Graduate Schemes

An Introduction To Graduate Schemes

The following Graduate Schemes are open for applications. Most schemes will last between 6 to 24 months and are located throughout the UK.

What are Graduate Schemes?

Generally, offered by larger, ‘household name’ organisations. This is because they have the resource budgets required to run sometimes up to 2 year development programmes, which entail advertising plans, psychometric tests, assessment centre time and training programmes. The purpose of a scheme is to recruit graduates fresh out of University and offer them the training, mentoring, experience and skills to successfully continue their career within that organisation. This benefits the company as they can ensure that the employee is trained and taught the relevant skills to become an effective, long-term, contributing member of their workforce. It benefits graduates for a whole range of reasons! Most notably; it is usually a job at a prestigious organisation, graduates are provided with both formal and on-the-job training in the skills required to succeed in that particular industry, as well as a more responsible position available if everything goes to plan! We surveyed over 400 students and graduates seeking their opinions about large organisations and the schemes they run compared to working for a small company. 73% of graduates seem to prefer the idea of joining a formal graduate scheme. 64% believed that their career prospects were better with a large company and a massive 86% thought larger companies were more prestigious to work for. These statistics outline how popular larger organisations are with graduate jobseekers…

The Benefits

• Many will give you the opportunity to work hands on across different functional areas of the business. This is great for developing your skills and giving you early exposure in different industry areas, which makes it easier to decide what areas you might like to specialise in. For example, there may be a graduate scheme within a Finance & Banking company, however within this scheme you will spend time working in both corporate and commercial banking, HR, Marketing, Retail and even areas like Research & Technology. Working within all the different areas of the company will provide you with a wealth of experience and make you into a rounded finance professional.
• Depending on the industry, some formal schemes include sponsorship for studying professional qualifications like ACCA, CIMA and CIM.
• Starting salaries tend to be higher with companies that offer a traditional scheme and sometimes include sign-on bonuses and benefits such as healthcare, pension, share options, gym membership, discounts on products, life assurance and interest free loans.
• There tends to be a more structured hierarchy, which some people feel more comfortable with during their career. They like to understand their structured career path and the position they hold within it. It is also made clear to them, what needs to be done in order to progress to the next level.
• Additionally, some people simply like being part of a large global organisation with all the potential travel and relocation opportunities that brings.

Why do companies hire graduates?

There are a variety of reasons why organisations prefer to hire graduates as opposed to candidates with extensive working experience. These are the key factors;

• Blank Canvas - graduates can be taught and shaped in to the organisations culture. They are un-touched and un-influenced by any other business ethos.
• Investment in the future - training a graduate within the company is essentially an investment into the future of the business, as these graduates will become potential managers, senior members or CEO's!
• Cost Effective - graduates have lower starting salaries than those with years of working experience.
• Creativity - Due to their lack of business experience graduates can often put fresh eyes on to old problems and inject original ideas in to an organisation and the way it works.

What sort of organisations run them?

Generally speaking, it is large organisations (those with more than 500 employees). The number of vacancies available can vary between 1 and over 900 per annum in some cases, but the competition for these roles is always high. This is due to the fact that recognisable brands tend to attract more applications, regardless of the role and benefits. For example in 2010 Vodafone received more than 3,000 applications for 50 places on its graduate scheme, that works out at 60 applications for each vacancy.

When does recruiting begin?

Many of the largest and most popular schemes are open for applications from September through to December to begin employment in the following autumn. The reason for some companies adopting this seasonal approach is due to the high number of potential new employees, recruiters need to put a structure in place which helps them manage the process. This is why deadlines exist. Others tend to opt for either spreading their recruitment to become an all-year-round, continuous process or by having an autumn period and then another opportunity in the summer months for graduates to apply.

What are the entry requirements?

As outlined above, there is generally a level of high competition for any of these schemes. It is impossible for graduate recruiters to interview every applicant, it just isn’t feasible. Therefore they set a certain criteria which candidates have to have attained in order to be considered. Consequently, most (but not all!) require an applicant to have, or be predicted, at least a 2.1 degree grade. As well as academic achievement, it is always very helpful to an application if you can show experience in a particular industry or working environment, however this is not always a requirement.

The Application Process

Generally, larger organisations require your application to be completed online. This can be quite a detailed process, which usually requires you to detail your Secondary/ University results, previous employment information (if any) and your responsibilities whilst working there, details of any activity whilst out of employment, references, skills, hobbies, awards and authorisation for background checks. In some cases applications will request information about specific questions relating to the role or the industry in which the company operates. Online applications are extensive and time consuming but they have to be done in order for you to be considered. Stick with them – create a template where you can cut & paste some of the standard information (name, address, qualifications) in order to speed the process up - but DO COMPLETE THE APPLICATION! Some organisations allow you to save your application and continue it at a later date.

Alternatives

If you miss the deadline for, or are turned down by one of these schemes then do not panic! There are plenty of alternatives. The most common is to apply for entry-level jobs with smaller companies. These jobs are available all-year-round but often increase around the summer, when students have graduated and are ready to go straight in to work. There are some advantages to working for an SME that you cannot get with a larger business. Notably, the fact that in a smaller team you are often given much more responsibility. You can have more influence over important decisions and will often oversee whole projects from start to finish, as opposed to passing them on to another department. Contrary to popular opinion, the starting salaries for SME’s usually match those of the larger schemes and promotion can often come quicker!

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