Yellow Brick, the graduate internship scheme, says that many Jersey employers are ‘crying out’ for local graduates within fields such as engineering and agriculture as well as finance and law.
- The Yellow Brick programme aims to unite locally qualified students and undergraduates, as well as those who have recently graduated, with employers in Jersey.
- It offers project-based, graduate internships for graduates and post-graduates across different working environments in Jersey, creating the opportunity for graduates to secure paid roles.
- Both businesses and individuals can register with Yellow Brick.[/breakout]
Montrose, a company which works with organisations such as UNICEF and has projects in the developing world, including Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, is the latest to sign up to the Yellow Brick scheme.
The company had spent months trying to find a suitable candidate for a project officer role.
Montrose managing director Dr Graham Root said: ‘We’re not looking for someone with much experience, just a person who is bright, ambitious and eager to learn from ourselves and our project managers in Asia and Africa; and who might eventually be happy to travel the world with the job working on projects that really make an impact on peoples’ lives.’
The Yellow Brick scheme enables candidates to earn a salary while also gaining experience and training. Positions are for a minimum of three months, but many will lead to permanent job opportunities for the right candidates.
Sally Gallichan, programme manager,said: ‘We have a huge range of diverse opportunities for recent graduates already on our books.
‘There are lots of employers in the Island crying out for excellent local candidates, and who are prepared to put time and effort into training and mentoring.
‘We want to link our undergraduates and graduates with these employers so they get the best start in their careers and Jersey retains the talent it has nurtured.’
To be eligible for the scheme interns need to be locally qualified in line with the States of Jersey population policy, be educated to degree level, and have graduated within the last two years.
JERSEY’S finance industry is in need of more workers.
That in itself should be good news, following six years of recession and an estimated 1,000 job losses.
However, according to a new report, there are now concerns that the vacancies available to trainees – expected to reach 350 a year, over the next ten years – cannot be filled locally because of a lack of applicants with higher-level skills.
The £24,000 consultancy report was compiled on behalf of Skills Jersey, a group of industry representatives who provide advice to the States on training requirements in order to meet the needs of the changing economy.
In December last year they warned that more needs to be done to entice Jersey graduates to come back to work in the Island, as well as encouraging school students to prepare for a career in the finance industry.
Carol Graham, the vice-chairman of the Jersey Skills Board, said that this was the first review of the industry since 2007 and that since the start of the recession there had been substantial changes, particularly in banking, with fewer of the administration roles that traditionally attracted younger school leavers and more demand for compliance and risk management roles.
Mrs Graham said that firms were finding it difficult to recruit employees with degree-level professional skills and that this was set to continue as businesses were now forecasting future growth.
‘There is a huge amount of merit in graduates wanting to expand their experience away from the Island, but we need to encourage these people to come back with all those skills,’ she said. The human resources specialist said that although, in recent years, schools had introduced courses in financial services, with a degree and master’s level course now available in the Island, it was still difficult to recruit at the right skills levels.
Geoff Cook, the chief executive of industry promoters Jersey Finance, said that in a recent survey employers said they were planning to recruit 80 per cent of new workers from the Island.
He said that more businesses were offering training, with A-level students achieving three ‘B’s almost guaranteed a place with accountancy firms and law firms ‘very keen’ to attract recruits.
In November, it was revealed that graduates in Jersey could benefit from a training programme which aimed to find secondary school maths teachers.
The Education Department launched a free training programme to help people living in Jersey who already have a degree to become maths teachers.
Andy Gibbs, the department’s head of lifelong learning and skills, said: ‘We think there could be a pool of highly skilled candidates in the finance and business sectors who have experience and maturity that would be an immense benefit in the classroom. We hope this course will provide an attractive way of moving into a new, rewarding career without people leaving the Island.’
Initially four places will be made available, which will be open to Islanders who already have a degree, not necessarily in maths, provided they have worked or studied in an area that requires them to be highly numerate.
The trainee teachers will first take a specialist maths knowledge enhancement course for between eight and 16 weeks, and then join the Jersey Graduate Teacher programme in September this year to complete their teacher training while working in one of the Island’s secondary schools.
