Apprenticeship volumes by level of apprenticeship 19.3% 18.3% 18% 75% 0.7% 2.0% 2.7% 7%


Level 2-3 Top ten challenges


Improving diversity Budget constraints


Managing organisational response to apprenticeship levy Managing candidates experience/expectation Responding to competition


Finding candidates’ with required STEM/Technical skills Attracting candidates Responding to Brexit Reneges


Finding candidates with required soft skills


55% 35% 34% 34% 32% 26% 23% 20% 16% 13%


Level 4-5


Level 6-7


number five last year. 55% of employers place it in their top three challenges in 2018. Organisations are taking this seriously.


Employers are actively trying to improve diversity too. 75% took specific actions to improve the diversity of their graduates in 2017. These actions varied widely across attraction and selection methods. For example, 24% ran outreach events for first or second-year university students, 18% used name-blind or university-blind recruitment, and 8% used contextualised screening to put a candidates’ grades into a wider context.


Past efforts to improve diversity also seem to be paying off. Employers with year-on-year data have improved their average gender diversity by 5% in just three years. There is still a long way to go: the average share of female graduate hires is only 43%, while the share of female students is 54%. But our progress is a sign that we’re on the right track.


Social mobility is a bigger challenge. In theory, two candidates of equal ability should have an equal chance of getting through an employer selection process. Statistically speaking, this means that the share of applicants with one characteristic


should be broadly equal to the share of hires with that characteristic. But, less than 10% of employers know whether this is true for candidates from a low socio-economic background. They are either not tracking this information or not comparing statistics on applicants versus hires. Better tracking will be vital in future.


Competition for talent will continue to rise. Methods of recruiting students will continue to evolve. We encourage you to act on the latest trends.


TheStudentEmployer ise.org.uk


7


Growth rates by type of hire Graduates Apprentices Interns


Placement students


School leavers


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