AllAboutSchoolLeavers.co.uk are proud to announce the winners of their Top Employers for School and College Leavers Awards 2013, in partnership with The Independent and sponsored by accountancy organisation BDO.
After a strong year providing a high quality Higher Apprenticeship, Visa Europe won the coveted prize of Top Employer for School and College Leavers 2013. Runner-up in this category was Gordons LLP, who excelled in delivering a superior Higher Apprenticeship worth celebrating. Other category winners were:
- PwC for Best School & College Leaver Recruitment Website;
- Capgemini for Best Career Progression;
- Ernst & Young for Best Use of Social Media in a School & College Leaver Recruitment Campaign;
- Gordons LLP for both Best Job Satisfaction and Best Training;
- Visa Europe for Best Level of Support.
Joshua Foster from CGI (formally Logica) won the sought-after award of School or College Leaver of the Year. As Lucy Waterman from CGI explains, “Josh is an outstanding student on our sponsored degree programme. He works extremely hard to exceed expectations in his client and university work whilst also contributing towards charity and CSR initiatives. We are very proud of Josh for winning this award”.
Five of the eight awards were awarded based on employee satisfaction surveys undertaken by individuals currently undertaking school leaver programmes, Higher Apprenticeships and sponsored degree programmes in the UK. The participants were asked questions on a variety of topics including: job satisfaction, skills development, training, career progression, salary, benefits, company culture, level of responsibility, working environment, team relationship and work-life balance. The winners were derived from an average score and percentage for each organisation.
The winners of the three awards based on objective opinion external to an organisation were chosen by an independent judging panel. The winners of Best School & College Leaver Recruitment Website, Best Use of Social Media in a School & College Leaver Recruitment Campaign and The School and College Leaver of The Year awards were chosen by:
- Davina Kesby, Recruitment Account Manager at The Independent;
- Ann Watson, Managing Director at EAL;
- Jenny Barber, Head of Education & Careers at Financial Skills Partnership;
- Binda Bhudia, Project Manager at Pure Potential;
- Jonathan Bourne, Managing Director at Damar Training.
The prestigious awards ceremony featured a speech from Skills Minister, Matthew Hancock MP, who explained, “School leaver programmes, Higher Apprenticeships and sponsored degrees are helping young people to realise they can start their career earlier and be at no disadvantage to their graduated peers. It is a privilege to be supporting this awards ceremony and championing businesses that give school leavers the opportunity to fulfil their ambitions. We want it to be the norm to either go to University or do an Apprenticeship; events like this are helping to make that a reality”.
The co-founders of AllAboutSchoolLeavers.co.uk Jack Denton and Paul Harris also delivered speeches, as well as Alana McCrosson, Recruitment Manager at BDO, who told attendees how BDO are “very proud to be supporting this event. It’s so important for young people to realise how school leaver programmes, Higher Apprenticeships and sponsored degrees are as valuable a career path as going to university”. Attendees of the event, which included top school leaver employers, FTSE organisations and Lord Aberdare, joined together to celebrate the achievements of school leaver employers in providing high quality programmes for ambitious school leavers.
The Top Employers for School and College Leavers Awards are particularly topical due to the large rise in school leaver programmes, Higher Apprenticeships and sponsored degree programmes in the last few years. Published data for 2011/2012 noted a 67.6%[1] rise in Higher Apprenticeships compared to the previous year. In addition, a survey conducted by ICM Research of a group of 500 recruitment specialists within a variety of organisations found that Higher Apprentices were 25% more employable than university graduates[2]. A recent report from the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee that explained how apprenticeships are currently not accountable enough regarding quality. It was recommended that “qualitative information be collected and published alongside more traditional statistics”[3] – which AllAboutSchoolLeavers.co.uk, BDO and The Independent are incredibly proud to be providing.
AllAboutSchoolLeavers.co.uk would like to congratulate all the winners and runners-up for their fantastic achievement. As Jack Denton from AllAboutSchoolLeavers.co.uk explains, “we hope that the awards ceremony will encourage ambitious school leavers everywhere to consider this excellent career path”.
The full list of winners and runners-up are as follows:
Best School & College Leaver Recruitment Website
Finalists:
Aviva
National Grid
PwC
Runner-Up: National Grid
Winner: PwC
Best Use of Social Media in a School & College Leaver Recruitment Campaign
Finalists:
Ernst & Young
Grant Thornton
PwC
Runner-up: PwC
Winner: Ernst & Young
Best Level of Support
Finalists:
Capgemini
Deloitte
Visa Europe
Runner-up: Deloitte
Winner: Visa Europe
Best for Career Progression
Finalists:
Accenture
Capgemini
Deloitte
Runner-up: Deloitte
Winner: Capgemini
Best for Job Satisfaction
Finalists:
BDO
Gordons LLP
Visa Europe
Runner-up: BDO
Winner: Gordons LLP
Best Training
Finalists:
BDO
Gordons LLP
VISA Europe
Runner-up: Visa Europe
Winner: Gordons LLP
School or College Leaver of the Year
Finalists:
Theresa Farr, BDO
Joshua Foster, CGI
Matthew Pankhurst, Visa Europe
Runner-up: Matthew Pankhurst, Visa Europe
Winner: Joshua Foster, CGI
Top Employer for School & College Leavers
Finalists:
BDO
Gordons LLP
VISA Europe
Runner-up: Gordons LLP
Winner: Visa Europe
For more information please visit: www.AllAboutEmployerRankings.co.uk or www.allaboutschoolleavers.co.uk/employer-rankings.
