FEATURE
REGENERATING THE EAST MIDLANDS
Retaining graduates in
the region By Adam Jeffrey (pictured), CEO at Chimera Consulting
Encouraging graduates to find work within the local economy where they studied has been an issue that has challenged policy-makers for many years. Many factors will be of importance to the new graduate including quality of life, affordability of accommodation, access to social, arts, sports and cultural amenities and, among other considerations, the location of family and their network of close friends. However, what is fundamental for graduates is finding
their first foot on to the career ladder. The lure of London is still very powerful, as is the “pull factor” of large employers elsewhere, but there are ways to redress the balance. Any efforts to try to retain graduate talent within a local economy need a multi-faceted approach. Clearly a vibrant jobs market for graduate-level positions is key, but so too is an awareness of what opportunities exist. Through my work in evaluating economic development
initiatives, I come across many examples of good practice projects that make excellent use of public resources in supporting local business growth, nurturing business start- ups and addressing supply-side issues in the labour market. One initiative I evaluated really struck a chord in its simplicity, effectiveness and impact. This was a graduate retention scheme in the West Midlands region called the Graduate Placement Service - part of a wider Graduate Advantage programme. While not unique in its ambitions, it is a scheme that stands out as an exemplar and has addressed three main objectives:
• Helping graduates find graduate-level employment within close proximity to where they live
• Helping SMEs recruit graduate talent, particularly micro- businesses seeking to recruit their first graduate employee
• Providing a boost to economic productivity by retaining graduate-level abilities within a local regional economy that might otherwise be lost.
The project was led by Aston University and involved a
partnership of nine universities across the region. My role was to evaluate a three-year phase of this scheme which had been resourced by £3.2m funding with half of this
coming from the European Union through its European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the match fund contributions sourced from partner universities and from beneficiary SMEs. The model was simple. The universities sought work opportunities from local SMEs which they would advertise for free to their graduate contacts. The universities would act as brokers between graduates and the business community – they would interview and shortlist suitable candidates, taking the burden and cost of recruitment off the SMEs, and would offer a small bursary payment, effectively de-risking the recruitment process to the supported business once they agreed to recruit. After carrying out a wealth of interviews of all delivery
partners, a sample of graduates and even larger sample of SMEs, it was clear to me that the benefits of this scheme were significant and there were highly positive results for businesses, graduates, universities and the wider local economy.
‘Any efforts to try to retain graduate talent within a local economy need a multi-faceted approach’
38 business network July/August 2017
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