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Following on from our article last week about the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) report suggesting an improvement in the graduate job market, PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) has said that the pressure is now on graduate employers to ‘seal the deal as early as possible.’
The AGR survey indicated that there could be an increase of around 9 per cent in the number of graduate job vacancies this year when compared to 2010.
The view of PwC on the survey is particularly important as the financial and professional service giant has a strong claim to be the biggest provider of graduate jobs in the private sector. Towards the end of last year, PwC announced they would have 1,200 graduate positions available for the current year. In addition, they also began recruiting for 400 internships and offered further places to 70 college leavers.
The head of student recruitment at PwC, Richard Irwin, placed an emphasis on the employer’s role in the graduate job recruitment market, saying that they cannot expect to find graduates with the skills their company is looking for unless they get actively involved in the process.
“It's a bigger and brighter market for students in some respects, and the fight for the top talent is back on,” said Irwin. “Strong students still have lots of options available to them and employers would be naive to think they don't still need to compete for those with outstanding employability skills and potential,” he added.
Mr Irwin did, however, stress that students still faced stiff contest despite the brighter news from the AGR: “With students facing more competition, they are having to be more savvy about their job prospects early on. Applications for internships and placements are in much higher volumes and our open evenings have seen increased attendance.”
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