Parents a factor as non-university routes to work expand
14 August 2013
Parents are an increasing factor in more young people deciding to enter the workforce straight from school rather than after university, Recruiter hears.
Thu, 15 Aug 2013Parents are an increasing factor in more young people deciding to enter the workforce straight from school rather than after university, recruiter.co.uk hears.
Spencer Mehlman is the managing director of careers site notgoingtouni.co.uk, whose company advertises non-graduate training programmes from employer and training companies.
He tells recruiter.co.uk that one factor in a doubling of applications on notgoingtouni.co.uk to 115,000 has been the attitude of parents. The site has a stand at more than 60 careers events a year and Mehlman says: “In the past they were taking their children in the opposite direction to our stand; now they are dragging them over.”
Oliver Steele, senior regional recruiter, and also the head of online marketing at charity fundraising firm Wesser, agrees that parents are less willing to help with tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year. “The understanding is that you have to get into work quicker,” he says.
And earlier this week the skills minister Matthew Hancock urged young people to do just that, while also arguing that apprenticeships are “fast becoming the norm” rather than a poorer relation of the university route.
This week also saw reports in the Daily Telegraph<%$Image: ext-gen1123 57 0 /EasySiteWeb/EasySite/SupportFiles/ExtJS/4/resources/themes/images/default/s.gif 0 0 0 false false false false %> pointing to the apparently diminished value of a degree, and noting a rise in major employers targeting post-A Level talent, as well as, or even instead of, graduates.
Mehlman says that such big name companies are being joined by increasing numbers of smaller and lesser-known employers, who are keen not to miss out on bright candidates that in the past would have gone to university. The total number of opportunities on the site has doubled to around 30,000, he says.
However, while today’s 18-year-olds might be more attracted to the world of work, right now there remain a large number of those in their early 20s competing for roles post-university, with many sectors seeing hundreds of applicants per job, and PwC today noting that it received 22,123 graduate applications this year for 1,100 roles, more than three times as many applied in 2008.
Spencer Mehlman is the managing director of careers site notgoingtouni.co.uk, whose company advertises non-graduate training programmes from employer and training companies.
He tells recruiter.co.uk that one factor in a doubling of applications on notgoingtouni.co.uk to 115,000 has been the attitude of parents. The site has a stand at more than 60 careers events a year and Mehlman says: “In the past they were taking their children in the opposite direction to our stand; now they are dragging them over.”
Oliver Steele, senior regional recruiter, and also the head of online marketing at charity fundraising firm Wesser, agrees that parents are less willing to help with tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year. “The understanding is that you have to get into work quicker,” he says.
And earlier this week the skills minister Matthew Hancock urged young people to do just that, while also arguing that apprenticeships are “fast becoming the norm” rather than a poorer relation of the university route.
This week also saw reports in the Daily Telegraph<%$Image:
Mehlman says that such big name companies are being joined by increasing numbers of smaller and lesser-known employers, who are keen not to miss out on bright candidates that in the past would have gone to university. The total number of opportunities on the site has doubled to around 30,000, he says.
However, while today’s 18-year-olds might be more attracted to the world of work, right now there remain a large number of those in their early 20s competing for roles post-university, with many sectors seeing hundreds of applicants per job, and PwC today noting that it received 22,123 graduate applications this year for 1,100 roles, more than three times as many applied in 2008.
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