Demand for skilled graduates set to rise - but employers want experience

Demand for graduates with IT, financial and engineering skills is set to grow at a strong pace this year, but candidates will have to demonstrate hands-on experience if they want to land jobs with the UK's top companies, according to a report.

The survey of businesses in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers by High Fliers Research found that 32 per cent of telecoms and IT firms will be offering more vacancies for university leavers in 2012 compared with 2011.

Meanwhile, 22 per cent of industrial and engineering firms indicated that they would be increasing their graduate intake this year.

Across all sectors, 62 per cent of employers said that they were looking for recruits with financial skills and 57 per cent were looking to hire people with IT skills.

However, amid intense competition for every vacancy, many companies claimed that having academic qualifications for in-demand areas would not be enough to land a job as they want candidates to also demonstrate practical experience of their chosen field.

Indeed, more than half of the employers questioned said that it was very unlikely they would hire a graduate, regardless of their university results, if they did not also have relevant work experience or an internship under their belt.

Commenting on the report, Andrew Tomlinson, policy advisor for the technology sector at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, said: "Despite the lack of confidence across the economy as a whole, this research again lays bare that demand remains healthy for workers with specialist skills and workplace experience."

Elsewhere, however, recent research by recruiter Adecco found that 36 per cent of employers believe universities are not producing graduates with the attributes and knowledge that businesses require. A lack of interpersonal skills and critical IT skills were cited as the biggest problems, but 22 per cent of businesses claimed they cannot find graduates with adequate literacy and numeracy skills.