Brexit is not impacting the number of apprentice and graduate jobs available this year, but employers are concerned about filling specialist and technical roles.
Institute of Student Employer’s (ISE) Pulse Survey 2019 found that some of the UK’s largest employers are increasing their apprentice and graduate vacancies by 27% this year. Respondents are offering more than 17,000 entry jobs and the majority (70%) don’t anticipate Brexit will have any impact on their recruitment needs.
However, with more than half (55%) of employers unable to fill entry-level jobs last year – 1,839 jobs were left unfilled – there are concerns that Brexit may make it more difficult to source the talent they need (49%). Filling specialist and technical jobs both at entry level (32%) and in more experienced roles (38%) is of greater concern than filling more general positions (17%).
Graduate roles continue to dominate the market at 66%, compared to apprenticeships. However, apprenticeships are growing more rapidly at 47% than graduate jobs at 18%. Growth in vacancies is reflected in how much of the apprenticeship levy employers are spending, which is expected to increase by more than a quarter this year to 39%.
Demand for graduates has increased the most in the public sector (up 32%). More graduate jobs are also more likely to be found in finance, FMCG, the built environment and IT.
The number of apprenticeships available has increased the most in retail and IT, up 128% and 65% respectively. While there is also significant demand for apprentices in energy, engineering and industry (up 40%), this is the only sector to reduce the number of graduate jobs (3% fall).
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