Amy Simmons and Emily Ward, two final year undergraduates at Nottingham Business School have just delivered an interesting research paper on …why are so few graduates working in SMEs within the UK?

Having worked in small business in their University placement the researchers had noticed how graduates appeared to be missing from the SME human resource landscape. The SME economic landscape is important. As their research states…

SMEs are the driving force towards the recovery of the economy as they account for 99% of the UK businesses. They also provide 67% of private sector jobs and contribute to 50% of the UK’s GDP.

Their research indicates that SME’s do not understand  and have a lack of knowledge about graduates. What are their qualifications worth? What impact can a graduate have on my business? Graduate skills, even from major corporates clearly focus, their research shows, on ‘traditional’ skill sets. Team working and communication, team players required and a strong can do’ attitude.

A key reference in the Simmons and Ward research is the difficulty of actually connecting SME’s with graduates. Private sector ‘soft development’ of business often takes place outside of normal working hours in the UK.  Key careers fairs and ‘meet and greet’ graduate events are traditionally mainstream day events.

Overall we warmed to their thesis, and find echoes in our worry about Social Business awareness, which we have written about in the past. How to enable graduates to recognise the Social Business sector as positive career progression path? The Simmons and Ward research seems to indicate that the issue is of an even more fundamental nature.

How to make graduates aware of the SME sector opportunities for dynamic personal and professional growth? Leaning towards social or community enterprise is probably the second, more subtle step to take in our raising awareness campaign?

Discover the Nottingham Trent University web article in full here…