TUI Travel PLC, the BBC and learnpurple are some of the best places to find an internship as the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE) announces the winners of its annual Awards.

TUI Travel PLC, the world’s leading international leisure travel group, beat more than 250 companies to be crowned overall winner at yesterday’s (23 March 2010) ceremony at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London. Gordon McKenzie, director for the office for graduate opportunities for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills presented 23 NCWE Awards* across 11 categories, rewarding companies that have demonstrated exceptional work placements.   

Award winning organisations came from a range of sizes and sectors including Barclays, BBC and Audiences North East. This year saw the introduction of the Best Work Placement Diversity Scheme category, which was won by Pinsent Masons LLP. 

TUI Travel PLC also won Best Work Experience Provider in the ‘new scheme’ and ‘over 250 employees (long-term placements, employing less than 20 students)’ categories. Talent retention specialist, learnpurple received a Highly Commended Award in the ’10-250 employees’ category.

Heather Collier, director of the NCWE comments: “We’re now in the seventh year of the awards and their increasing popularity reflects the growing importance of work experience in allowing students to develop skills while providing companies a talent pool for recruitment. With more companies competing than ever before our winners have done exceptionally well, demonstrating best practice for others to follow.”

Rachel McAneny, trading assistant for TUI UK and Ireland said: “We were delighted to have won both categories, but to have been crowned overall winners was the icing on the cake. We believe we provide an exceptional experience for our students, offering a well-planned approach, exciting opportunities and a supportive environment, so it’s fantastic to receive recognition from the National Council for Work Experience.”    

The NCWE Awards encourage and reward employers who take the lead in the provision of valuable work placement opportunities for undergraduates; setting high standards for others to follow by offering fulfilling work placements that help students to bridge the gap between education and the world of work.

This year’s sponsors include Changeboard, AGR, GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica.

For further information visit www.work-experience.org/awards

With the debate gathering momentum on the quality of internships and student exploitation, the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE) Awards announces its 2010 finalists*.

Microsoft, IBM, BP and Fujitsu are just a few of the organisations shortlisted and six companies will be competing in the new category, Best Work Placement Diversity Scheme.

Heather Collier, director of the NCWE comments: “We are thrilled at the record number of entries this year and that so many organisations have entered the new category. This is good news for any students worried about the possibility of taking on internships and feeling exploited. There continues to be a huge number of companies offering quality experiences and our finalists are a good indication of what’s out there.”

The winners will be announced on Tuesday 23 March at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London where Gordon McKenzie, director at the Office for Graduate Opportunities for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will present the awards.

The shortlist covers a complete spectrum of companies, from well-known multi-nationals such as The Co-operative Group to under 10 employee organisations like ethical PR company, Blue Rocket.

The Co-operative Group has been nominated for Best New Work Experience Scheme. The company’s Graduate Recruitment Officer, Rachel Rotherham said: “Since the launch of our placement scheme last year we have strived to maintain a market-leading programme ensuring the absolute highest calibre of experience for our students and graduates. It is extremely rewarding that our commitment to work experience is being recognised by the NCWE.”

This year’s sponsors include Changeboard, AGR, GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica.

For further information visit www.work-experience.org/awards .

Europe’s largest online recruitment survey NORAS, once again shows that the number of people exclusively using the internet to look for a job is still on the increase.

The annual National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS), published later this month, surveyed job seekers between September and December 2009. The results show that 1 in 5 online job seekers now use only the internet to look for jobs – more than doubling the figure of 1 in 11 from 2008.

The 2010 NORAS survey has had a massive response having been carried out by over 86,000 participants, up from 50,000 participants in 2009.

The NORAS 2010 results will be available to download free at www.noras.co.uk later this month. The information will include how jobseekers look for a job, how successful online recruitment is for them and how they use different online channels. Plus what is most and least important to jobseekers on a recruitment website.

Giles Guest, managing director of Enhance Media – the online recruitment research and strategy company that produces NORAS commented – “NORAS is an essential piece of research helping employers and agencies choose the best job boards for their roles – saving them time and money”.

Over 62 Job Boards took part in NORAS 2010 including:

Bristol Jobs and Cardiff Jobs

Careers & Jobs UK

Careers in audit

Changeboard

CIMA global

eFinancialcareers

Employment 4 Students

Exec-appointments (incl MBA)

Executives on the Web

Fish4Jobs

Guardian Jobs

Gumtree

ICAEW Jobs

Jobs AC

Jobs4Medical

JobsGoPublic

Jobsretail

Law Society Gazette

Legal Week

LondonCareers.net

Milkround

Nuclear Careers

Pharmiweb

Prospects (graduate)

Sales Recruitment Agency

Security Cleared Jobs

stvjobs

Telegraph Jobs

thejobsmine

Times Online

Top-Consultant

Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment

Trinity Mirror REGIONAL (not same as TMDR)

VCJobs

William Reed

RecruitRank Awards honour first class recruitment agencies based purely on candidate feedback

Quantica Search and Selection has been declared as a Top 10 finalist in the Most Improved Recruiter: High volume Jobsite user category of Jobsite’s 2009 RecruitRank Awards (www.recruitrank.co.uk). Recognising best practice and quality customer service in recruitment agencies, the RecruitRank Awards are the only accolades in the industry where finalists and winners are chosen by the feedback from candidates and not a panel of industry judges.

Launched by leading online recruiter Jobsite (www.jobsite.co.uk) in November 2005, RecruitRank allows candidates to feedback anonymously on the quality of an agency’s service after they have applied for a vacancy advertised by them on Jobsite. Recruiters have personal, private access to this free market research and it enables them to monitor and, if necessary, improve their service offering. The finalists within each category of the Awards were selected through a culmination of this feedback from candidates over the last 12 months.

The awards, which are in their fourth year, were held on 11th November 2009 at stylish central London venue, Jewel.

Commenting on the awards, Keith Potts, Jobsite CEO, says: “It has been a tough year for everyone in the recruitment industry, so we are really proud to see that so many recruitment agencies are still placing a high importance on providing outstanding customer service. With several thousand recruitment consultancies eligible for inclusion in the RecruitRank awards, being awarded Top 10 finalist status is a great accolade in itself. Finalists have the added compliment that they have achieved this position through the people who know their offering the best – the candidates – providing vital third party endorsement.”

MD of Quantica Search and Selection, Glen Prince, said “the fact that these awards are voted for by canditaes validates all the work we have done to ensure that the candidate experience is positive and adds value to the career search. I am extremely proud of everyone at Quantica Search and Selection who have worked tirelessly this year to help an increasing number of candidates.”

RecruitRank Awards – Winning Agency

Kensington Consulting Ltd has been announced as winners of 2 RecruitRank Awards for outstanding customer service. They received these accolades based on candidate feedback left through the RecruitRank tool on Jobsite over a twelve month period.

Kensington Consulting Ltd is the top recruitment agency in the following areas:

They are also a Top 10 finalist in these further categories:

This is a fantastic achievement and reflects the fact that Kensington Consulting Ltd outshine thousands of other eligible agencies with their levels of customer service.

The fourth annual Jobsite RecruitRank Awards took place on Wednesday 11th November to reward the country’s top performing recruitment agencies based on candidate feedback. Recognising best practice and customer service in recruitment agencies, the RecruitRank Awards are the only industry awards based purely on feedback from jobseekers and not the traditional peer judging panel.

The results of the National Online Recruitment Awards 2009 have been announced.  Held in association with Perms Connect, this was the ninth annual NORAs, which aims to recognise the very best recruitment websites in the UK from a candidate user’s perspective.

This year almost 25,000 nominations were made from jobseekers for 654 websites. These nominations included feedback from the job-seeking candidates on why they prefer these websites.  Aided by a panel of industry expert judges* the number of sites were reduced to a shortlist of 66 Finalists in twelve award categories.  These Finalists websites were then stringently assessed from a candidate user’s point of view to arrive at the winners.

The awards process began in July and finally culminated in the NORAs event, held in the exclusive Orchid London venue, in Piccadilly last Thursday night (5^th Nov). In total, the event hosted over 300 professionals all involved in the recruitment and online recruitment technology and advertising industry, eager to find out which sites would triumph.

Stephen O’Donnell, of AlljobsUK.com and 1Job.co.uk, who originally conceived and devised the awards in 2000 and who heads up the event, said: “To the Finalists, I want to offer my sincere congratulations.  Given the extremely competitive nature of this sector, and the profile of the UK recruitment at the moment, it’s a real achievement to be considered one of the best in the country.  I believe the shortlist of award Finalists represents the very best in online recruitment in the UK today. By throwing a spotlight on the very best, these awards aim to encourage continuous improvement by all of us particularly for the candidate users of our sites.”

Julian Felstead M.D. of 1Job.co.uk added: “Those who run recruitment websites, work daily to try and meet the needs of not only candidates, but also of those who are recruiting.  The past year has seen a seismic shift in the balance between the two, and there are now far greater numbers of candidates pursuing at least 45% fewer advertised jobs.  This presents us all with new challenges, and requires us all to continually look to improve our websites and systems.  The speed of change is not slowing in the online recruitment sector, and the cost of failure is high.  However, what we have here, in the shape of the NORA finalists and winners, are those that have excelled in catering for candidates.”

The NORAs are organised and run by AlljobsUK.com and 1Job.co.uk.  Both of these websites are in the business of delivering jobseekers directly to where the vacancies are advertised on the most popular recruitment websites in the UK.

The winners of the National Online Recruitment Awards 2009 are:

1. Best General Jobsite                                                 www.jobsite.co.uk

2. Best Specialist (Niche) Jobsite                                                www.retailchoice.com

3. Best Regional Jobsite                                                 www.key103jobs.co.uk

4. Best National Recruitment Agency Website               www.rhr.co.uk

5. Best Small Recruitment Agency Website                    www.mccarthyrecruitment.com

6. Best National Employer’s Website                             www.armyjobs.mod.uk

7. Best Small Employer’s Website                                  www.join.gcsltd.com

8. Best Online Recruitment by a Consumer Publication  www.jobs.guardian.co.uk

9. Best Online Recruitment by a Trade Publication         www.drapersjobs.com

10. Best Employment Advice Website                           www.careerplayer.com

11. Best Newcomer in Online Recruitment                    www.careerplayer.com

12. Best Innovation in Online Recruitment                     www.twitterjobsearch.com

* Judging Panel:

Emma Mirrington                             BSkyB

Luke McKend                                    Google

Helen Reynolds                                HB RIDA

Jim Tanfield                                       Recruitment Consultant Magazine

Louise Triance                                  UK Recruiter

Dan McGuire                                     Broadbean Technology

Tom Atkinson                                   Perms Connect

Stephen O’Donnell                          AlljobsUK.com

Andy Headworth                             Sirona Consulting

Alan Whitford                                    Abtech Partnership

Matt Alder                                          Penna Barkers

Alex Hens                                          3D Marcomms

Steve Evans                                      Media Figures

Paul Harrison                                  Carve Consulting

Ben Nunn                                          Thirty Three

More details about the NORAs can be found at www.NoraUK.com

12 November 2009 – The fourth annual Jobsite RecruitRank Awards took place last night (Wednesday 11^th November), to reward the country’s top performing recruitment agencies based on candidate feedback. Recognising best practice and customer service in recruitment agencies, the RecruitRank Awards (www.recruitrank.co.uk) are the only industry awards based purely on feedback from jobseekers and not the traditional peer judging panel.  

Launched in November 2005 by Jobsite with the aim of reducing candidate jobhunting frustrations and raising industry standards, RecruitRank is an online tool that tiers recruitment agencies on a daily basis based purely on the experiences of jobseekers. It allows candidates to feed back anonymously on the quality of an agency’s service after they have applied for a vacancy advertised by them on Jobsite. In turn, recruiters have private access to this feedback, which allows them to monitor and, if necessary, improve their service offering.

The RecruitRank Awards recognise those agencies with outstanding customer service, who achieved the highest levels of positive feedback over a 12 month period. Jobseekers’ feedback determined the winners of the 11 award categories, with special congratulations to the winner of Best Recruiter Overall, which was awarded to iTS European.

The categories and winners are:

Low volume Jobsite user: Best Candidate Communication (Celectus Ltd)

High volume Jobsite user: Best Candidate Communication (CG Consultants)

Low volume Jobsite user: Best Understanding of Candidate Needs (Kensington Consulting – Engineering and Manufacturing)

High volume Jobsite user: Best Understanding of Candidate Needs (networx)

Low volume Jobsite user: Best Industry Knowledge (iTS European)

High volume Jobsite user: Best Industry Knowledge (Page Personnel)

Low volume Jobsite user: Best Recruiter (iTS European)

High volume Jobsite user: Best Recruiter (networx)

Low volume Jobsite user: Most Improved (Kensington Consulting – Engineering and Manufacturing)

High volume Jobsite user: Most Improved (Michael Page (Property & Construction)

Commenting on the awards, Keith Potts, Jobsite CEO, says: “It has been a tough year for everyone in the recruitment industry, so we are really proud to see that so many recruitment agencies are still placing a high importance on providing outstanding customer service.  With several thousand recruitment consultancies eligible for inclusion in the RecruitRank Awards, these winners stand out as examples of providing exceptional customer service.

Potts continues, “RecruitRank is based entirely on candidate feedback, providing the industry’s most comprehensive insight into candidate needs and demands. Listening to this voice is critical for the future success of the industry as a whole. There is a lot we can learn from the RecruitRank Award winners, who epitomise best practice in the area of customer service. Jobsite congratulates all the winners on their awards.”

The awards, which are in their fourth year, were held on 11^th November 2009 at stylish London venue, Jewel.

Travel Trade Recruitment Ltd is celebrating a hatrick of awards in 2009 after winning ‘Travel Recruitment Company of the Year’ at the recent ‘British Travel Awards’ held in London.

Following on from their recent success which saw them named ‘Star Recruitment Consultancy’ at the Travel Bulletin Awards in October, as well as being awarded ‘Best UK Travel Recruitment Consultancy’ at the Globe Travel Awards in January this year, Travel Trade Recruitment are the only recruitment company to have ever won all three awards within the same year.

Managing Director, Andrew Cole said, “We are delighted to have won all three recruitment awards in 2009 and it is particularly satisfying to have received recognition for the service we have provided to the travel industry during a very difficult year. It is also a wonderful reward for our teams of staff who have all given so much commitment and dedication in continuously raising our game so we can offer the best possible service to both our clients and candidates working in all sectors of the travel industry and for our company to be recognised as the UK’s leading travel Recruitment specialists”.

As part of the improvements to its service this year, Travel Trade Recruitment have launched a new website (www.traveltradejobs.com) which incorporates new services to reflect the changing needs of jobseekers and employers within the travel industry. These services include updated job alerts, vacancy search profiles, a candidate community, online CRS training courses, the latest travel news, and online marketing opportunities for clients to promote themselves to potential employees.

“Locating and hiring the best talent remains one of the biggest challenges facing the travel industry in 2010” commented Cole, “Travel Trade Recruitment will be looking to improve their service during the next 12 months and will be looking to play a major role in helping each of our clients find the right caliber of staff as the recession starts to lift and businesses begin to grow”.

As the recession drives more businesses to offer internships, the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE) is calling for companies to demonstrate the success of their schemes by entering its seventh annual Awards.

The NCWE Awards is firmly established as the official event to showcase best providers of undergraduate work experience and a perfect opportunity for employers to gain recognition for their commitment to the development of the future workforce.

Spanning eleven categories, the Awards are open to organisations of all sizes and industries, including charitable and public sectors.
Employers, students and careers advisers have until 11 December 2009 to nominate the organisations they feel epitomise best practice in work experience by visiting www.work-experience.org/awards.

As overall winner at the NCWE 2009 Awards, Yvonne Crew, Senior Graduate Recruitment Manager at Centrica commented: “It’s a real achievement to have been recognised for our commitment to providing quality work experience. As more businesses offer placement programmes, and internships climb higher up the government’s agenda, it is now paramount that we continue to increase our engagement with higher education and build partnerships to encourage and prepare students for the work experience and the opportunities available to them.”

Heather Collier, NCWE director commented: “The recession has highlighted the importance of work experience for all involved and we are hoping to receive higher numbers of nominations from companies offering well-structured programmes. Students are more likely to look for external endorsement when seeking work experience this year and by working for a company that has received an award they can be confident that their experience will be worthwhile.”

The NCWE Awards recognise, encourage and reward employers who take the lead in the provision of valuable work placement opportunities for students, and set high standards for others to follow by offering fulfilling work placements that help students develop their employability skills.

Entries will be assessed solely by online application and a maximum of six companies will be short-listed in each category. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony that will take place in London on 23rd March 2010.

This year’s sponsors include Changeboard, AGR, GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica.

Food Careers are pleased to announce they have been nominated for Four National Recruitment Awards. The RecruitRank awards ceremony, hosted by leading recruitment website Jobsite, will take place in London on 11 November 2009.   

Commenting on the nominations, Food Careers MD Chris Burns states, “What makes the RecruitRank Awards special is the fact that they are the only recruitment awards based solely on candidate feedback, so for our candidates to independently rank our service as excellent is extremely pleasing and I would like to thank our staff for their unwavering focus on customer service which has resulted in the nominations.”

Food Careers, a recruiter to the Food & Drink Manufacturing sector received nominations within the following categories:

Best Candidate Communications

Best Understanding of Candidate Needs

Best Industry Knowledge

Best Recruiter

RecruitRank is Jobsite’s ground-breaking system that tiers recruitment agencies according to feedback from candidates. If a candidate has applied for a vacancy listed by an agency on Jobsite, they’re invited to comment anonymously on four different areas:

• Overall impression of the agency
• Maintaining contact and updating you on progress
• Understanding your needs
• Knowledge of your industry sector

Candidates can also leave a written comment if they want to. RecruitRank then collates all the information and ranks the agencies – displaying the Top 10 highest scoring agencies on the Jobsite home page. This is updated daily.

For further information on RecruitRank please visit: www.recruitrank.co.uk

For further information on Food Careers please visit: www.foodcareers.net