RateMyApprenticeship launches Top 70 School Leaver Employers Table 2017

School Leavers rate the UK’s Top 70 School Leaver Employers

– Unilever crowned winner –

– Top 10 sees Engineering & Manufacturing firms feature heavily –

RateMyApprenticeship.co.uk has launched its highly coveted Top 70 School Leaver Employers Table for 2017, helping young people understand their career choices and make informed decisions about their future. This year’s table is based on over 3,300 peer-to-peer written reviews from young people. The reviews incorporate ratings from a variety of schemes, including apprenticeships, degree apprenticeships, traineeships, gap year programmes and work experience opportunities.

This year sees the multinational consumer goods company, Unilever, move up from second to first place, knocking professional services firm, EY, down to 21^st place. Capgemini climbed up a staggering 20 places to take 2^nd position.

The Top 10 this year is dominated by the engineering & manufacturing industry, including companies such as BAE Systems and National Grid, differing from the 2016 table, which favoured more finance and accounting firms.

As the top rated employer this year, Unilever received ratings averaging 9.04 out of 10 on criteria including: the daily role, the company, skill development and overall experience.

Commenting on its success this year, Placid Jover, VP Human Resources, Unilever UK & Ireland said: “Achieving top spot in the 2017 RateMyApprenticeship table is a tremendous honour. We have focussed on developing our scheme in recent years to make our apprenticeships more diverse, and we hugely value the fresh perspectives, smart thinking and energy that our apprentices bring to the company.”

Another interesting development to come out of the table this year included banking & finance being the top rated industry for the second year running, with business following closely in second place.

More than half of the Top 70 School Leaver Employers have opportunities nationwide, however, it should be no surprise that there are regional differences depending on the industry. The majority of accounting, finance and business schemes are found in Central London, whilst engineering and FMCG schemes are found in the North West. Interestingly, although having the least amount of reviews, Northern Ireland is the highest rated region for school leaver schemes, up 12 places from last year. Central London is the lowest rated, down seven places from the year before.

Ollie Sidwell, Co-founder of RateMyApprenticeship.co.uk commented “Young people have never had as many options as they do now; university is no longer the only route to high achieving jobs and apprenticeships are not just for tradespeople. Apprenticeships are becoming increasingly popular as young people start to realise that university may not necessarily be for them. It’s easy to see why as there are 28,045 opportunities from the Top 70 Employers, in a wide variety of industries and roles that are sure to attract a great number of school leavers.

“As the government continues to increase the cap on tuition fees, apprenticeships can offer a lifeline to so many young people, giving them the chance to earn and learn on the job. It is worth pointing out that we have seen positive employment outlooks for students after finishing their apprenticeships, whereas life after completing a degree is not always certain. We believe it’s vital that young people know and understand all their options before making difficult decisions that will affect their future career, which is why we are proud to have created the Top 70 School Leaver Employers Table 2017.”

For the full table of the Top 70 please click here.