Employers meet with government to discuss graduate recruitment

Major employers met with universities secretary John Denham at a conference this week to discuss how to boost graduate recruitment.

Over 100 businesses attended the gathering, which was organised by the government and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, in order to learn more about the recently-launched Graduate Talent Pool.

This will see companies such as Marks and Spencer and Microsoft offering university leavers internships over the coming summer to help them improve skills and get a taster of the world of work.

Mr Denham remarked: "Putting employers in touch with graduates is good for business but internships also benefit graduates, giving them transferable work experience."

He added that the programme will help degree holders to "prove themselves to prospective employers".

Meanwhile, PricewaterhouseCoopers has hailed the success of its latest graduate recruitment drive, which resulted in the firm taking on 125 trainees from a range of backgrounds, including business, humanities and languages degrees.