AGR Manifesto

In the run up to the announcement of the UK general election date (May 6th 2010), one organisation was already campaigning with a unique manifesto that all Parties are encouraged to embrace. The UK’s Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) chose this moment to publish a ‘Manifesto for Graduate Recruitment’ to ensure that the views of UK graduate employers are heard by the next Government.

Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the AGR writes, that “there has never been a greater need or a better time for government, employers and universities to begin an honest and open dialogue about the future of higher education and graduate employment”.

A French Revolution

A sophisticated combination of internship programmes and a supportive alumni network mean that graduates from French ‘Grande Ecoles’ have traditionally stepped straight into good jobs with prestigious companies, while French university graduates struggle to demonstrate their worth in the labour market. This is changing as a range of government and private initiatives aim to improve the links between employers and universities. Phenix and Elsa are two programmes which, having proved success on a small scale, are looking for ways to grow. Watch this space.

Vive la Difference

As is often the case, things are different in the UK where big employers have traditionally taken responsibility for graduate development by providing their new recruits with tailored in-house training before the ‘real’ job starts. This is also changing as in these difficult economic times, employers question the value of expensive training schemes while universities are developing their own tailored programmes. At the recent AGR conference on Graduate Development, Paul Blackmore from Lancaster University presented a workshop on this theme with ‘The Lancaster Award’ run by Lancaster’s CEEC as background, while the University of Birmingham’s Personal Skills Award (PSA) won the award for Graduate Development Preparation in Higher Education at AGR’s first ever Graduate Development Award Ceremony, which followed the conference.