University launches graduate recruitment service for SMEs

A NEW free service to match skilled graduates with North West employers has been launched.

The University of Manchester’s new Recruitment Service for Business  should also help the region address the issue of brain drain – where graduates from North West universities move away.

The university says its service will remove the need for firms to advertise, shortlist, arrange interviews or engage with recruitment consultancies.

Aimed primarily at SMEs, the service has grown out of a number of previous graduate internship and work placement programmes run since 2008. In this time the University has successfully placed nearly 500 graduates within over 200 Manchester companies in a variety of roles.

Many of these organisations have become regular clients who now work directly with the university to fulfill a majority of their graduate and student recruitment needs.

Through the free service the University will help draft a graduate-level job description in consultation with the employer before advertising it to over 1,000 final year students.

Its staff will also help to draw up a shortlist of applicants and facilitate interviews on behalf of the company, hosting interviews on campus if required.  

The flexibility of the service is seen as a major benefit for employers too – most contracts will initially be short-term, and the University already has many final year students registered with them who are looking for  opportunities of between four to 12 months.

Anne Milligan, head of regional development at the University said: “Unlike many large employers with clearly defined graduate entry programmes, smaller businesses can struggle to tap into the wealth of high-calibre talent that The University of Manchester helps produce.

“However our new Recruitment Service for Business will offer SMEs across Greater Manchester direct and easy access to a large pool of employable applicants.”