On-campus recruitment agency delivers work-ready Millennials

AUT has opened a full-service, on-campus recruitment agency to help New Zealand employers engage work-ready students and graduates.

Based at the university’s City Campus, it is the first service of its type at a New Zealand university and will provide employers with personalised support to find exactly the right student or graduate for their business.

The service, AUT Internz, is a scaled up version of a programme that has been connecting international employers with AUT students and graduates since 2014.  
Internz has placed trainees and interns with global giants like Facebook and the Smithsonian Institution, and next year the 100th AUT graduate will embark on an international placement through Internz. 

Director of Development at AUT, Ella Monahan, says the years of servicing global industry leaders has provided insight into what’s required to meet the expectations of successful employers, and helped AUT develop a support system for students in their final stages of study.

“It’s led to some extremely practical insights into supporting successful relationships between employers and graduates ­ that means putting the right students or graduates in front of employers at the right time, and providing our students with guidance to become work-ready and professionally presented.”

Director Student Employability, Anna Williams, says AUT graduates are popular with employers thanks to their mix of technical and work-ready skills, and she is pleased AUT can now scale up its recruitment service offering.  

“Grades are important ­ but we also make sure our students develop the 5C skills while they study at AUT: communication, creativity, collaboration, curiosity and cooperation ­ skills that are critial for employers.

“We’ve got a steady stream of graduating students ready to be employed who can demonstrate these skills thanks to a number of programmes we deliver to complement their academic study.”

AUT Internz has a dedicated relationship manager to service each client group: one for candidates and one for employers. It also includes back-end technology that will allow the recruiters to target student and graduates, along with a candidate management system, along with a new website.

And while AUT Internz will continue helping top companies overseas recruit AUT students for a select number of short-term international internships, the focus for AUT Internz is now firmly set on supplying New Zealand employers with great graduates.

An early graduate’s viewpoint
Kim Mar (pictured centre) has sampled a variety of working styles and environments since graduating from AUT with a double major in Marketing and Business Design. She’s worked for a hospitality industry leader in New York, an online wedding registry business, done one-off gigs in brand promotion and photography, her own cake-making venture and now, innovative Auckland FMCG business I Love Food Co.

Engaging and getting the best out of employees like Kim is increasingly important for businesses of every size in every industry. Her cohort of Millennials – born between 1982 and 2004, will dominate the workforce by 2020.

Kim applied for an internship advertised through the original AUT Internz during her final year of study. AUT Internz was, at that time, focusing exclusively on recruiting students for internships overseas and providing them with scholarships to get there if selected.

Kim’s role as a sales and marketing assistant at I Love Food Co is varied, giving her scope to work on product innovations, photo shoots, social media, design, events, product launches, PR and sales.

I Love Food Co co-founder Maree Glading enjoys the fresh perspective on technology and social media, and what young people are looking for that recent graduates bring to her business. “Young people tend to be more forward-thinking and have more exposure to up and coming brands and technology – helping to inject freshness into an organisation.”
 
She believes companies like I Love Food Co, which have the grassroots of a startup, are especially attractive to young graduates because that entrepreneurial spirit is present. 

“We don’t have the historical baggage of bureaucracy, and layers of hierarchy. Graduates see this as allowing more opportunity to grow and learn, and be exposed to more parts of the business and projects.”