icould - Careers Advice, Choices & Ideas

Okay, so it’s not really a competition (not a close one anyway), but 2011 has been far more tumultuous for A-level students and school leavers than it has been for undergraduates and graduates. Undergraduate students are still paying the same tuition fees, and university graduates are still fighting tooth and nail for the same graduate scheme places. In fact, the only new cause for concern this year has been that youth unemployment has finally passed the one million mark.

On the other hand, quite a lot has changed for A-level students and school leavers. For want of a better phrase, it has kicked off big time! With the impending tuition fee rise in 2012, the “˜traditional’ university route into gainful employment has begun to lose its allure; so much so that thousands of young people from around the country took to the streets of Central London in protest against the coalition government’s new policy.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Indeed, a glimmer of hope has risen from the cloud of student dissatisfaction which is currently hanging over the UK: an innovative development in the job market known as the “˜school leaver programme’. Admittedly, PwC has been recruiting school leavers for over a decade and apprenticeships have been around since the Middle Ages. However, this year is the first time that school leaver programmes of this kind have become a viable alternative to higher education for the UK’s most talented and academically-gifted youngsters.

At this point, I think it’s important to define exactly what a school leaver programme is. Conceptually, school leaver programmes sit somewhere between traditional apprenticeships and graduate schemes. These programmes are structured training and development schemes for young people who have drive, ambition and bags of potential; however, the talented students who companies are looking to recruit are being targeted much, much earlier, i.e. before they have even sent off their UCAS application forms.

These training schemes are kind of like graduate schemes, but they’re not for university graduates. In fact, perhaps the best way to describe them is by using the phrase “˜high-school graduate schemes’? Typically, the schemes are tough to get onto, the entry-requirements are usually quite high, and the young people who join these programmes are offered lucrative salary and benefit packages. What’s more, the “˜school leavers’ are given top notch training, the opportunity to gain valuable on-the-job experience, and the attractive prospect of not having any student debt at the end of the programme.

Apprenticeships have been around for ages and the government recently pledged to create 360,000 new apprenticeships this financial year. However, apprenticeships are typically seen as a route for young people that have never really considered taking the university route anyway. They are an alternative to university, but they are not consistently treated as a viable alternative by the UK’s students who are also considering taking the higher education route. School leaver programmes bridge that gap and provide a solution for 18 year olds who are seeking a truly challenging and exciting alternative to university. Indeed, as part of some school leaver programmes companies actually fund their “˜school leavers’ through university courses.

As we mentioned before, PwC has been recruiting school leavers for some time now, but the rest of the “˜Big Four’ finally caught up this year, with KPMG, Deloitte and Accenture all launching brand new school leaver programmes in 2011. It’s not just the Big Four getting in on the act though; a bunch of other major companies have followed suit, including Grant Thornton, BDO, Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Ernst & Young, RSM Tenon and plenty more.

The rise of school leaver programmes looks set to continue in 2012, especially as employers are continually looking for new ways of attracting the top talent to their companies before their competitors get the chance. The interesting thing though will be whether or not school leaver programmes are introduced en masse in other industry sectors. Currently, the majority of school leaver programmes are offered by financial and professional services companies, and not many can be found in other industries, such as advertising, media or law.

Admittedly, some companies in other sectors are beginning to offer school leaver programmes, such as the retail giant, Tesco, the PR consultancy, Shine Communications, and the innovative marketing agency, MPG Media Contacts, but we will have to wait and see if many other companies follow in their footsteps in 2012. Surely it’s inevitable though, right?