Graduate recruitment is expected to return to pre-credit crunch volumes this year, although median starting salaries will remain unchanged at £29,000 per annum across all sectors.
These are the key findings of a report entitled ‘High Fliers: The Graduate Market in 2012’, which was published by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The study revealed that hiring among the Times Top 100 graduate employers would increase by 6.4% over the year ahead, with recruitment levels rising in 10 out of the 15 industries represented in the listing.
Gaenor Bagley, head of people at PwC, which is the UK’s biggest private sector employer of graduates, said: “The biggest shift over the past few years is that competition for talented students no longer starts in the run up to graduation. Employers start competing for the attention of talented students from their first day on campus, or before they even leave schools and colleges.”
Giving early paid workplace experience to students was key to employers and students alike because it enabled students to assess whether they wanted to pursue a career with a given company first hand and vice versa, she added.
In PwC’s case, the majority of students completed paid internships and moved to a permanent role, which generated a good return on investment and made it “an increasingly attractive option to both parties, Bagley said.
“We think early identification of talent, whether in schools, colleges or on campus will only become more important as the fight for the best jobs becomes more pronounced,” she added.
