Our latest edition of the newsletter

1. NEWSLETTER
A good degree is not enough...
March 2012
Graduate Labour Market in
2012
Employability Fair - feedback A good degree is not enough
When you are looking at various graduate trainee schemes, you will think
Careers Workshops that all these employers want is a 2.1. Well, a recent survey on graduate
strengths, conducted by Ernst &Young and the Centre of Applied Positive
NEW – Vacancy portal for our Psychology (CAPP), suggests that students should concentrate on
students building up the key skills which will make them stand out amongst
hundreds of other candidates with the same excellent academic
Graduate schemes – ongoing achievements. This is in line with what our Careers Consultants have
recruitment been advocating – build on your extra-curriculum activities, develop skills
outside the academic programme, volunteer, experience part-time jobs –
from all these you can develop valuable and crucially transferable skills.
The survey questioned over 1, 000 UK graduates and found out the key
skills of Generation Y, who are now applying for graduate jobs. The top
five students’ skills that came out of the survey were: taking pride in work,
Do you want to be an problem solving, being true to themselves, building relationships and
Employable having a sense of humour. The students were weakest in: resilience, time
Gloucestershire Graduate? optimisation, showing courage at overcoming their fears, taking risks, and
To produce the standard of
CV and application form making themselves the centre of attention.
which will get you an interview
with a graduate employer, you The students were quite positive about their chances of securing jobs and
need to think about how your while this is good, one should remain aware of the difficult labour market
extra-curricular activities are and the strong competition.
helping you to develop the
skills which employers value -
and to build up your Following on the survey, Ernst & Young share their top ten tips for
confidence in presenting this students:
information effectively on 1. Take some risks and make mistakes - employers are happy to
paper. The Employable hear about when things go wrong, as long as you have learnt lessons.
Gloucestershire Graduate
Scheme helps you to do just 2. Do something that makes a difference - don't just focus on your
this – so come along to this studies. Employers want to see that you've used your drive and initiative
session on FCH & we'll tell to do more than the average.
you all about this award &
what you need to do next.
Come to our presentation
3. Shout about your part-time jobs - if you work on a checkout you
on 12 March from 12pm – are delivering client service, in a business and working in a team
1.15pm – for more details:
www.bookwhen.com/careers 4. Develop your commercial awareness - if you want to work for a
commercial organisation you need to show you are interested in
business.

2. 5. Study hard - your academic results demonstrate your intelligence,
Graduate work ethic and ability to solve problems.
Labour Market 6. Find out what you are good at - different jobs require different
in 2012 strengths and you will be much more motivated and successful if you are
playing to your strengths.
During the 2010-11
7. Learn to work to deadlines - we don't live in a perfect world and
recruitment season you will have to deal with time, budget and resource constraints
employers reported that effectively.
they received an average of
48 applications per 8. Develop people skills - rarely does anyone work in a silo, you need
graduate vacancy. The to show you can work well with others and deliver results collaboratively.
predictions are that in 2012
9. Be positive - organisations want people who can deal with
the application rate could be
setbacks and overcome challenges.
even higher.
10. Become self-aware - if you know what your strengths and
The biggest increase in weaknesses are, your likes and dislikes, you can grow and develop
applications in 2012 is for effectively.
the consulting sector,
followed by an increase in They survey received a wide coverage in Personnel Today, GradPlus,
applications for jobs in TargetJobs, Prospects, RecruitingBlogs, FreshBusinessThinking
accounting and professional
If you would like to discuss your skills and get advice on how to talk about
services.
them in your applications, get in touch with our team of professional
Careers Consultants now:
Starting graduate salaries in
2012 are expected to
Call 01242 714795
remain at a median of
Chat to us
£29,000. The most Come in to FCH, Clegg Building, next to the Student Helpzone
generous salaries are those
offered from investment
banks (£45,000 average),
law firms (£38,000 average)
and oil & energy companies
(£32,500 average).
Public sector employers
and retailers have the
lowest graduate pay rates
for 2012, with average of
£23,000 and £24,000
respectively.
Source: The Graduate Market in
2012, High Fliers Research

3. Employability Fair
Popular resources Wednesday 22nd February saw the Multi-purpose hall at Park campus
buzzing with activity as it hosted the first cross-campus Employability Fair.
 Destinations® -
contains all the Approximately 400 students turned up to investigate everything from
resources you need to volunteering to graduate recruitment. Representatives from more than
plan your career, 30 local and national organisations, ranging from Active Gloucestershire
including videos, to Q Hotels, were there to talk to students about the opportunities on
interactive tools, offer.
downloads and Comments from the exhibitors included:
answers to frequently
asked careers ‘Very well organised’
questions. ‘Brilliant! We enjoyed meeting your students and staff’
‘Spoke to a number of good quality candidates’
 Useful Downloads ‘Students were very switched on’
– here you can ‘Lots of quality students’.
download our useful While the students said:
guides on job hunting
and applications, ‘Really good as, with the way the market is at the moment it’s
vacancies websites really difficult for people to find jobs after they’ve graduated’
by sector and watch ‘GCHQ looks good – they’ve explained everything I need to do if I
videos want a graduate job ‘
‘Talking to someone already in that field helps you to know what is
expected of you’
 Gradsouthwest –
‘It’s a really good idea – better than trying to find something online’
for the latest jobs and
‘Like every search engine result you could want in one go!’
opportunities, notified
to us.
 Prospects - the Careers Workshops
official graduate
careers website The Job Hunting workshop, run this time at FCH on March 5, proved
packed with popular. Unsurprisingly, level 6 students made up the majority of those
information about attending. However, the workshops are very much open to all levels and a
jobs, sectors, number of level 4 and 5 students also joined us for this opportunity to
postgraduate study learn about the graduate jobs market. The main focus was on identifying
a variety of ways to track down jobs to apply for, using the ‘hidden jobs
and more
market’ as well as the more obvious recruitment websites. Careers fairs,
social media and networking were just a few of the things covered.
Attendees rated the workshop ‘very helpful’, and said it gave ‘really useful
links and advice for obtaining work after graduation’.

4. This was one of the workshops that run in February and in March. Others
covered CVs and interview techniques. For which the attendees say:
£1,000 Shell LiveWIRE
‘I learned a lot of practical things to do (and not do!) at interviews-
Grand Idea Awards
I’ve now got a good understanding of interview procedures, body
Have you started your own
language etc.’
business and been trading for
‘Useful tips and techniques to apply in interviews, including good
less than 12 months? Shell
tips for presenting a portfolio’.
LiveWIRE are giving away 4
awards of £1,000 for your
The Careers team are planning more workshops for April, so if you’d like
bright ideas. The closing date
to attend, keep a look out on the Current Students page, the Career’s
for applications is 31 March
team’s website or the university’s Facebook page for news of the next
and for terms and conditions,
run!
please refer to their website.
Graduate Training Brand New Vacancy Portal
` Schemes – Ongoing University of Gloucestershire Opportunities (UGO)
Recruitment UGO is a new service specifically for
Don’t fret over past graduate
schemes deadlines; there are a University of Gloucestershire students
number of graduate employers and graduates. Opportunities are
with ongoing recruitment in 2012. being added on a daily basis. You will
Some examples: need to use your university login
Abercrombie & Fitch details. We would also recommend
(www.abercrombie.com/a visiting Gradsouthwest and
nf/careers) – looking for Prospects.
talented graduates from
any discipline all year
round
Change Agents –
Early Years Professional Status – The
opportunities in Graduate Entry Pathway (GEP)
environment, greener
living, auditing, The pathway is for candidates already holding a
procurement, behaviour degree awarded by an UK university and who
change; ongoing online
have limited experience of working with children
recruitment at
from birth to five but who are also looking to
www.changeagents.org
pursue a career working in early years. This
.uk
course is run by the University of
Graduate Recruitment
Bureau – opportunities in
Gloucestershire and is rigorous and challenging. Candidates will no bear
various sectors, send your any costs related to the course and will also receive a £3,500 bursary to
CV to info@grb.uk.com or support their travel and training. For more information, please contact
visit their website: Lorna Meredith at lmeredith@glos.ac.uk
www.grb.uk.com