Recruiters feel while graduates may swamp big employers with applications, some regional companies say they face a “skills shortage” in some sectors because of a lack of applicants.
One public sector organisation in south Wales has told the BBC that while they’re inundated with applications for roles like in HR or communications, attracting graduates for “specialist” roles had been challenging.
“When we’ve tried to recruit for finance we’ve had less applications or the level of qualification isn’t quite there,” said Julie Stokes of Cardiff Capital Region, a body that works with south Wales’ 10 local authorities.
Instead of applying for professions at smaller and less-established companies, Ms Morgan feels that graduates are focusing all their efforts on big, multinational companies.
“Graduates are looking to join those big organisations that can expose them to lots of opportunities both developmental and within their portfolios,” she added.
“But the advice I’d say to graduates is look at all organisations, even those that are relatively new.”
One specialist graduate recruitment agency hosts job exhibition to put graduates in front of companies that need to fill professional roles to “show that the opportunities are out there”.
“We speak to employers who say ‘we need more applications, we’re not getting enough,” said event organiser Owain James of graduate recruitment firm Darogan.