Young graduates prove a win-win

Hundreds of thousands of new graduates are seeking employment each year in a job market which will continue to face challenges for some time.

Twice the number of graduates are chasing every job vacancy compared with a year ago, while youth unemployment has reached 991,000.

Many face a struggle to gain the skills required to give them a head start. While students and graduates must take ultimate responsibility for their own employability, employers have a key role in supporting their development to ensure a future skilled economy and industry.

Aberdeen-based Converged Communication Solutions is one local firm which supports the recruitment of graduates, reaffirming it as a win-win situation for the future of business, industry and the individuals themselves.

Neil Christie, technical director, said: “It’s important SMEs (small and medium enterprises) provide opportunities for graduates to gain experience and develop appropriate skills required for our industry, while also attracting them to stay and work in the north-east.”

The IT industry constantly faces challenges with attracting a talent pool prepared for the fast-moving, commercially-driven workplace, who aren’t attracted away to the rest of the UK and abroad.

He said: “At Converged we offer a variety of services so recruiting experienced professionals with the relevant skills can be challenging. Recruiting graduates through our graduate training scheme enables us to bring individuals with good general IT skills into the business and then train, develop and encourage them in the more complex areas of our services.”

According to figures from the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses), SMEs now account for 99% of all Scottish businesses and for more than 50% of the entire private sector and can be an excellent choice for graduates looking to gain in-depth experience with a real opportunity to make a visible contribution to the company itself.

That’s true for Converged’s current graduates who have just completed their first year graduate training programme.

Colin Cheung and Richard Bain, both graduates from Robert Gordon University, impressed Converged last year during the recruitment process and have become an integral part of the team throughout the year. Neil said: “The benefits and success the guys have brought to the business and the team has been unquestionable.”

Carol McKay from SPD Ltd, one of Converged’s valued clients, commented: “Richard and Colin have proved to be great ambassadors for Converged. They have certainly made a positive addition to our IT support from the Converged team.”

“The experience at Converged has been fantastic,” adds Richard, “We’ve been exposed to more technologies and we’re not just a number. We’ve gained great exposure to every part of the business which has been great for our learning and development. As a small team, and business, the culture is very positive and every day we’re faced with different challenges and opportunities which provide great preparation for our future in the IT industry.”

Richard is due to take up a role at Robert Gordon University while Colin will be continuing at Converged on an in-depth graduate programme for two years.

“It was a steep learning curve coming in at first but the knowledge, experience and opportunities we’ve been afforded by working with a company like Converged have been exceptional,” said Colin.

“University certainly provided a good grounding, but the experience of working directly with customers and a team of colleagues bring real every day challenges from which to develop our skills.”

“Our advice to other graduates would be to have the right attitude and use your initiative, gaining your degree alone does not provide a passport to the boardroom. The IT industry is extremely interesting; it is constantly changing so never expect to stop learning. Working with a small business affords you a great opportunity to gain significant responsibility and input within the business.

“Furthermore find an agency to help you look for work. I sent loads of CVs to many companies and got nowhere. Using an agency that specialises in your industry can really make a difference, especially when they take the time to understand you and what you want to do.”

Colin and Richard both came to Converged through recruitment agents Right People based in Aberdeen.

Shaun Windram, recruitment specialist at Right People, said: “It’s been really tough for graduates over the last few years. Being able to build and develop practical skills is certainly vital to help graduates into the workplace and up the career ladder. It would certainly be great to see more small and medium-sized businesses supporting graduate training schemes alongside the larger organisations to offer greater opportunities and a diverse combination of skills in the IT industry and support sector growth.

Bringing in graduates can provide a number of benefits; they are a long term prospect, cost effective and can provide fresh enthusiasm to the team and complement established teams well.”

“Buoyed by the success of Colin and Richard we would highly recommend other small businesses to bring graduates on to your team,” says Neil.

“They bring new skills and very quickly learn the ins and outs of your business. We plan to recruit for a new graduate position over the next few months with further plans to take on more graduates in 2012. These plans support our growth over the last three-quarters as we continue to expand our client base and service provision.”

Source: Pressandjournal.co.uk, Friday 18th November 2011