2013 v. 2014 Grads. Carl Gilleard OBE Makes His Predictions.

First out of the blocks are High Fliers with 'The Graduate Market in 2014' closely followed by the AGR members' survey; the latter report, incidentally, will be released on 27January. It will be a big surprise if the AGR findings do not follow in the footsteps of the High Fliers report which predicts a growth rate of 8.7% in entry level vacancies for graduates in 2014 - the biggest rise for four years among the 'top 100 employers'. High Fliers report that 11 out of 13 industrial groupings are expecting to have more vacancies this year suggesting that growth is pretty much across the board. Interestingly the largest single intake will be undertaken by Teach First. High Fliers also predict that a remarkable 37% of this year's vacancies will be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisation.

What conclusions can we draw from these headlines?

While job growth is obviously welcome, we should not get too carried away. The market will continue to be tough for graduates seeking to get a toe-hold on the career ladder, especially for those who have not managed to secure an internship or work placement while studying. Competition for places on graduate programmes will be intense and most recruiters will still find it challenging to identify the best fit candidates from the high numbers of job applications. The exception will be in the area of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) where recruiters have been struggling to fill vacancies in recent years. More vacancies can only place a further strain on the demand for suitably qualified candidates. A challenging recruitment season awaits both job and candidate seekers. At GRB we are gearing up to help both groups. The language and tone of the media coverage on survey findings always seem to focus on new graduates ignoring the many thousands of graduates from previous years who are actively looking for entry level graduate jobs. I'm not sure why this is but employers who solely focus on Class of 2014 will miss out on some very good candidates who, having graduated last year or earlier still, can offer additional work experience, maturity and career focus not always found in finalists. It is not a case of choosing one group or the other to target but not excluding one group at the expense of the other.
Carl Gilleard OBE (Carl Gilleard has 25 year's experience of working in graduate recruitment. Until August of last year he was chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters and was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours announced at the turn of the year for services to higher education and graduate employability. He is now a non-executive director of GRB.)

Are you a 2013 graduate chasing jobs? How are you getting ahead of the school of 2014?