Retail graduate schemes offer good pay and bright career prospects

This article is from TargetJobs News.

Sainsbury’s opened recruitment for its graduate programme for 2012 this week, unveiling a revamped graduate scheme with a generous £32,000 starting salary. This is significantly higher than the £24,000 average starting salary for the sector identified by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) in its most recent survey of its members, published in June this year.

Graduates who are recruited onto Sainbury’s 2020 leaders programme will start with a four-month placement in a store over the Christmas period and will be given early responsibility as well as exposure to the business as a whole.

The growth in retail graduate recruitment

The AGR survey indicated significant growth in graduate recruitment in the retail sector over the 2010–2011 recruitment season, with employers estimating a staggering 76.6% increase in vacancies. The retail sector was the second largest career sector for graduate recruitment in terms of number of vacancies, second only to accountancy and professional services.

In July, Tesco announced that it was planning to increase its graduate recruitment by 30% this year, taking on a total of 440 graduates across 17 different schemes.

Judith Nelson, UK personnel director at Tesco, commented, ‘It’s a challenging time for graduates, but as other firms cut back on hiring, we remain committed to offering opportunities to talented young people.’ She added that Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke was originally taken on as a graduate trainee.

Waitrose announced expansion plans at the beginning of the year and said in January that it would open 39 new shops in 2011, creating 3,000 jobs, while Asda announced back in November 2010 that it would create 7,500 new jobs in 2011.

Candidates interested in this sector should be wary of making blanket applications and should aim to apply for fewer roles in a more focused way. According to the AGR survey, retail recruiters tend to receive a high volume of blanket applications, but in recent years they have also received an increasing number of stronger applications from more discerning candidates.

Find out more about graduate retail careers

PhD Bursaries fixed 3yr term full time, £13,590 per yr (UK/EU fees)

Leeds Metropolitan University Carnegie Bursaries

If you are an enthusiastic high achieving student looking to undertake a PhD in a vibrant research environment, then this opportunity may be of interest to you.

Carnegie brings a fresh and informed perspective to research in sport and exercise science, leisure, events, hospitality, tourism, education and childhood. They are offering 5 post-graduate research studentships available to study for a Doctorate of Philosophy for a period of 3 years.

Bursaries are available for a variety of projects and applicants may also submit their own proposals for consideration in an area of research undertaken within the Carnegie Faculty.

Closing date: 23 September 2011

For more information visit: http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/research/index_carnegiebursaries.htm

The rules of social recruiting

With more employers using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to hire staff, Graham Snowdon at The Guardian explains the tactics and how jobseekers can use them to their advantage.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/19/rules-social-recruiting-linkedin-twitter-facebook

The RWE npower Future Leaders Challenge 2011

Would you like to win a trip to the land of the midnight sun? For the third year npower are running the Future Leaders Challenge.

Your challenge is to get together a team of 4 students and identify a project that will get people in your university living more sustainably. You and your team will have to manage this project from start to finish and ensure that it has an enduring impact in your local community.

The 10 teams with the best project ideas will be asked to put them into practice as well as attend an interactive, team–building weekend in October before the grand final in December where a panel of judges will select 1 winning team who will win the prize: a fantastic trip to the Arctic to go dog sledding in the land of the midnight sun!!

As well as winning this fabulous trip of a lifetime, npower are so confident that you will develop key employability skills from running your project, preparing for the competition, completing the team building weekend and actually going on the trip that they will guarantee to offer a summer placement for each member of the winning team.

The RWE npower Future Leaders Challenge 2011

Record numbers working in IT jobs

Graduates considering technology careers will be pleased to learn that the number of people in the UK working in IT jobs is at a record level, according to a report published yesterday by tech-sector organisation e-skills. It estimates that 1,093,000 people in the UK now have careers in technology – that’s 4% of the UK workforce.

The report, which covers the period October to December 2010, also found that the number of advertised IT vacancies grew for the sixth consecutive quarter to 105,000. The number of ‘ready candidates’ (employed and unemployed IT workers looking for new jobs) declined to 95,000. Approximately 37,000 technologists – 3.3% – were unemployed. This compares favourably with the figure for the UK as a whole, which stood at 7.9% for the same period.

Technology sector wages rose slightly, with the average salary for an IT job standing at £38,500 pa. This too compares well against the UK average, calculated by the Office for National Statistics to be around £25,900.

The top ten skills that IT employers required for permanent roles were: SQL, C, C#, .Net, SQL SVR, ASP, Java, Java Script, HTML and Linux. The top ten for contract roles were: SQL, C, C#, Java, Oracle, .Net, SQL SVR, SAP, Unix and ASP.

The report follows announcements by several recruiters of IT graduates in recent weeks that they are increasing their intakes.

http://targetjobs.co.uk/news/191376-record-numbers-working-in-it-jobs

Major Lanarkshire Employer Recruiting – Open Day this Saturday, 20th August

Aspirare Recruitment is seeking suitable candidates for a major Lanarkshire based engineering employer. Strong demand in the market means there is an immediate and ongoing requirement for both additional CNC machining expertise and sales staff.

Aspirare is holding an open day this coming Saturday 20th August at its Hamilton offices between 10am and 2pm for potential candidates to come along, find out more and talk through the available opportunities.

If you wish to attend, please call Aspirare on 01698 324 664 to pre-register.

http://www.aspirare.co.uk/

KPMG to increase graduate hiring by 25%

Professional services firm KPMG intends to hire 75,000 graduates worldwide over the next three years, an increase of 25 per cent above its usual target. Graduates will be offered roles in its audit, tax and advisory and internal firm services departments.

Despite the increased intake, competition for these positions will be as fierce as ever – the firm focuses on recruiting ‘top talent’.

Coming up in 2012 is the KPMG International Case Competition, which selects one team of students from each of 30 participating countries (6,000 students from over 300 universities enter) to compete in a business strategy competition. The host for 2012 will be Hong King. Asia Pacific is a focus for the firm’s market share expansion.

Visit Target Jobs website for full story

Visit KPMG UK Careers

New from Target Jobs – Employer Insights

A brand new information feature called ‘Employer Insights’ has been introduced by GTI on the Target Jobs website to help students and graduates research recruiters before making applications and going to interviews.

Put very simply, Employer Insights are company-specific, in-depth reports which have been put together by an independent team of editors at GTI. Currently there are around 50 on the site which should grow to 100 by the end of September and more will be added over the coming year.

Each Employer Insight contains information that cannot be easily found from looking at a recruiter’s website: what the jobs are like, company culture, core competences, selection procedures, current news etc – and they will be regularly updated.

You can choose to ‘follow’ an employer and receive updates when new information or vacancies are added to the Employer Insight and you can take part in a discussion forum.

http://targetjobs.co.uk/employer-insights

International Development Careers Workshop – London 10th September

Do you want to work in International Development but are unsure what’s out there and where you start?

Identity Careers workshop is a unique one day workshop designed exclusively for people who want to pursue a career in the International Development industry. Whether you’re an undergraduate or recently graduated, a returned volunteer or a career changer, this workshop is for you.

During the day you will get to know…

• What the current trends are and how they will affect jobs in the future.
• The best ways to break into the international development sector.
• What the 3 most useful skills are.
• How best to present your skills and experience in your CV and application form.
• What to do and what not to do when applying for jobs? Plus much more!

Previous attendees said:

“To be honest the whole workshop was an eye opener – exciting”  RC

“It was honest about what to do and not to do when applying for jobs and gave practical advice”  AM

The small workshop is in central London on Saturday 10 September 2011. For further details please visit www.identitycareers.com

Competition: Fancy a weekend as a marketing assistant at an Ibiza super club?

World-renowned super club Amnesia has been at the forefront of the Ibiza club scene since it first opened in the 1970s.

Amnesia’s Marketing Manager Valentino needs an Assistant for the weekend of 3rd – 4th September 2011. The Assistant’s duties will include assisting Valentino with sponsor liaison, social media, customer engagement. You will also be helping with talent meet and greets, ensuring rehearsals run on time and liaising with the set, lighting and sound teams!

Open to entrants aged 18-24 years old. The closing date for all entries is Friday 19 August 2011. You must be available to travel and redeem your prize between Thursday 1 September and Tuesday 6 September 2011.

Click here for more information