careers group

Who we are

The East Midlands Careers group includes all the Heads of Careers Services from East Midlands Universities. It meets four times per year to develop collaborative approaches to the regional agendas of graduate retention, student enterprise awareness, and employer engagement with graduates, develop best practice and liaise with its professional body, AGCAS.

Activities 2008/09

Over the past year EMUA's Careers Services Group (CSG) have been working much more closely with emda - a member of the emda Skills Team now attends CSG meetings - and are developing a template for collective bidding which will enable a swift response to future funding calls. Other projects include:

• An investigation into the demise and diversification of the newspaper industry and its effect on employment.
• An event for Chinese students and graduates to build relationships with regional businesses looking to expand into Chinese markets.
• Dissemination of organisational web lists through the EMUA website.

The CSG has also contributed to work undertaken by Hot Prospects/FMC into placement provision; the Golden Handcuffs Feasibility Study (Skyblue Research report funded by emda) and EMUA's Graduate Futures report.

EMUA was requested by the esp Partnership to survey the opinions of the CSG about the impact of the recession on graduate recruitment in the East Midlands. The resulting report, Graduate Futures - The Impact of the Recession on Graduate Recruitment in the East Midlands published in April, showed a deteriorating picture for both graduate jobs in the region, and beyond. This was generally in line with the national picture. In addition, there were particular concerns about the reductions in paid undergraduate placement opportunities and the dearth of part-time work available to students to support themselves through their education, coupled with concerns that some students (particularly those from widening participation backgrounds) will be forced to give up their studies because of redundancy of their sponsor (parent or partner).

To read the Careers Group's terms of reference, please click here.

Internships

Many East Midlands Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have schemes to support businesses to utilise the skills of new graduates (and even post-graduates) for short term internships, lasting 3 weeks to 12 months. To find out more about internships in the East Midlands, please click here.

Careers Group guide to employing International Students

To read this information, please click here.

Graduate Futures - EMUA publication March 2009 (86.45kb PDF)

Impact of the recession on graduate recuitment in the East Midlands: a review of expert opinion.

Careers Group Members

Ms Celia Beizsley - University of Derby
Mr Paul Hacking- Nottingham Trent University
Ms Jenny Jones - Loughborough University (Chair)
Ms Mandy Jones - University of Lincoln
Ms Catherine Klimes - The University of Northampton
Mr Roger Martin - Open University
Mr Paul Jackson - University of Leicester
Mr Stephen McAuliffe - The University of Nottingham
Mrs Clare Riding - Open University
Ms Karen Rondeau - De Montfort University
Ms Eve Stewart - Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln