One of the overarching themes to come out of the AGR Conference today has been the recent success of the energy sector. While the number of jobs elsewhere are down (notably in banking, IT and construction, which have reported drops of 40% or more), there are 7.1% more graduate vacancies this year in the UK energy, utilities and water sector. No surprises, then, that the head of graduate recruitment at RWE npower Bob Athawle this morning described the recession as “an opportunity for innovation and to redefine our position.”
There is no doubt that this sector is more appealing to graduates than ever before. While today’s AGR Conference and survey bear out the theory that jobs in the industry are relatively secure, the sector is also an increasingly sexy place to work. Issues around green energy, renewables and climate change have made the industry front page news in recent years and ignited the interest of any bright graduates with a hint of activism in their personality. What’s more, these big issues have also given birth to a string of prestigious consultancies and services companies who provide the insight, strategy and planning behind environmental innovations.
In the UK, we are also becoming much more aware of our energy, water and utilities suppliers. Greater competition has meant greater marketing budgets and much more public faces for the big players in these industries. Take EDF Energy’s high profile Save Today Save Tomorrow campaign, which promotes the company’s environmental targets to establish its EDF’s place as a forward thinking and progressive provider in their market. These companies are boxing to clever to win business, thinking far beyond a simple price war to secure a greater share of customers. And ambitious, intelligent graduates are clever enough to spot and to admire those tactics and strategies in a potential employer.
Across the FreshMinds group, energy and utilities have constituted more and more of our business this year. At FreshMinds Talent, we have been working with providers, suppliers and consultancies to target the very best people in the job market across all levels of seniority (not to mention placing interim consultants and project managers through our placements business). At the same time our sister company, FreshMinds Research, wrote a series of blogs in the past week or two about their involvement with and thoughts on the utilities sector. Expect these industries to feature regularly in good news stories about graduate recruitment as they help lead the UK out of the recession.
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on Dec 10th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
We can start by finding which part of pour home or apartment uses the most energy. Then read on for many energy-saving ideas.