The latest annual survey from the Institute of Student Employers (ISE – and formerly the AGR) revealed a continuation of recent trends…

Apprenticeships continue to rise – the number of vacancies growing by 19%.

Salaries continue to rise – to a median of £28,000.

Video interviewing continues to rise – now 53% of employers use it, compared to just 6% in 2012.

First-year engagement continues to rise – now 69% of employers offer some kind of opportunity for first-year students.

The use of strengths-based competency continues to rise – now used by 41% of employers.

And the speed of recruiting continues to drop – the average is now 9.5 weeks.

All in all, ISE members spent over £72 million to recruit graduates in the last year, with a clear formula shared by many of the employers.  In many ways, a vindication of how a membership body can together move to achieve some positive things for early talent – and of course for their own organisations.

Yet some things still have cause for concern…

While 54% of university students are women, they only account for 43% of graduate hires and 44% of interns. And there is still a great deal of work in apprenticeships, with just 33% of apprentice hires being women.

There’s also the fact of 1 in 7 graduate offers being rejected, which opens up some questions.

Is it simply a case of candidates collecting up offers, just in case they don’t get their first choice?

Do many employers still continue to fight over the same talent?

Would a better candidate experience help employers?

Or do employers in the same sector have a clear and distinct propositions or still have a me-too approach?

Lots of food for thought and worth investigating.

We also heard from Charlie Ball of Prospects dispelling a few myths, including one that we hear all the time – ‘most graduates go to work in London’.  In fact, according to Ball, only 19.4% of UK graduates live in London and only 21.6% of 2016 graduates started their career in London.  In fact, most graduates never work in London.

We’ll leave you with one final thought.  In two years’ time, according to Ball, there will be more graduates going to work in Leeds than in the Square Mile!!