THE new edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, based on the views of more than 16,000 new graduates who left university this summer, shows mixed fortunes for public sector organisations. The league table is researched annually by High Fliers Research and asks university-leavers “Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?”
Across the full league table, 16 of Britain’s most sought-after graduate employers were government departments, agencies or public services. Three of these were ranked in the top ten in 2006, quite an achievement considering that in the first Top 100 table, published in 1997, the Civil Service, BBC and Army were the only public sector recruiters to make the top 30.
Despite these gains, the private sector dominates new graduates’ career choices this year and the top three places in the rankings went to Big Four accountancy and professional services firms. The Civil Service, best-known for its popular Fast Stream scheme, is in fourth place, its lowest ranking since 2002. The Army – officially the UK’s largest public sector graduate employer with more than 1,000 officer vacancies a year – is down to No 13 while the Police, Local Government, RAF, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence are all ranked lower this year compared with 2005.
However, Teach First, the innovative scheme that places new graduates in challenging schools in London and Manchester for two years after university, continues to move up the rankings. The programme was a new entry in 2004, reached the top 20 last year and is now at No 16. GCHQ, the intelligence and security organization, and Dstl, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, have both jumped almost 20 places to 70th and 76th respectively. There is good news too for the Government Legal Service and Financial Services Authority, both of which are new entries to the Top 100 this year.
Top Public Sector Graduate Employers:
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1. Civil Service (4)
2. BBC (5)
3. NHS (6)
4. Army (13)
5. Teach First (16)
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6. Police (27)
7. RAF (38)
8. Local Government NGDP (39)
9. Royal Navy (50)
10. Foreign Office (54)
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11. GCHQ (70)
12. Dstl (76)
13. Environment Agency (84)
14. Ministry of Defence (85)
15. Financial Services Authority (93)
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16. Government Legal Service (97)
(Ranking in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2006 in brackets)
Martin Birchall is editor of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers