Adzuna and Milkround’s Graduate of the Year Competition 2013

Graduates! It’s back! And this time it is bigger and better than ever before. Adzuna has teamed up with top graduate website Milkround to bring you “Graduate of the Year 2013.” Together we are offering you the chance to win a JOB, some CASH and a foot in the door.

The rest is up to you!

1.                An internship with a top UK company (including eBay, L’Oreal, Sony & Google)

2.                A cash prize of £1000

3.                A CV clinic with a top UK entrepreneur

4.                The Illustrious Crown of “Graduate of the Year”

 

The UK employment market is tougher than ever, especially for graduates fresh and eager from university. Competition for graduate positions continues to rise in the UK with over 50 applicants for every available graduate job. Unemployment among 18-25 year olds is the highest it’s been for decades and graduates are finding it tougher than ever to land an entry level position. But there are glimmers of hope in the market, with top employment companies Milkround and Adzuna teaming up to launch a nationwide campaign to find Britain’s “Graduate of the Year 2013”.
If you are a recent or soon-to-be graduate from a recognised UK university then we want to hear from you. We are looking for the brightest, sparkiest, gutsiest individual around.  Whether you excel in arts, music, sports, academia, languages or are an outstanding student union member, leader, or social contributor, we want to hear about you and why you deserve to win.
To enter go to Graduate of the Year 2013 and tell us briefly why you think you are worthy of this magnificent prize.  Deadline is 1st July 2013 and the overall winner will be announced at the Award Ceremony on the 1st August 2013.

Don’t believe us, check out the success of last year’s winner Leo Anthias. Following his internship at Passion Capital, Leo has since gone on to found his own company, Verse (making PowerPoint collaboration painless).

Remember not everyone can be a winner but that doesn’t mean you can’t land your dream job too.  Check out our blog for great interview tips, stellar advice for graduates, thousands of graduate jobs, internships and more vacancies than you can shake a stick at.

Join the chat on twitter: #graduateoftheyear

Want a Summer Job? Then start thinking about it now....

As well as being downright good fun, a summer job is a good way of putting some extra cash in your piggy bank as well as providing some useful experience for later job applications.

Do It Now!

Winter, with its floods and gails plus ice and snow probably still to come, may not feel like the right time to start thinking about it.  But as soon as the beach ads start to appear, it's a sign that the holiday job market is about to take off.  Many companies and websites will be advertising summer vacancies with deadlines from February onwards so it is not too soon to start working out what sort of things might interest you.

And if you're thinking of seeking foreign climes, the formalities of passport, visa applications and innoculations all take time, so it really is case of the earlier the better for getting the bureaucracy out of the way.  Don't wait until passport offices and consulates are knee-deep in applications and all the flights are booked up.

Some Points To Think About...

Picking a summer job is a bit like a career decision in miniature, so it is worth thinking what you hope to gain from it apart from a suntan - as well as the fun and cash element.

Without sounding too boring, it's a great opportunity to find out more about what you like and dislike in a workplace and to enhance those vital CV skills.  Just getting there will need some organisation and communication skills.  If you're looking to enhance your customer service experience, there are loads of opportunities to do this.

You may be looking to enhance a particular area of your skills e.g. by coaching sport or working with disadvantaged people with future applications in mind.  And if you are set on a graduate traineeship in areas like law or business, a summer internship may be what you need - even if you end up seeing more of the water cooler than the swimming pool.

What's Available?

An incredible amount... but if we do try and generalise, some of the obvious niches for summer and holiday jobs both home and abroad are:

• Hotel, catering and bar work
• Shop jobs
• Temporary office jobs
• Holiday reps, tour guides
• Summer camps, playschemes and adventure schemes
• Teaching English as a Foreign Language (especially in China and other Asian counrties)
• Working in farms and gardens e.g. fruit picking and harvesting
• Festivals, events and exhibitions

One slight 'buyer beware' message is however to watch out for providers who charge money for a foreign job or working holiday experience. A small amount to cover expenses may be reasonable enough but you should not need to spend £2000 for the privelege unless you are looking for something very exotic.  On the whole, you should be able to find paid opportunities if you stick with it.

Finding Out More

Many summer jobs are advertised on the University of Cumbria Jobshop and you can also follow up useful links we have gathered at http://delicious.com/skillzone/summer  or, if heading abroad is your plan http://delicious.com/skillzone/abroad

There is also a good number of books to help you research your ideal summer job and you should be able to find a selection of them in University or public libraries.

How We Can Help New Students

Following last week's Freshers' Fayre, it seems like a good time to highlight some of the things we can provide for students joining the University of Cumbria for the first time.

It would probably fair to say that most students are not likely to be making major career decisions in the first week of term.  Apart from having fun, any serious thoughts they have are likely to be on the lines of:-

• How will I manage for money?
• Can I cope with the course?
• Will I make friends?
• Will I be homesick?

Most students will be on the look out for a part-time job to ease money problems and you can find some useful guides on how to find casual jobs in Carlisle, Lancaster and elsewhere by following the links from our jobs and vacancies page on the University website.

Many part-time applications will be by CV, and you can find some more help with compiling a CV via the Get a Job section of the Jobs&Careers tab on Blackboard (best viewed in Internet Explorer).  You can also ask us to check your CV by requesting an appointment through LiSS staff or via email 

We wish all new students a happy and successful time with us but if you decide you may have made the wrong choice of course, we can help you look at what the alternatives might be.

For more information about us see www.cumbria.ac.uk/careers

Swings and Roundabouts of Graduate Labour Market

The latest AGCAS* Survey of University Careers Services shows that the overall number of graduate vacancies is holding up well in spite of continuing economic difficulties.

Careers Services reported continuing shortages of well-qualified candidates for IT and engineering positions  and the last quarter showed a noticeable increase in the number of advertising, marketing, sales and purchasing vacancies. Services also mentioned an increase in opportunities for hospitality, retail, leisure and sports managers, graphic designers and many roles in small businesses where flexibility and multiple skills are needed.

Although the continuing decline in public sector vacancies is affecting areas like podiatry, dietetics, education, social work and youth work, and the number of legal traineeships is down, increased activity in other areas has compensated for these losses nationally.

Comment: The University of Cumbria is however heavily dependent on local public sector vacancies for many of its graduates and restricted opportunities in education and social work mean that applicants will often need to widen their initial career aspirations and geographical target area to compete successfully. On the positive side, increased graduate recruitment activity by small businesses can only be good news in a region that has so few large employers.

*Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services

Applying for Pools etc?

Here's a useful reference I just tweeted @uoccareers:

Your First Teaching Post - info from NUT including application procedures in English and Welsh LAs: http://ow.ly/8QPIR teaching vacancies.

The document, actually titled "First Post" also includes a lot of other highly useful information for applicants for NQT posts.

It's Not All Doom and Gloom...

Further to the earlier post "What Do Graduates Do?", the AGCAS Quarterly Survey of Vacancies and Employer Activity suggests a positive trend during the summer of 2011.

Vacancies in IT, retail, marketing, advertising and PR all rose during that period, while the survey also reported increased vacancies from smaller companies, some of whom may have been recruiting graduates for the first time.

At the other end of the scale larger companies, who might have ceased recruitment altogether in earlier recessions, have continued taking on graduates - perhaps to avoid future shortages - although many have reduced numbers and are making more use of internships and temporary posts.

AGCAS reports that the overall picture is mixed as there are still plenty of graduates from previous years competing for posts, but there are some clear signs for optimism.

This will be the last post this year, so here's to wish all reading this a Merry Christmas and an Employable New Year!

Getting Teaching Jobs in London

As ever Primary teaching jobs are in short supply in the North of England, so I have been asking an old school friend who teaches in South London a few questions about the job market for Teachers in the London area.

It went something like this:

Q: Which are the authorities that are most likely to have vacancies? The ones we are aware of are Newham, Tower Hamlets, Barking and Dagenham, Waltham Forest, Lewisham, and Luton.

A: The ones you suggest are still the best bet as they are tough areas not as able to attract teaching applications as some others. You could add Greenwich to the list. They they tend to put their hands up for every initiative going which means lots of extra work - that's why they have so many vacancies.

Q: What's the situation like generally?

A: Jobs seem to be drying up at the moment. One problem is that a lot of overseas teachers were brought over when vacancies were hard to fill and now that the job market has changed people are tending to stay put.

Teacher recruitment agencies are another way forward. Some NQTs are taking Teaching or LS Assistant posts in order to get a toe in the doorway and the agencies also cover these. However, as you know, living cost are very high in London.

Q: Don't you have things like the key worker scheme to help with accommodation costs?

A: There are key worker schemes but I don't know how long you have to be employed to get a place. One chap in my school got a council flat in a decent block but he was working for the school for at least a year before he moved in. I know he was offered a couple of pretty ghastly places first of all but he made a fuss until he got what he wanted.

Q: Which agencies are worth trying?

A: My school mainly uses Protocol and Select.

Have you any insights on getting jobs in London you'd like to pass on? Why not add a comment below?

Eteach Introduces New Talent Pool Facility

Teacher Recruitment Agency Eteach have launched a new facility that enables jobseekers to register online and create an instant online CV with the schools of their choice at any location around the UK and Northern Ireland.

The claim from Eteach is that the facility will give them a better chance of getting a job because scholls will look at the talent pool CV’s will be looked at first.

Unfortunately, coverage of Cumbria schools is currently non-existent and only a few schools in Lancashire have registered. However this is an interesting initiative and will certainly be very useful to students and Newly Qualified Teachers applying to areas where Eteach have a stronger presence.

NHS Vacancies falling - except midwives

"Long-term vacancy rates have fallen slightly for most major NHS staff groups in England except for midwives and GPs, survey findings from The NHS Information Centre revealed last week."

One NHS commentator pointed out that unfilled midwifery vacancies could be a cause of concern in the light of a sharp increase in the birth rate and that the Government could be facing a shortage of 3,000 midwives*

Meanwhile, a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS) has been agreed to help NHS employers meet current challenges (i.e. shed staff?)

* Note: little sign of this happening in Lancashire and Cumbria however - CT

Source: Health Workforce Bulletin