Public Servant Lifestyle

The UK Home Civil Service has been named as Britain’s top graduate employer for 2003.

The results of one of the largest polls of new graduates ever conducted shows that - for the first time - the Civil Service is the most sought-after employer for graduates leaving university. The list also features prominent positions for: Local Government, the NHS, Army & MOD, RAF, Dstl, GCHQ, the Police, Royal Navy, Foreign Office and Security Service, giving it a very strong public service presence.

The UK Home Civil Service has been ranked in first place in the 2003 edition of The Times’ Top 100 Graduate Employers, the study conducted annually for The Times newspaper by specialist student/graduate market researchers High Fliers Research Ltd.

This year’s research was based on face-to-face interviews with 15,474 graduates leaving university in the summer of 2003. Graduates were simply asked to identify their first choice employer with the open-ended question: "Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?" The one hundred organisations mentioned in the list most often by the ‘Class of 2003’ form The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers.

Highlights from the new Top 100 league table of Britain’s leading graduate employers include :

The Civil Service has climbed from fourth place (in 2002 to) reach number one in 2003, which means that IT and consulting firm Accenture - who had held the top spot for the last five consecutive years - have slipped into second place

PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the UK’s largest recruiters of graduates have dropped back to 3rd, whilst the British Army and KPMG have moved up to 4th and 5th places respectively. Last year’s number three firm, Andersen, were taken over in the UK by rival professional services firm Deloitte during the course of 2002. The combined firm is now ranked in 10th place

High street bank HSBC have climbed ten places to appear at number six, their first time inside the top ten, and have been joined by the National Health Service (NHS) who have jumped an impressive eighteen places to reach 9th place

The BBC moved up four places to number seven, just ahead of Procter & Gamble who are unchanged in 8th place. Mars and Unilever, the fast-moving consumer goods companies, have both slipped out of the top ten for the first time and are ranked 11th and 12th respectively

Oil companies Shell and BP have both climbed within the top twenty to reach 14th and 15th positions

Many of the investment banks who appear in this year’s Top 100 have fallen a number of places. Last year’s highest rated bank, Goldman Sachs, has dropped to 17th place, whilst rivals JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are no longer ranked inside the top forty employers

Rolls-Royce are one of the year’s highest climbers, rising more than thirty places to reach 31st place. Science and technology firm QinetiQ have jumped sixteen places to 51st, whilst the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the Government research agency, has moved up nineteen places to 81st place

It has been an excellent year for retailers – Marks & Spencer, a former number one employer from 1997, have climbed up to 16th place and Sainsbury’s jumped a further twenty-four places to number eighteen, their highest ever position. This year’s highest climber is German high street supermarket ALDI, who having entered the Top 100 last year at number 65, have now leapt up to 20th place. Asda is this year’s highest ‘new entry’ and appear at number forty

There are a further fifteen new entries – Airbus, Pfizer, ABN Amro and HBOS are each ranked within the Top 100 for the first time, as is the recently-launched Local Government National Graduate Development Programme, which appears in 59th place. The new Teach First scheme, which despite being in its first year of operation, is ranked 63rd. Other new entries lower down the Top 100 include accountancy firms Grant Thornton and BDO Stoy Hayward, the Bank of England, Wragge & Co, Mercer HR Consulting, Oxfam, Sony and law firm DLA

The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers has now been published annually for seven years and it is interesting to see how employers have moved since the first league table was published in 1997. In that year, Marks & Spencer and Procter & Gamble occupied the top two positions, with Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting in third place. Since then, Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture) held the top spot for five years. Marks & Spencer tumbled to 32nd place in 2000 but has now recovered to 16th position. ICI was in 5th place in 1997 but by 2000 had fallen to 69th place, before leaving the Top 100 altogether in 2001. They are ranked this year in 84th place

Traditional

Survey director, Martin Birchall commented: "The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers is a dynamic league table of the UK’s most exciting and well-respected graduate recruiters. The fact that in 2003 it is headed for the first time by the Civil Service reflects the widespread concern amongst university-leavers that career prospects for new graduates are far from certain in the private sector. Graduates from the ‘Class of 2003’ have turned away from traditional favourites such as the investment banks, management consultants and the accountancy firms in their thousands and have instead opted for major public sector employers such as the NHS, teaching, the Armed Forces and even Local Government."

For more information about graduate opportunities in the UK Civil Service, visit the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway.

The Times Graduate Employers Top 100 – List in full.

For the survey 15,474 new graduates were asked the unprompted question "Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?"

(First figure shown is this year’s placing, followed by placing last year (if any). New entries to the list are indicated as ‘NEW’.)

• 1 / 4 Civil Service
• 2 / 1 Accenture
• 3 / 2 PricewaterhouseCoopers
• 4 / 5 British Army
• 5 / 6 KPMG
• 6 / 16 HSBC
• 7 / 11 BBC
• 8 / 8 Procter & Gamble
• 9 / 27 National Health Service
• 10 / 18 Deloitte
• 11 / 10 Masterfoods
• 12 / 7 Unilever
• 13 / 13 Ernst & Young
• 14 / 20 Shell
• 15 / 19 BP
• 16 / 25 Marks & Spencer
• 17 / 9 Goldman Sachs
• 18 / 42 Sainsbury's
• 19 / 15 IBM
• 20 / 65 ALDI
• 21 / 14 Ford
• 22 / 22 GlaxoSmithKline
• 23 / 29 BT
• 24 / 36 AstraZeneca
• 25 / 12 Barclays Bank
• 26 / 28 BAE Systems
• 27 / 17 UBS
• 28 / 38 L'Oreal
• 29 / 33 McDonalds Restaurants
• 30 / 35 Police Service
• 31 / 68 Rolls-Royce
• 32 / 45 Royal Air Force
• 33 / 37 Boots
• 34 / 32 Microsoft
• 35 / 43 Ministry of Defence
• 36 / 52 Tesco
• 37 / 39 Allen & Overy
• 38 / 54 Royal Bank of Scotland Group
• 39 / 26 Clifford Chance
• 40 / NEW ASDA
• 41 / 50 Eversheds
• 42 / 24 Morgan Stanley
• 43 / 46 ExxonMobil
• 44 / 40 McKinsey & Company
• 45 / 21 JP Morgan
• 46 / 30 Deutsche Bank
• 47 / 31 Foreign Office
• 48 / 34 Linklaters
• 49 / 23 Reuters
• 50 / 47 Vodafone
• 51 / 67 Qinetiq
• 52 / 44 Diageo
• 53 / 49 Lloyds TSB
• 54 / 74 Arcadia Group
• 55 / 48 Arup
• 56 / 69 Royal Navy
• 57 / NEW Airbus
• 58 / 58 Citigroup
• 59 / NEW Local Government (National Graduate Development Programme)
• 60 / NEW Pfizer
• 61 / 63 Standard Life
• 62 / 56 John Lewis
• 63 / NEW Teach First
• 64 / 41 Merrill Lynch
• 65 / 55 Freshfields
• 66 / 89 Schlumberger
• 67 / NEW ABN AMRO
• 68 / 62 Bain & Company
• 69 / NEW HBOS
• 70 / 53 Nestle
• 71 / 64 Norton Rose
• 72 / 76 Cadbury Schweppes
• 73 / 72 Data Connection
• 74 / 60 Jaguar
• 75 / 80 MI5 - The Security Service
• 76 / 57 British Airways
• 77 / 97 Orange
• 78 / 90 Slaughter & May
• 79 / 61 WPP Group
• 80 66 Government Communications Headquaters (GCHQ)
• 81 / 100 Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
• 82 / 51 PA Consulting
• 83 / 70 Herbert Smith
• 84 / 86 ICI
• 85 / 95 Lovells
• 86 / 59 Credit Suisse First Boston
• 87 / NEW Grant Thornton
• 88 / 85 Virgin
• 89 / NEW Bank of England
• 90 / NEW BDO Stoy Hayward
• 91 / NEW Wragge & Co
• 92 / 71 BNFL
• 93 / 73 European Commission
• 94 / NEW Mercer HR Consulting
• 95 / NEW Oxfam
• 96 / NEW Sony
• 97 / NEW Waitrose
• 98 / 81 Watson Wyatt
• 99 / NEW Deloitte Consulting
• 100 / NEW DLA

More information available in Job Centre