation to work for a particular company or to provide evidence of competencies

Comment: Some clear evidence here that job opportunities in the finance area are on the move. However, standards for many companies will remain demanding and good preparation is the secret of success.

Retail Recruitment Sector Overview

We hold a copy of a recent summary of recruitment requirements and deadline dates for dome of the main graduate employers in the retail sector.

Some of the employers covered are Vodafone, HSBC, the Co-op, Marks and Spencer, Asda and Tesco.

If you would like an electronic copy, please send a request to careers@cumbria.ac.uk

Positive Outlook for the IT Industry

Research by Sector Skills Council e-skills shows employment in the IT industry is set to grow at five times the national average over the next ten years.

Their "Technology Insights 2011" suggests opportunities will increase at 2.19% per annum, with over half a million new IT & Telecoms professionals needed over the next five years.

Further details suggest that the age profile of the industry is now rising, with only 19% of professionals aged under 30 and 17% are over 50. The gender profile however remains a big issue as only 18% are women.

For more details see http://www.e-skills.com/technologyinsights2011

Graduate Recruitment Trends

Some good news from a recent survey:

- The UK¹s leading employers are expecting to increase their graduate recruitment by 9.4% in 2011 and three-fifths of employers expect to recruit more graduates in 2011 whilst a quarter plan to maintain their intake at 2010 levels.

- The leading accountancy & professional services firms are intending to hire almost 10% more graduates than in 2010, an increase of more than 350 trainees year-on-year. There will also be substantial increases to the graduate intake at the City¹s top investment banks (up 12.2% compared to 2010) and the high street banks (up 24.8%).

- The largest recruiters of graduates in 2011 will be PricewaterhouseCoopers (1,200 vacancies), Deloitte (1,000 vacancies), KPMG (900 vacancies), the Teach First scheme (780 vacancies) and Ernst & Young (740 vacancies).

- A quarter of top graduate programmes will pay new recruits a starting salary of more than £30,000 when they begin work and seven organisations are offering at least £40,000 to this year¹s graduates. Public sector employers (average of £22,200), retailers (average of £24,000) and engineering & industrial companies (average of £24,500) have the lowest graduate pay rates for 2011.

- Three-fifths of employers are providing industrial placements for undergraduates (typically for 6-12 months) or vacation work lasting more than three weeks. However, nearly two-thirds of recruiters caution that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisation's graduate programmes.

Source: Highflyers

Time to Apply Yourself?

New Year is a signal to forthcoming graduates to start applying for vacancies as deadline dates are notified with increasing regularity.

University of Cumbria students and graduates and others looking for work in the area can register to search for vacancies and prospective employers across the North West at www.prospects.ac.uk/pnet/cumbria In spite of the doom and gloom on the vacancy front, the site regularly features over 100 jobs from employers recruiting in the North West. IT vacancies are particularly frequent with common vacancies for Trainee Recruitment Consultants (how many people think of this as a career?), Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, and Trainee Sales Managers as well as more niche opportunities in marketing, the creative sector, sports coaching and subject tuition.

We also have a large number of business placement opportunities for students and graduates at www.cumbria.ac.uk/grab At the moment there are surprisingly few applicants for these opportunities, which pay at least £6.00 per hour, often with expenses. Currently, almost all placements involve marketing in some form but this can vary from week to week.