Find top industry talent with our free graduate recruitment scheme

Get free access to our expert skill set for recruiting talented graduates who can meet the demand for analysts, data scientists and individuals with backgrounds in business, IT, mathematics, and economics.

Helping companies recruit within the technology sector

Many markets and industries will be facing change due to the disruption and are likely to need new technologies in order to respond. Organisations are having to be agile and make very quick decisions as customers seek new solutions and want flexibility. There has already been forewarning about the anticipated increase in fraud, pre-empting cyber-attacks, across all sectors and industries. Companies themselves may want to invest in these skills to enable themselves to be more resilient in this uncertain environment. Similarly, many SMEs working in this space may be facing additional demand from businesses who find themselves unsure how to manage these risks.

Have you faced additional demand from clients who need immediate technological solutions and want flexibility? Do you need additional resource to formulate new technologies and deliver to your target markets? We can provide high-skilled tech-savvy graduates for roles: analysts, project managers as well as skills across the full spectrum of organisational requirements.

What is the Graduate Scheme?

The Cardiff Capital Region Graduate Scheme aims to enhance productivity, innovation and economic growth by linking talented graduates with ambitious businesses in the ten local authorities within the Cardiff Capital Region. The Graduate Scheme offers businesses the following FREE services:

We can directly match your role with highly-skilled graduate talent in the region
We can operate a quick turnaround to respond to your needs (between 2-4 weeks)
We can undertake the entire recruitment process remotely: advertising, shortlisting, assessment and interviewing*
Candidates are asked to provide CVs as part of streamlined process
We have worked with businesses across the region to provide roles in engineering, laboratories, marketing, HR, finance, IT and business development. Average salary £18k – £25k.
A fully-funded qualification for graduates to support and complement their professional skills development in the workplace.

* interview to be undertaken by employer.

local university partnerships: Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan, Open University & University of South Wales.

applications per role received on average.

87.5%

of Employers have offered or are looking to offer their Graduate further employment.

100%

of Employers would recommend the CCR Graduate Scheme to other organisations or businesses.

Why use us to fill your graduate roles?

Flexibility to suit you

Our approach to the recruitment process is flexible, adaptable and entirely tailored to the needs of your business. We provide expert advice and consider when you would like to recruit, what type of graduate you are looking for, role duration, how you would like to shape the assessment process and your involvement.

Cultural fit

We work hard to understand your business culture and operating dynamics so we can ensure we put forward candidates that will provide a good cultural fit. Personality and mind-set have equal value to technical skills and expertise. We can find you the right candidate with the suitable attributes and values you’re looking for.

Profile raising within the Cardiff Capital Region

We offer marketing and PR opportunities (testimonials, website case studies, industry feature articles and CCR graduate features.) to raise your business profile and awareness within the Cardiff Capital Region.

Partnership with local authority partners & business support

Our scheme has the full support of our Economic and Regional Development teams within the 10 local authorities and key business support organisations (Business Wales, SW Chamber of Commerce, FSB, CCR Skills Partnership) which means we can maximise the support we provide to you and secure additional coverage for your opportunities.

Partnership with higher education

We are officially partnered with the four universities in the Cardiff Capital Region (The University of South Wales / Cardiff Metropolitan University / Cardiff University / The Open University in Wales) who support and champion the scheme and give us unrivalled access to their high-calibre graduates.

Receive expert business mentoring

Personal and professional development isn’t just for graduates. We work with Global Welsh to partner growing and aspiring businesses with experienced mentors around the world who want to provide their expertise and advice to help businesses grow/ succeed. We will make this “MyMentor” facility available FREE for 12 months to all businesses who appoint a graduate.

Who we work with

We work with a variety of businesses and sectors across the region, right from micro SMEs to large multinationals.

Case Study // Employer

Athensys

Testimonials

I would highly recommend the Cardiff Capital Region Graduate scheme, we were delighted when looking for a graduate to join our international team for the post of international trade executive. Geraldine and team took care of the complete recruitment process, carefully filtering applications to ensure we were presented with a number of ideal candidates to interview. Once appointed the graduate and the businesses benefited from excellent aftercare, with training, support and opportunities for the candidate to enhance their career. A seamless process with a great result for the business. Thank you to Geraldine and the team.

Jo Price, Director of International, South Wales Chambers of Commerce

The Bridgend Business Forum are delighted to endorse the CCR Graduate scheme. The students will gain first-hand experience and enhance their employability skills for the future. The employers benefit from having the full support of the team at CCR and also the prospect of recruiting some of the most talented and gifted students around.

Mary Pope, Networks Coordinator, Bridgend County Borough Council

The process was very smooth and made easy for us from our first meeting where you explained the scheme, through the development of the job description, skills profiling and on to candidate selection. As an SME we do not dip into the graduate jobs market very often and lack the inhouse resource and contacts to develop and implement this type of recruitment process. By taking over all but the final interviews you saved us many hours of work, releasing key staff to focus on their day jobs. The advertising reach and prestige of the Cardiff City Region enabled far deeper penetration into the graduate pool than would have otherwise been available to us, so we ended up with a strong short list of candidates. The end result is the appointment of a very able graduate, locally based and who we hope will assist with our growth plans into the 2020’s.

Gareth Davies, Construction Director, Knox & Wells

Marcus – the candidate you found us is working out very well. The beauty about the process you offer is that it gives us a chance to question you about the qualities of the person before we meet them. It was great being able to watch them interact as a group. It helps you digest from a distance what qualities they have before moving to the next stage. I would recommend other companies try your scheme – it’s free, sounds too good to be true.

Jon Dormer, CEO, Unisan

The Vale of Glamorgan Council have been working with the Cardiff Capital Region Graduate scheme since it’s conception to be able to offer local businesses every opportunity available to them when they are seeking to grow. The scheme has enabled us to engage with businesses we haven’t before through hosting a joint event. Whilst the information we share from the scheme has meant we can ensure businesses are able to consider different ways to recruit new, highly skilled staff members which in turn will bring in greater knowledge to our local area. It’s been brilliant to be able to share up-to-date information the scheme has provided through email to our database but also via our social media channels which has ensured greater collaboration regionally.

Natasha Davies, Vale of Glamorgan Council

Register your interest

Please contact laura.carter@cardiff.gov.uk / geraldine.osullivan@cardiff.gov.uk or complete the form below: