TARGETjobs news roundup

Hello and welcome to the TARGETjobs news roundup where we’ll be telling you all the graduate careers news from the week. If you’re looking for a job, or wondering why you haven’t got one yet, this is the place for you.

It has been a quiet week for the sector news this week, with only the construction, finance and law sectors dishing the dirt. However, we have more than made up for this with a whole pile of other career tips and other news pieces for your browsing pleasure.

• First up we told you that Grant Thornton has been awarded a five year contract to supply audit services to local governments and the NHS. If you want to work in public sector finance this could be the place to go..
• We also have a very useful list of all the retail banking, actuarial and insurance employers whose summer internship programmes have not finished taking applications. This will be very useful if you haven’t applied yet, or not heard back from your current application.

However, it isn’t all about the financial sectors this week. There’s plenty going on in law and construction as well:

• For example, the Bar Standards Board has announced that the vast majority of barristers believe that there are too many students on the Bar Professional Training Course. This is already a very oversubscribed area, so this announcement is unlikely to go down well.
• In other news the Chartered Institute of Building is changing the way it will assess graduates who wish to gain chartered status. The new process should make it easier and quicker for candidates to be assessed.

There was a lot going on this week in the world of graduate jobs, and plenty of it will be relevant even if you’re not looking to work in finance, construction or law. For example:

• BBC Three gave students the opportunity to have their say about student life. The brand new show – Free Speech – was broadcast live from Queen Mary University of London at 10PM on Wednesday. You can watch it again here.
• We are also giving you advanced warning of our campaign for the Sport Relief Mile. If you are thinking about doing the mile for sport relief then post a photo to our Facebook page and we’ll throw in another pound, bargain!
• At a TARGETjobs Breakfast News event Work Group said that employers should spend less money on their own branding, and more time marketing their sector. This radical move would attract graduates away from high profile employers and sectors, towards areas they might not have considered.
• In less than positive news the Office for National Statistics is announcing that around a third of recent graduates are in low skilled jobs. The good news is that graduate employment rates are still higher than those of non-graduates.
• On a possibly related note, Work Group found that nearly 20% of final-year students have not yet applied to graduate schemes. Popular excuses included not getting round to it and not believing they could get in. If you don’t give yourself a chance then you’ll never know.
• In the third part of our series on the skills and competencies you will need to get a graduate job we are looking at computer literacy. This is an important one for almost everyone, because the majority of employers will expect recent graduates to have it as a matter of course.
• In addition, we took a look at the seven steps to building a network. Networking can help just about anyone who is looking for a graduate job, particularly if you want to work freelance, or start your own company.
• Finally we ran you through the list of job deadlines coming up in the following week. Deverell Smith Recruitment is offering up to £40,000 in salary and the Mountbatten Institute’s has a 12-month internship in New York. Apply while you can! Check out the latest jobs here.

To get graduate careers news as it happens, check out the TARGETjobs news feed. Alternatively, check out the roundup this time next week!

TARGETjobs offers the largest choice of  graduate jobs, internships and placements. Independent reviews on top graduate employers and career planning tools and expert guidance. Become a TARGETjobs blogger by getting in touch with me at jackie.balchin2@targetjobs.co.uk.