More women employed for grad roles using ‘skills-based’ hiring

02 Nov 2022

A study has recently been carried out in Britain of more than 48,000 applications to grad schemes, which has revealed a 65% rise in the number of women employed for graduate jobs using ‘skills-based’ recruitment, as opposed to a CV-led style. The research was undertaken by recruitment experts, Applied, which monitored the gender divide of a total of 48,867 applicants to graduate schemes within 27 businesses in 11 industries. The study was conducted between May 2017 and May 2022.

Findings
The research showed that 66% of candidates recruited onto graduate programs were women after using a skills-based hiring process. This represents a 65% increase on current national figures. Usually, female workers make up 40% of the graduate scheme intake. In addition, in this latest study, 29% of successful applicants were male, 4% didn’t disclose their gender and 1% identified as nonbinary.

Rise in female applicants
In addition, a skills-based approach increased the number of women applying by 17%. In this study, 55% were female, yet in the past, women have been less likely to apply to grad schemes, making up just 47% of the total number of applicants. Around 34% of applicants analysed here were male, 10% didn’t disclose their gender and 1% identified as nonbinary. 

Accounting, Finance and Consulting
These sectors are key grad recruiters, and last year hired around 7,296 graduates in the UK. Within the accounting, finance and consulting sectors, 51% of successful hires were female after using a skills-based recruitment process. This indicates a 19% rise in industry figures. Last year, women employees made up just 43% of PwC’s graduate intake.

The importance of graduate schemes
According to Khyati Sundaram, ethical recruitment expert and CEO of Applied: “Graduate schemes offer excellent opportunities for young people to kickstart their careers. More needs to be done to address the historical underrepresentation of women on graduate schemes in the UK, and to empower women to take up their rightful places on these programmes.” He added: “All female graduates need is a fair chance. Once empowered to seize graduate roles and leverage the training, support and opportunities they come with, the sky’s the limit for the next generation of female talent.”