12/11/2010
Small and medium sized businesses would employ more graduates if they could afford to advertise at recruitment fairs, an industry expert has suggested.
According to Dr Tom Wainwright, a researcher at Kingston University's Small Business Research Centre, SMEs are keen to recruit graduates but do not have the resources to promote vacancies at so-called 'milkround' recruitment events.
Many new graduates overlook small firms when applying for their first jobs after university, but Dr Wainwright suggests that this might change if SMEs were able to promote themselves better.
"There are lots of small businesses that are interested in hiring graduates," The Telegraph quoted Wainwright as saying.
"Students historically haven't necessarily been interested in small businesses because they think of them as being the local corner shop. But in London particularly, there are lots of opportunities for graduates, in up and coming businesses like a niche web design company," he added.
While some SMEs may consider the cost of advertising graduate roles to be prohibitively expensive, the price need not be an obstacle. Invoice finance services such as invoice factoring allow small firms to free up the necessary funds to invest in attracting talented graduates.
Dr Wainwright recently co-authored a study of 1000 firms with turnover of less than 5m, which found that one in five SMEs would be looking to hire at least one graduate in the coming year.
The Graduate Recruitment Bureau suggests that SMEs are becoming increasingly keen to hire graduates as they believe they possess all the necessary skills to help accelerate growth.
Joseph Jeffries