{"text":[[{"start":4.84,"text":"Like a lot of clean energy start-ups, heat pump installer Heat Geek is growing fast and hiring to match."}],[{"start":11.72,"text":"The eight roles it opened this summer will increase headcount by more than 25 per cent. Chief operating officer Holly Foster says the entry-level positions in operations, engineering and marketing need to be “filled yesterday” with ambitious graduates ready to get stuck in."}],[{"start":28.88,"text":"But there is a problem: these hungry young hires are nowhere to be seen. “We’re not doing a good job at finding where these super-grads are,” Foster says. “We know exactly what we want. The struggle is communicating that . . . what we’re looking for is difficult to spot on paper.”"}],[{"start":46.48,"text":"As economic stagnation, the advent of AI and geopolitical upheaval sow uncertainty in UK hiring and threaten entry-level roles, such difficulty in finding good people to work sounds implausible. This month’s Office for National Statistics figures show vacancies have continued to fall over the summer, with smaller businesses and jobs in sectors favoured by younger workers bearing the brunt. Competition for graduate positions recently hit an all-time high of 140 applications per role, as open posts dropped by 8 per cent, according to the Institute of Student Employers."}],[{"start":82,"text":"But as many university leavers struggle with rejections and multinational employers drown in applications, some companies have the opposite complaint. In a June survey by sector body Universities UK, half the employers with open vacancies said graduate posts were tough to fill — the highest of any level. For start-ups, companies in little-known or unglamorous sectors, or smaller businesses, finding skilled, proactive and available graduates is a problem getting in the way of growth."}],[{"start":110.96,"text":"National workforce data backs up the seemingly contradictory picture. An analysis of government figures by the National Centre for Universities and Business shows that while smaller businesses have shed roles faster than large employers, their rate of so-called skills shortage vacancies — openings that are difficult to fill because workers with specific abilities are hard to find — has remained high, particularly at entry level."}],[{"start":133.76,"text":"“Overall hiring is down [but] there are companies that struggle to find graduates or people with the right skills,” says Janine Chamberlin, UK country manager at jobs site LinkedIn. “There are lots of opportunities and growth in clean energy, farms, manufacturing, life sciences . . . But those sectors are just not front of mind for graduates.”"}],[{"start":153.76,"text":"In manufacturing, for example, sector body Make UK estimates there are 50,000 vacancies, more than a third of which are hard to fill due to skills shortages. It organises open house days where employers showcase their work environments. Jamie Cater, senior policy manager, says companies are “investing significantly in mental health” and offering more flexible or remote working to attract applicants."}],[{"start":177.44,"text":"“We as a sector struggle with perceptions of what a manufacturing job is. People think of dank, dirty environments, repetitive manual labour for not very good pay. That’s not the reality,” he says. Increasing automation is shifting demand from production lines to jobs “with higher levels of technical skill” and half of manufacturers plan to increase recruitment in graduate-level roles over the next five years. “We’ve got a bunch of people retiring in the next couple of years in roles we need skilled workers in . . . there will be significant demand.”"}],[{"start":208.42,"text":"Lucy Johnston, founder of UK Innovation Industries, a network for start-ups, says smaller employers can face a “visibility gap” in recruitment. “These innovative companies are often in fields graduates don’t know exist, they’re under the radar,” she says. “Meanwhile, graduates are . . . being told things are extremely difficult, and given lots of traditional advice.”"}],[{"start":230.04,"text":"At fast-growing start-ups it is the urgent need for staff that, paradoxically, makes hiring so tough. “Any time we spend on hiring we’re not spending on building the business,” says Heat Geek’s Foster. Advertising on specialist or larger sites, active recruiting or travelling to graduate events incurs substantial costs for unknown return."}],[{"start":249.32,"text":"Simon Finley, associate director at Warwick Enterprise, which builds links between universities and entrepreneurs, says career services often default to larger companies. Big firms with “schemes it’s easier to tap into” claim prominent spots at career fairs and invest in getting ads seen, while “regional companies and universities don’t have the relationships that have developed over time”."}],[{"start":272.2,"text":"Businesses he works with also often complain that students lack the skills — including communication, initiative and organisation — to get stuck in straight away. “In graduate programmes, there’s a lot of training and development . . . in a smaller business it’s not as structured. For a lot of graduates that can be daunting.”"}],[{"start":290.24,"text":"Location is another constraint. “There’s this perception among graduates that you have to go to the big city, but some of the most interesting companies are not in big cities,” says Johnston."}],[{"start":300.2,"text":"Samantha Fenn arrived as head of HR at Grainger & Worrall, a Shropshire-based manufacturer of aluminium castings, two years ago and was told “categorically that we couldn’t hire graduates — that they wouldn’t stay”, she recalls. She refocused recruitment on local graduates who would see living near home as an advantage. After a period of contraction, the company plans to expand staff from 460 to 500 and is “recruiting like mad”; in this year’s graduate round “we went to market for three, offered five and we’re taking on four”."}],[{"start":333.16,"text":"One of the company’s graduate hires, Robyn Beaumont, who joined two years ago as a business planning officer while completing an engineering degree, says: “In a larger company you’re often going to get forgotten about; here they nurture and develop you . . . no one’s afraid of speaking to the CEO.”"}],[{"start":349.04,"text":"Steve Welch, who oversees relationships with universities at national agency Innovate UK, says the “paradox” of graduates struggling to find roles and companies struggling to hire is partly a “communication problem, with graduates not knowing how to look in the right places”. But he cites other obstacles, such as smaller companies’ ability to compete on pay. He suggests companies with strong growth potential need to sell “something different . . . than wages”."}],[{"start":377.74,"text":"At HR culture company FabricShift, founder Johanna Beresford says the chance to advance quickly and try different roles has helped her retain most of the graduates she has hired. “I don’t think employers often talk about . . . how it is such a different working environment for a smaller company.”"}],[{"start":393.96,"text":"But for many smaller firms operating in essential but unglamorous industries, the challenge of being noticed is harder to fix."}],[{"start":401.68,"text":"“I’m not convinced people are being told about companies like us,” says Ian Goodacre, technical director at Europlaz, an Essex-based medical device manufacturer that employs more than 100 people. The company made several good graduate hires this year but had to work hard to find them, reaching out directly to students."}],[{"start":420.28,"text":"“We’re offering a fairly decent package, a full-time job, lots of opportunities,” says Goodacre. “But when we put adverts out, it’s surprising how few graduates we get applying.”"}],[{"start":433.24,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1788153867_6516.mp3"}