Employers must continue to recruit graduates if they want their business to flourish after the recession, warn various graduate recruitment experts.
Despite the current economic climate causing many organisations to cut costs where possible, they are being advised not to cut their graduate recruitment intake. Graduates can provide immense value to any organisation – they have the transferable skills developed throughout their degree and keenness to learn to make them strong managers of the future.
The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) recently released a briefing paper highlighting the importance of graduate recruitment, and the need for organisations to consider its long term value when considering the possibility of cutting graduate recruitment schemes.
Boston Consultancy Group recently spoke of their concerns about employers cutting back on graduate jobs, stating that those who do will face a “demographic problem” in the long term. Similarly, Sarah Evans, Director of Client Services at Discovery Graduates, said: Companies need to strengthen their businesses now with graduate talent for when we emerge from the recession, so as to avoid a skills shortage then. Graduates need to be encouraged in the work place to question the norm and take risks in order to stimulate business decisions. Now is a great time to benefit from exceptional graduate talent who may be considering other options for employment, in particular engineers who are not being tempted to the financial sectors in the City.