Graduates go it alone amid downturn - graduate jobs

More and more business graduates facing an increasingly hostile jobs market are taking it upon themselves to beat the rush by setting up their own firms.

About 12,000 students graduate from MBA courses at British business schools every year. And with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development forecasting 300,000 redundancies in the first three months of this year, it is down to enterprising young graduates to open up areas of employment.

Andrew Burke, director of graduate programmes at Cranfield School of Management, said: "There's no question that this cohort of students is particularly interested in entrepreneurship, it's been increasing in the last few years and it predates the downturn."

He explained that normally only a few would start up on their own straight after an MBA, about 7%, with most wanting to gain some experience as an employee at first.

"But this year between 12% and 15% are going it alone," he added.

Mr Burke believes the current downturn has brought accelerated ambition, because there are fewer job opportunities around, but he also puts the increase down to an improvement in the network of support systems.