Recruit our graduates

Are you looking to recruit our skilled and talented graduates? Did you know that an increasing number of our graduates hope to work for companies local to the University?

You can benefit from our in-house Graduate Recruitment Consultants, whether you're a large corporate, a small to medium-sized enterprise or a charity. We'll work with you to pre-screen candidates and help negotiate your job offers to graduates. You'll also get opportunities to raise your profile at the University by joining our recruitment fairs, providing skills sessions and presentations to our students, and using our jobs board.

When you work with our in-house Graduate Recruitment Consultants, you'll meet graduates with the latest knowledge and skills in disciplines such as finance, science, sales, human resources, law, engineering, languages, computing and business. And you'll hire employees who've built up transferable skills that include critical analysis, problem-solving, research, time management, communication and team-working.

How we support your graduate recruitment

We can help you find the perfect recruits for your business or organisation. By working with our team, you'll get personalised support, join one of our recruitment fairs, work with us to raise your profile among students, and learn more about advertising your job on our online jobs board.

Work with a graduate recruitment consultant

If you're looking for support to find graduates looking for work, we'll assign you a dedicated and experienced Graduate Recruitment Consultant. You'll meet with them to discuss your requirements for an ideal candidate, and they'll take time to understand what qualities a graduate needs to succeed in your organisation.

Your Graduate Recruitment Consultant will guide you through the recruitment process, from developing your job description, shortlisting candidates for interview and making a successful offer. Even if you're a small to medium-sized enterprise or new startup, the process is fast and efficient – so you can concentrate on running your organisation.

Benefits of working with a Graduate Recruitment Consultants:

• You'll get personalised service from a Graduate Recruitment Consultants with industry expertise
• Your consultant will guide you in the use of traditional and creative advertising, making sure your vacancy reaches the right candidates
• You'll receive support and guidance when pre-screening and collecting graduate applications and CVs
• Your consultant will help you manage your interviews
• If required, you'll get free use of our facilities for holding interviews
• You'll get help to negotiate a candidate's job offer

Contact our Graduate Recruitment Consultants

Ready to partner with a Graduate Recruitment Consultant and find the perfect candidates for your business?

Find out more about the subjects our Graduate Recruitment Consultants specialise in and set up a meeting by emailing us at graduaterecruitment@port.ac.uk or calling us on +44 (0)2392 842 684.

Be part of a recruitment fair

If you have large-scale recruitment needs or want to raise the profile of your small to medium-sized enterprise, we can help you exhibit your business or organisation at one of our recruitment fairs.

In the 2023-24 academic year, we held 6 recruitment fairs, and over 100 career events alongside 80 external employer events.  These fairs included our autumn Graduate Recruitment and Placement Fair as well as more sector-specific fairs. During that academic year, over 175 employers exhibited to over 4100 students and graduates of the University.

If you'd like to exhibit at one of our upcoming fairs, you can email campusactivity@port.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)2392 842 684.

Work with us to raise your profile

If you're looking for ways to attract and engage our graduates, we can advise you on raising your profile across the University through various activities.

Lead a presentation

At our employer presentations, you'll stand in front of an audience of students and promote your company. You'll get the chance to sell your company mission and culture, putting your business or organisation ahead of others.

If needed, we can market your presentation to students studying a specific subject area or in a specific year, to make sure that you're presenting to the most suitable audience to match your recruitment needs.

Lead a skills session

When you lead a skills session for our students, you'll give them insight into the recruitment process, and build brand loyalty in the next generation of graduates. Your skills session will help students and graduates understand what employers expect during the recruitment process. For this reason, employer skills sessions are extremely popular and valuable for graduates.

Partner with our academics

You can partner directly with different academic departments across the University to raise your organisation's profile among students and graduates. These partnerships can involve activities such as leading guest lectures for students, providing case studies of your business as inspiration to students, sponsoring a student prize or arranging for a group student visit to your organisation.

Kevin Briscoe (also one of our Entrepreneurs in Residence) partners with us each year to provide the Briscoe PR Prize to the most outstanding student on the journalism course.

If you'd like to work with us to raise your company profile among our upcoming and recent graduates, you can email sally.nicolson@port.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)2392 842 684.

Advertise on our careers jobs board

If you're looking for a simple way to advertise job vacancies to our graduates, you can use our online jobs board for free. Just register your organisation and upload your jobs. If a student or graduate see your advert, they'll apply directly to you.

If you require further information on the jobs board please contact us directly by emailing us at jobsboard@port.ac.uk or calling us on +44 (0)2392 842 684.

Please take note of our terms and conditions when using the jobs board to advertise to our students and graduates.

Recruiting International and EU/EEA graduates

You may be aware that visa rules are changing. Graduates completing their courses this year will be able to apply for the Graduate Immigration Route visa, meaning they can work for two years (or three years after a PhD) in any role without employers needing to sponsor them. EU/EEA graduates may be applying to you with EU Settled or Pre-Settled status, giving them continued work rights in the UK.

What this means for you

There will be a wider pool of applicants able to work for you without you needing to sponsor them. Our international and EU graduates bring with them useful skills for your business, including language skills and an understanding of different cultures. When shortlisting applicants for our clients, we'll help you find the candidates that best match your skills requirements.

We would encourage you to consider sponsoring our international graduates under the Skilled Work Visa, either before they join you, or part-way through their Graduate Immigration Route visas. This will encourage them to stay and progress within your organisation. If you were considering sponsoring a graduate the process is more straightforward than you may think. UKCISA provides useful information on the Skilled Worker Route.

• The first step is to apply for a Sponsor Licence from UKVI and the cost for this can be as low as £536 depending on the size of your company/turnover. Find out more about the sponsorship process.

• With the introduction of the Points Based System in January 2021, a much wider range of jobs can now be sponsored as the job level requirement has reduced to NQF level 3 from level 6.

• Graduates switching from a Student Visa or the Graduate Immigration Route, must be paid 70% of the Going Rate for the job, or £20,480, whichever is higher. You can find further information on the Government's website.

• The Resident Labour Market Test was never required for graduates switching from the Student Visa, but this process has been suspended completely.

• Employers will not be required to pay the Immigration Skills Charge for graduates switching from the Student or Graduate visa route.

As an employer, you'll be familiar with undertaking Right to Work checks for all new employees. You can find further information on checking job applicants' right to work.