Increasing number of school-leavers choosing not to go to university

A recent survey has shown that not attending university and going straight into employment may not restrict employment prospects, as leading firms are now offering more opportunities for school-leavers.

Out of the 201 companies that responded to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) survey, nearly 75 percent are hiring more school-leavers.

Employers are keen to recruit and train school-leavers in sectors such as business consulting, IT and telecommunication.

In spite of an average of 74 graduates competing for each position, these sectors are struggling to find individuals with the right technical and professional skills and thus resort to internal training instead.

One IT sector employee told the researchers: “The required standard of technical graduates remain high, and as a result of increased competition, the standard of applicants has decreased on the whole.”

There were a total of 21,682 graduate vacancies in 2013/14, a rise of 4.3 percent on 2012/13, with expectations for a rise of 11.9 percent this year.

Most firms in these sectors were planning to offer apprenticeships, whilst over a third planned to offer work experience.

A minority of firms planned to offer sponsorship through university or incorporate a degree into other training.

Bushra Kheralla, a first-year Politics with International Studies student said: “No doubt everyone would agree that £9,000 is too much to expect us to pay for tuition fees.

“And with news that there are more opportunities for non-graduates, perhaps more people will opt out of a university degree. But what option do we have, really?”
Farah Hussain, a first-year Politics with French student stated: “Not going to university was never an option for me. Going to university, to a large extent, still provides us with a safety-net of some sort I think.”

AGR chief executive, Stephen Isherwood, noted that most graduates were still more likely to be employed than non-graduates and stressed the importance of work experience.