As we enter the final weeks of 2024, it’s time to reflect on the year that we have had at Darogan Talent.
One of our biggest successes was running over 20 events at universities in England where Welsh students often go to study (Bristol, Bath, London, Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, Manchester, Liverpool - to name just a few). In the process, we engaged with over 1,000 students and graduates, who we aim to bring back to Wales when they enter the employment market - some of Wales' top talent.
When we talk about retaining talent in Wales (or attracting it back), it’s these individuals that we are most at risk of losing. However, when you meet and chat with these talented young people, the majority say how much they would love to work back home in Wales once they graduate.
It’s no secret that larger corporations utilise internships and placements as a key part of their long-term talent attraction strategy. 68% of interns get a full-time offer from their internship employer. For instance, over 90% of PwC’s interns get full-time offers, according to the company’s internship page.
One of the most common requests we had at our events was “can you find me a placement back in Wales?”
When these students are sourcing placements, usually via their university careers team, they are only being connected with employers that are local to that university and therefore, are not aware of opportunities in Wales.
Additionally, larger corporations typically have more capacity to run internship programmes and, as the Welsh economy is dominated by SMEs, there are ultimately less of these opportunities in Wales.
Alongside this, skills shortages in Wales have more than doubled in the last 6 years, and with growing and emerging high-tech sectors such as Net Zero, Cyber Security, Compound Semiconductors and Fintech, the need for graduate-level talent is only growing.
There is also an exodus of young, Welsh-speaking talent from rural regions of Wales, which is impacting local communities and creating further challenges around recruitment within Welsh-speaking roles.
If we can encourage and support more Welsh employers to utilise recruitment strategies like internships and graduate roles, whilst making these opportunities more visible to Welsh students studying across the border, we may have an opportunity to start closing the gaps.
The ‘long-term hiring’ benefits of interns are evident, but they also offer plenty of short-term benefits too. Having hired two interns ourselves this year, we saw increases in our productivity and both candidates brought creative ideas and a fresh perspective to the organisation (we are also an SME by the way!).
From our own research, there is clearly a mismatch in Wales of expectations of a graduate’s ‘employability’, with employers feeling that they might not be as ‘ready’ for the workplace compared to how prepared the graduates feel that they are. Internships and placements can also provide a solution for this so that students can gain valuable work experience and prepare them for the world of work.
Therefore, there is a golden opportunity to not only use placements to attract graduates back to Wales, but also to invest in this future talent, develop their skills and work experience, whilst improving productivity within Welsh industry and to support it in its resourcing and supply chain requirements.
Darogan will be continuing with our events outside of Wales, with 10 events already planned for January-March 2025 (including a wee trip to Scotland to engage with Welsh students at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and St Andrews!)
We are excited to continue these conversations and hopefully learn more from our travels about how we can attract Welsh graduates back to Wales. If you are an employer in Wales and found this article interesting and want to invest in future Welsh talent, then we would love to hear from you.
Jack Taylor
Employer & Partnerships Manager, Darogan Talent
As we enter the final weeks of 2024, it’s time to reflect on the year that we have had at Darogan Talent.
One of our biggest successes was running over 20 events at universities in England where Welsh students often go to study (Bristol, Bath, London, Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, Manchester, Liverpool - to name just a few). In the process, we engaged with over 1,000 students and graduates, who we aim to bring back to Wales when they enter the employment market - some of Wales' top talent.
When we talk about retaining talent in Wales (or attracting it back), it’s these individuals that we are most at risk of losing. However, when you meet and chat with these talented young people, the majority say how much they would love to work back home in Wales once they graduate.
It’s no secret that larger corporations utilise internships and placements as a key part of their long-term talent attraction strategy. 68% of interns get a full-time offer from their internship employer. For instance, over 90% of PwC’s interns get full-time offers, according to the company’s internship page.
One of the most common requests we had at our events was “can you find me a placement back in Wales?”
When these students are sourcing placements, usually via their university careers team, they are only being connected with employers that are local to that university and therefore, are not aware of opportunities in Wales.
Additionally, larger corporations typically have more capacity to run internship programmes and, as the Welsh economy is dominated by SMEs, there are ultimately less of these opportunities in Wales.
Alongside this, skills shortages in Wales have more than doubled in the last 6 years, and with growing and emerging high-tech sectors such as Net Zero, Cyber Security, Compound Semiconductors and Fintech, the need for graduate-level talent is only growing.
There is also an exodus of young, Welsh-speaking talent from rural regions of Wales, which is impacting local communities and creating further challenges around recruitment within Welsh-speaking roles.
If we can encourage and support more Welsh employers to utilise recruitment strategies like internships and graduate roles, whilst making these opportunities more visible to Welsh students studying across the border, we may have an opportunity to start closing the gaps.
The ‘long-term hiring’ benefits of interns are evident, but they also offer plenty of short-term benefits too. Having hired two interns ourselves this year, we saw increases in our productivity and both candidates brought creative ideas and a fresh perspective to the organisation (we are also an SME by the way!).
From our own research, there is clearly a mismatch in Wales of expectations of a graduate’s ‘employability’, with employers feeling that they might not be as ‘ready’ for the workplace compared to how prepared the graduates feel that they are. Internships and placements can also provide a solution for this so that students can gain valuable work experience and prepare them for the world of work.
Therefore, there is a golden opportunity to not only use placements to attract graduates back to Wales, but also to invest in this future talent, develop their skills and work experience, whilst improving productivity within Welsh industry and to support it in its resourcing and supply chain requirements.
Darogan will be continuing with our events outside of Wales, with 10 events already planned for January-March 2025 (including a wee trip to Scotland to engage with Welsh students at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and St Andrews!)
We are excited to continue these conversations and hopefully learn more from our travels about how we can attract Welsh graduates back to Wales. If you are an employer in Wales and found this article interesting and want to invest in future Welsh talent, then we would love to hear from you.
Jack Taylor
Employer & Partnerships Manager, Darogan Talent