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GradConnection is excited to be relaunching our new blog! 

Following our updated website we have now been able to update our blog. Here we will be posting:

• our opinions on topical graduate employment issues;
• news articles we are mentioned in;
• presentations we make at various conferences; and
• generally what GradConnection is getting up to

We hope this will be a blog where employers can keep up-to-date with graduate employment issues and trends. We would appreciate thoughts, feedback and discussion on any of the posts we make. Happy reading!

The GradConnection Team got together with Missy from Jobs.co.nz to write a blog about how GradConnection can benefit students AND employers.

It was only end of last year Missy donned the grad cap, and walked the stage to receive that important piece of paper which symbolised 4 years of hard slog as a Massey Design student based in Wellington. Along with many other students Missy was desperate to get a job, but did not know the exact path to take. That's where GradConnection steps in to connect students to the right graduate position for them.

This blog also outlines the enormous benefits to employers in using GradConnection's services. There can be a lack of understanding as to the benefit of recruiting graduates. However, a graduate is teachable. They have been taught all their lives and are used to learning from someone or some system that is able to advance their knowledge and steer them down the path to success.

To read the full article and find out more about how GradConnection can help you as a student or employer, check it out here.

Great to see the Robert Milne and Tim Watts mentioned in the Herald. This article discusses the beginnings of GradConnection NZ. "We first discussed setting up GradConnection in NZ at the cricket," says Milne. "I was looking to do something different and this seemed like a good thing to do."

Check out the full article here.

I recently made a presentation at 2011 HRINZ National Conference, August 9, 2011

Early this year the first GradConnection Graduate Motivations Report (the report) was published reflecting on what students and graduates are looking for in a New Zealand graduate employer. In tracking approximately 75,000 visits to their website over a nine month period in 2010 GradConnection was able to quantitatively outline interesting trends, desires and motivators that the future leaders of our businesses are requesting when they embark into their working careers - information that until now has been simply guess work for employers hiring graduates, entry level staff or students into graduate programmes.

This session was interactive and informative, developing and teasing out key themes in the report and other supporting research. A live case study of a well known New Zealand organisation was worked through showing what they are doing to provide the right working culture for our leaders of tomorrow to flourish in. As people learn best from hearing other peoples experiences (positive or negative) a panel discussion made up of some our well known New Zealand organisations added first hand insights. The panel included:

• Belinda Lally -FNZ Limited (previously Office of the Auditor General & Telecom New Zealand) 
• Richard Westney -KPMG (previously Fonterra) 
• Anoka Nallaiah-Transpower  

I also provided additional information from other employers I work with as well as current international trends picked up from the UK Association of Graduate Recruiters conference held in Wales in July.  

To see the Presentation Slides go to http://conference.hrinz.org.nz/Site/National_Events/conferences/2011/Conference_Presentations.aspx

A few weeks ago now we were approached for our comments on a recommendation made in an Agribusiness report compiled by a well know consulting firm. This article was prepared for Careers NZ.

Irrespective of the fact that the report was agribusiness focused if adopted it would have wide reaching ramifications on tertiary students and the various institutions they study at. In essence the report suggested that New Zealand should look at “providing preferential financial support for students looking to study economically critical subjects, like agricultural science” as this “will increase the numbers willing to take on this more challenging career path”.

Agenda Item 33 Use funding mechanisms to guide students toward courses that benefit the economy

Students currently receive ‘free’ money from the Government through the student loan scheme, and are able to use this to pursue whatever course of study they choose. Worryingly, student numbers entering programmes that directly benefit the agricultural economy have been in long-term decline, despite the economic value that these programmes generate. The student loan scheme should be restructured so that only students entering programmes that directly benefit the economy receive the full advantages associated with interest free loans. This will enable the Government to give clear guidance to students as to where it perceives there to be a shortage of graduates, and flag areas in New Zealand with better employment prospects. - Extract KPMG's Agribusiness Agenda 2011

This certainly is an interesting proposition they have put forward and it probably sounds plausible to many in theory. However, having the government restructure the current student loan scheme to only provide interest free loans to students entering “programmes that directly benefit the economy” is a recipe for disaster and just won’t work.

Thinking practically about it, how would you deem whether a degree programme will directly benefit the economy? What is the test? Would this be evaluated on an annual, bi annual basis? Who would make this call, the Government, Tertiary Education Commission, Industry bodies or employers? Would the tertiary bodies be involved in this process? And what happens in 3-5 years from now ... and we have a boom in another industry or we find ourselves with an oversupply of Agricultural Science Graduates.

The report is correct in one thing we do have huge numbers of students attending our tertiary institutions, many of which are taking full advantage of our current student loan scheme. The popularity, choice and accessibility of tertiary education today is incredible. Our graduate market is not in balance, we have an oversupply of tertiary talent in some areas (including the likes of Arts, Marketing, Accounting, Law and Architecture) and some degrees/majors a dire undersupply (including the likes of IT, particular sciences and particular engineering majors). This is not just a NZ problem, it is the same in Australia as well as the UK.

Interfering with how students choose their courses does not necessarily mean that those students will choose the career path you want them to or stay in the career ... [More]