Employers used to dealing with mobile graduate trainees are having to cater
for a growing number who cannot afford to leave home.
Many graduates struggling to repay student loans still live with their
parents, a seminar organised by the Association of Graduate Recruiters heard.
Sonia Dennehy, association chairwoman and Superdrug HR operations
controller, said employers should no longer assume that the graduates they
recruit are mobile.
She said, "I don’t think it is at a point where it is a problem, but I
think there is a trend which seems to indicate that students are finding it
more difficult to move because they are paying off student debts."
Dennehy said a second group of students is also emerging who, while living
independently, do not wish to leave their home or university town or city.
"They may have gone to university somewhere and really liked it. They
have a nice quality of life. They do not want to have to sacrifice quality of
life to climb the promotion ladder."
She told the Glasgow seminar, "Before, you assumed that a graduate
would just up sticks and go wherever you wanted them to.
"We now spend a lot of time really trying to satisfy graduates’
requirements in terms of where they want to be. It is becoming more and more of
an issue."
Bob Porrer, director of Edinburgh University’s career service, told the
seminar the pressure to repay debts is preventing some students meeting
employers’ expectations through extra-curricular activities. Other students, he
said, are able to do only a limited number of job applications.
