Sajeda Momin

London: They are under 25, unrealistic, selfcentred, fickle and greedy — they are ‘graduate divas’! Employers in the UK are so infuriated by these ‘divas’ that they are looking abroad for staff. A study by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) found a new breed of graduates who were young, university educated, technosavvy and considered themselves to be in great demand on the job market.

The ‘Generation Y’ — successors to ‘Generation X’ who were born in the 1960s and 1970s and were characterised by cynicism and disaffection — are more career-orientated, but bosses find them less than satisfactory and often infuriating.

“There is a sense among Generation Y that they want it all and they want it now. Generation Y is me, me, me,” said Carl Gilleard, chief executive of AGR. Employers consider these ‘divas’ to be lazy and want everything to fall into their laps and who massively overestimate their own abilities.

As a result, bosses are forced to look abroad for graduates with a stronger work ethic.

The AGR found that more than 25 per cent of graduate employers already actively market vacancies abroad, and 66 per cent are predicting recruitment difficulties in the coming year. Last year, nearly half had to leave prized jobs unfilled even though universities turned out record numbers of graduates.

“A quarter of the employers praise the strong work ethic and desire to succeed of overseas graduates, presumably as opposed to those from the UK,” says the report.

Employers argue that the graduates though armed with a 2:1 or better, often lack literacy and numeracy skills, or present themselves poorly.

Others lack initiative or expect to be pandered to.

“There is a wake up call here. Obviously recruitment is a twoway process. Just as graduates are able to choose between employers, employers are able to select from a large number of graduates,” explained Gilleard.

“It is really important that graduates understand the rules of the game. You have to sell yourself by convincing employers that you have the right skills and qualities,” he added.

The demand for top graduates is illustrated by the report’s finding that the number of vacancies is running at a ten-year high, and expected to rise by 16.4 per cent next year. The report says members of Generation Y and UK bosses are ‘speaking in different languages’, and in the long term both may have to amend their expectations.

Source : DNA