Graduates are still in demand
TEESSIDE firms are still on the look-out for university talent as new research showed job vacancies for students graduating this summer fell by almost a fifth.
Market research firm High Fliers said many employers started scaling back graduate recruitment plans a year ago, and half had downgraded their targets for this year.
A separate study of 1,000 final- year students revealed widespread concern about their career prospects, with just 13% confident they would find a job they wanted.
But business leaders are seeing little evidence of local firms scaling back on graduate skills.
Kiersten Wasson, business manager for the Tees Valley office of NRG - which has three graduates on its graduate programme - said: “It’s not something that I’ve heard being talked about.
“Our graduate programme is aimed at keeping local talent in the area and securing the long-term sustainability of the business.”
She said that although certain sectors in the region - such as engineering - had suffered in the past by letting talented graduates escape through the net, many firms were now realising the value of Teesside’s bright young things.
Darlington-based online search specialist Infoserve - which employs around 140 people at its Lingfield Point offices - said it was not looking to recruit fewer graduates.
The company employs around 140 people at its Lingfield Point offices and between 20 to 25% of its staff are graduates. CEO Steve Barnes said: “There is no graduate recruitment scheme in place as such (but) if the right person is of graduate calibre, then fantastic.”
Amec - the engineering firm with more than 700 staff at Darlington and Wynyard, said it had a ‘strong graduate recruitment programme’ and did not expect to see any slowdown in numbers.
The firm has added 70 to its nuclear services division over the past few months and was ‘seriously looking’ to recruit additional engineers elsewhere.
Chey Garland CBE, chief executive of Garlands Call Centres, said: "The number of graduates we employ in full-time positions has risen steadily over the last few years, as has the number of under-graduates in part-time positions.
"The skills they've brought to the business, especially in technical support, positions, have been invaluable to us. Our recruitment needs change constantly as we take on new projects and new clients and we fully expect to be stepping up our graduate and under-graduate recruitment plans shortly."
