Local companies fight recession head-on by employing graduate talent

Despite national news breaking this week about how tough the jobs market is for graduates, a recruitment specialist that is dedicated solely to placing graduates into West Midlands’ businesses is confident our region is bucking the trend.

Following Grad Central’s first anniversary, the company say it has placed over 130 people into graduate level roles in a wide range of businesses across the region in the first six months of 2010.  This is an increase of nearly 10% compared to the last six months of 2009.
 
To compliment this, due to Grad Central’s funding, which means businesses do not have to pay any recruitment fees for their first graduate placement, it has saved West Midlands’ businesses over £750,000 in recruitment costs.
 
Lucy Cheatham, Marketing Director at Grad Central, commented: “The survey published by the Association of Graduate Recruiters this week concentrated mainly on research with large blue chip companies, revealing there is around 70 people applying for every vacancy and the number of available positions predicted to fall by 7%.  However, the make up of businesses in the West Midlands paints a different picture, with the majority of companies being small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs).  Certainly then from our perspective, the businesses we are working with in the West Midlands are bucking this trend and seeing the real value a graduate can bring to a business to help them fight the recession head-on.
 
“There’s no doubt though that the one sticking point for many businesses is a reluctance to pay the high recruitment costs that many agencies charge, which is even more important in such difficult times when every penny counts.  An average graduate salary is around £18k per year, based on an agency charging 17.5%, this would cost a company £3150 in recruitment fees.  With Grad Central, businesses pay no recruitment costs for their first graduate placement.
 
“This means we have collectively saved local companies over £750,000 in recruitment costs to date, with the million pound mark very much in our sights over the next few months as demand for recently qualified and more experienced graduates continues to increase, particularly in the sales, marketing, IT, creative and engineering industries.”
 
These latest figures follow a recent event organised by Grad Central where the company held a special careers open day in Birmingham to place 50 graduates in vacant sales roles in businesses across the region.  Hundreds of graduates turned up to the event, with many having the chance to be interviewed by potential employers on the day.  Grad Central will be holding another open day in August, which it is hoping will be even more successful, details of which will be published on its website nearer the time.
 
Continued Lucy: “Even though the current economic climate is making the jobs market very competitive, it’s certainly not doom and gloom, with a host of opportunities out there for both graduates to take advantage of and for businesses to get the skills they need to help their business grow.
 
“For many businesses, it is difficult to find the time and resources to search for the talent they need.  At Grad Central, not only is our service free of charge for a company’s first placement, but our dedicated consultants work with businesses every step of the way and arrange everything to guide you through the process and ensure it’s as smooth as possible.”