THE TIMES Top 100 Graduate Employers is a celebration of the best organisations recruiting graduates in Britain this year. The sixth edition, published today, is based on research conducted with nearly 16,000 students who graduated from British universities this summer.
The “Class of 2004” were asked to name the employer that they thought offered the best opportunities for graduates, based on the training and development on offer, the quality of the employer’s recruitment promotions, and its overall reputation. The Top 100 is a dynamic league table of Britain’s most exciting and well- respected graduate employers.
It is headed by the accounting and professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has been rated as the top graduate recruiter for the first time. It has overtaken last year’s leading employer, the Civil Service, and Accenture, another former No 1. The firm has also just been confirmed as Britain’s largest graduate employer, with an estimated 1,000 vacancies for new graduates in 2005.
KPMG, another of the Big Four accountancy firms, moves up to fourth place, its highest position to date. And the NHS has made the top five, an impressive rise considering that it was ranked 27th in 2002.
The BBC is in sixth position, while the Army and HSBC have slipped three places this year. Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods company, and Deloitte, the accounting firm, are unchanged from their 2003 rankings.
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Elsewhere in the top 20 there have been a number of big changes. The Royal Bank of Scotland has jumped 23 places to fifteenth. But the biggest climber is the investment bank J P Morgan, which has leapt nearly 30 places to sixteenth. It is one of five banks to have done much better this year, along with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.
A number of technical or engineering firms have also recorded good progress. Microsoft and Rolls-Royce have both achieved their highest rankings, just outside the top 20.
Next week: the companies ranked 51-100
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New graduates can test their mettle in the annual Times / Lloyds TSB Graduate of the Year competition, which runs for four weeks from October 2 in Times Money and online. The winner will receive £7,000 towards clearing their student debt, with £2,000 for second place and £1,000 for third.
Check online at www.timesonline.co.uk/student and in the Saturday Money section for further details