The Graduate Market in 2015 Stephen Isherwood AGR, Chief Executive Dr Bob Gilworth Co-Director of The Careers Group, University of London & AGCAS Director of Research

Stressed?

What our data tells us?  Graduate vacancies up 11.9%  1,422 graduate vacancies unfilled last year  Employers spending c£2,000 per hire on marketing  14% of graduates reject their offers  Applications still running at over 70 per vacancy

Graduate vacancy changes

Top five high growth sectors  IT/Telecoms 27%  Public 23%  Construction22%  Engineering/Industry16%  Investment Banking12% Nine sectors show a rise, three a decrease

Applications per vacancy

Unfilled vacancies by sector Base = 8,100

Turn-down rates

Proportion of previous hires

Marketing spend per vacancy by sector in 2013 and 2014

University relationships for marketing in 2014, by size of intake

Competition returns Base population 735,000 Base GDP £1,541,000m Source: Office for National Statistics

13 A consistent story AGCAS surveyed all Heads of Careers Services in December Outcomes in relation to general market improvement were consistent with the AGR survey. Some employers short of graduates, some graduates short of jobs. A compelling shared agenda.

14 A sense of direction Spray and pray v fewer but better Career motivation as a deal breaker Any discipline market-could do almost anything. “Doing employability stuff” v. doing stuff with some clarity of purpose. Plenty of previous exposure to “skills” very little to career choice/guidance. Proper careers guidance is relatively expensive-its absence is a false economy.

15 What do we need? More and better data on employability-we have plenty on employment. Better understanding of students while they are students. This is a growing trend in Universities, an AGCAS research priority and probably a shared research agenda with AGR. Segmentation, targeting resources. Broader adaptation of application gateway approaches in careers services (may be more than you think now). Exploratory as well as confirmatory work experience.

Any Questions?

Thank you