Recruitment by traditional graduate employers (eg: in the engineering and defense industries, banks, accountants and solicitors, and major manufacturing companies, high street retailers, research organisations, civil service, etc.) has either remained static or they have reduced their intake of graduates over the last six years.

The other graduates into any of the following three areas:

• Further education
• Emerging graduate jobs. These are jobs where the entry qualifications have recently been upgraded. At one time they may have been GCSE or A-level entry, eg physiotherapy, teaching, chartered accountancy are all recent examples
• New jobs. As technological and economic changes occur, new jobs emerge; computer programmers, careers information officers, health practice managers, equal opportunities advisers, business systems analysts etc...
• SMEs

Growth Sector

Recent surveys have shown that the many large national and international corporations are cutting costs and UK employee numbers for a variety of complex economic reasons, and that economic and employment growth will increasingly come from SMEs.

• SMEs are creating twice as many jobs as are large employers.
• SMEs provide an enormous range of consultancy services, eg. marketing, PR, June 12, 2007y and lawyers at the other.
• SMEs manufacture an immense range of products, eq. heavy traditional engineering at one end of the scale and hi-tech electronics at the other.
• SMEs may be relatively small with only a handful of employees; on the other hand they may employ up to 500 people.
• SMEs are where the real growth in jobs for graduates is coming from, particularly those which are involved in hi-tech products and which use high production technology.

Within these organisations there is a growing need for graduates who can provide technical, business, or specialist expertise.

• 50% of UK employees are in firms with less than 100 staff
• 20% of employees are with firms which employ between 100-500 staff
• 97% of UK firms employ less than 20 people

So graduates, whatever their degree discipline or career interest, cannot afford to ignore the SME sector.

What has an SME to offer a graduate?

• More responsibility earlier
• Room for creativity
• Less bureaucracy
• Wider ranging experience in many functional areas
• Better understanding of the company as a whole
• Greater influence on decision-making
• Less supervision

The Challenge

Some SMEs, particularly in the professions and in research, will be experienced graduate recruiters; on the other hand many others may have little or no experience of graduates. They may never have seen the need to 'actively' recruit graduates and in fact may not understand the concept of a degree or of a university education. If this is the case, they may have very distorted impressions of what a graduate is, can do, would cost them and what their long-term expectations might be. They may also be rather fearful of the possible disruption to their business efficiency due to the arrival of a new graduate. This means that students and graduates who are interested in working in this sector have to exercise a special responsibility if they are going to succeed. They may have to:

• Brief employers on your intellectual skills and personal qualities
• Explain the nature of higher education; identify how employers might use their skills and qualities
• Make a very good impression quickly
• Be adaptable to people, problems and situations
• Get things done effectively and on time
• Take responsibility
• Learn quickly and informally
• Be inquisitive

Opportunities

The challenge should be not seen as a drawback but an opportunity:

• Management structure in SMEs often lacks clarity employers need to work extremely hard to meet orders
• Often lack of time, and sometimes expertise, restricts company growth
• Financial systems and control may be weak
• Managers may be technically qualified, but may lack commercial knowledge

These, and many more like them, are your opportunities. Many SMEs have a clear need for technical, business and specialist graduate expertise.

Further Reading

• STEP a scheme to provide students in their second year with employment opportunities in SMEs.
• Local Employer Directory lists of local employers who may have work experience; short-term, evening, vacation, and professional long-term.
• Creative Job Hunting UEA Careers Centre leaflet.