Top school-leavers snapped up by employers

Leading companies open training schemes to challenge universities for the brightest students

LEADING companies have opened new training programmes to recruit the brightest A-level pupils as top universities dropped their grade requirements to attract more students during the clearing process.

Following the publication of A-level results this week, employers are hiring record numbers of pupils with only GCSEs or A-levels who want to gain onthe-job experience instead of a degree.

There has been growing interest among employers to recruit more school-leavers, with 36 per cent of businesses planning to take on graduates compared to 38 per cent of firms looking to hire school-leavers.

Employers such as KPMG, British Airways, Marks & Spencer and Jaguar Land Rover confirmed they were either hiring more school-leavers this year or opening training programmes to lure bright A- level students.

Research by The Daily Telegraph has found that KPMG, the accountancy firm that employs 11,000 people in the UK, is opening up a six-year training programme aimed at teenagers with A-levels and GCSEs. The firm is hiring 110 for the first intake next month.

Allianz Insurance has opened a technical programme for A-level students. To be considered for the three-year programme, applicants will need to achieve 260 Ucas points across three A-levels, including a B or above in either maths, further maths, statistics, physics or chemistry. An A* is worth 140 Ucas points.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has a new training scheme for those with top A-level grades.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the auditor, said this year it will be hiring record numbers of teenagers with A-levels. This year the firm received 1,916 applications to its school-leaver programme, a 17 per cent rise on last year. In total it hopes to recruit 165 trainees.

British Airways is taking roughly 200 school-leavers this year after the company introduced two new apprenticeship programmes. Network Rail has 200 places available for schoolleavers, while Jaguar Land Rover will be taking on 245 apprentices, a 52 per cent increase on last year.

Rob Wall, head of education and employment policy at the Confederation of British Industry, which employs around seven million people in the UK, said that while companies are recruiting more A-level students, there are still those keen to go to university. His comments follow figures that show the number of UK students to get a place at university through clearing has risen by 27 per cent on last year.

Over 9,200 students have so far been accepted on a course through the clearing system, in which teenagers with no offers or lower grades than expected can find a place at universities which still have available space.

Mr Wall added: “Many employers are looking to attract talent through a number of different pipelines, maybe in the past some of those have neglected that school-leaver market and are now looking at remedying that mistake. University has often been sold as the only route to success, whereas now there is growing recognition that actually there are more routes to success like apprenticeships and vocational routes. The apprenticeship reforms that are under way are all about giving employers more control and what you are doing is ensuring that the skills that are taught through these programmes are more relevant.

“Businesses that engage in apprenticeships [say] that … the skills that are developed in those programmes are directly relevant to what they want. And it is also great for the apprentices because they are guaranteed that they are learning skills that have real currency in the labour market.”