News articles

The Co-operative Group has now started its graduate recruitment campaign for 2008.

For graduates who want to pursue a rewarding career without compromising their values, we offer two programmes: Business Management and Finance. Both provide a great all-round benefits package and both are uniquely structured.

In Business Management, graduates are able to drive their own career path by choosing from a number of business critical projects (from HR to Marketing) working across our different business areas. Our programme enables graduates to ensure that the entire experience meets their ambitions.

Our CIMA-accredited Finance programme offers four nine-month placements, where graduates will gain specialist knowledge in functions ranging from internal audit to tax.

Whichever programme graduates choose, they’ll have the opportunity to study for a postgraduate qualification and we’ll ensure that they have the support to become a future leader by providing a structured management development programme that includes support from a senior mentor and a buddy. On top of that, all graduates receive a lump sum to spend on their own self-development needs.

Our first assessment centre will be held in March, therefore now is the perfect opportunity to encourage your graduates to apply.

If you would like to find out more about our programme, we are holding a Careers Advisor Day on 30th January 2008. If you or another member of your team would like to attend, please e-mail us at graduate.recruitment@co-op.co.uk

We like our graduates to speak for themselves. So, when it came to designing our new website, we thought it was only right that our graduates took the lead. We haven’t kept their contribution merely to the profiles page – their insights and opinions lead you through this site. They share all their experiences and relay what it’s like to work with the world’s largest consumer co-operative.

Not only is the information delivered in a fresh new way, the website has a fresh new look as well. For you as a careers advisor, you'll find everything you need, all in one dedicated and concise section. You can print off literature, see our business summarised in ten quick points, get answers to frequently asked questions, and even contact us directly.

We give our graduates the autonomy and responsibility of leading and selecting their own projects, as well as the opportunity to study for a postgraduate qualification. Combine this with the fact that we’ve also just been voted one of the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, and you’ll begin to see why our graduate programme is altogether different.

Click on the link below to see for yourself. Please note, even if you have previously registered on our old site you will need to input your details again. We will enter all careers advisors who register before November 10th into a free prize draw for win a box of Fair trade goodies!

Visit our site www.altogetherdifferent.com and see why our graduate programme is truly unique.

4 December 2006

Rebecca Fielding, The Co-operative Group's Graduate Programme Manager, is moving on from the Group at the end of this Year to join a new organisation. Rebecca says.....

'I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with The Co-operative Group, in particular my time spent within the graduate arena and I am pleased to be continuing within this sphere in my new role/organisation. After developing and launching the altogether different programme I am delighted to be leaving the programme in such a strong position and to be handing the programme over to such a trusted and passionate colleague'

So, who will be taking over? Hannah Slaney, currently a HR Project Manager at The Co-operative Group, will be moving into the role from the 2nd January 2007. Hannah has been with the Group for five years and has held a number of roles across recruitment, training, HR operations and project management.

And, what will this mean for you? Well hopefully there will be very little disruption to our relationship with careers and university teams. Hannah will be honouring all of the events, commitments and relationships established with Rebecca whilst moving into her new role and our contact details will remain the same for your ease. Other than that, we hope you will get the opportunity to meet with Hannah soon!

14 June 2006

Everybody's unqiue. And we all have different priorities. We recognise and value that difference. Rather than applying for jobs back in October, for example, some students may have preferred to focus on their studies and are just coming to ask you for careers advice now. You may be meeting students returning from travelling, looking for a career change, or disappointed with the first organisation they decided to join.

For those very reasons we've re-opened both our Graduate Leadership Programmes for on-line applications until the 6th July 2006. Interviews will take place throughout June and July, with the assessment centre on the 27th July. The start date for this years programme is the 4th September 2006.

To date this year we have made eight offers on to our graduate programme and we have four places left to fill. The eight people we have made offers to so far are the following courses and universities; BA American Studies from Lancaster University, BA Philosophy from Durham, BA Management and Accountacy from Huddersfield, BA Management from Lancaster, BSc International Management with American Business Studies from Manchester, MA in French Literature from Nottingham, BA in English from Oxford and an MSc in Management from LSE.

30 March 2006

The Co-operative Group is delighted to have been shortlisted for the GTI award for the 'AGCAS award to reward the most outstanding contribution to diversity in graduate recruitment'. The award has been voted for by AGCAS members across the UK and the winner of the award will be announced on 23rd May at the National Graduate Recruitment Awards. But what have we done to deserve this? Well, there are a few major decisions we've made in the design and development of the 'altogether different' graduate programme from branding, to marketing, recruitment and development. Here's some of the highlights of our approach..........

The ‘altogether different' brand was developed specifically with diversity in mind. It has proved to be attractive to a wide base of people with a strong message about valuing individuals from all backgrounds ‘a unique opportunity for unique people'.

Our attraction strategy has included a range of universities including the Open University. We have also looked to target ‘second jobbers' and ‘gappers' to tap into a pool of non-traditional graduates.

We have made our application more open and fair to people from diverse backgrounds. We don't request a minimum number of UCAS points in order to apply as this disadvantages older graduates or those who take alternative routes to their degree. We are open to applicants with a 2:2. We have trained all of our recruiting managers on diversity, fairness, and objective competency based assessment and we have ensured the ‘altogether different' website is DDA compliant, to name just a few!

We have designed a coaching based development programme which is based upon individual needs rather than treating all graduates as a ‘homogenous mass' of people who all have the same backgrounds & development needs. This has allowed us to negate the ‘clone army' synrome! This type of approach has proved much more appealing and appropriate for graduates from non-traditional routes.

So, what have been the results? Well our statistics are below (these are approximate figures as diversity monitoring is optional not compulsory)..........

Our passion and commitment to diversity within graduate recruitment extends beyond simply adopting best practice for our own organisation and has developed into leading diversity best practice within the wider graduate recruitment sector. This has been achieved in a number of ways including; providing a case study on age diversity for a joint AGR-Prospects paper; a case study on age diversity in HR Director; leading a workshop on age diversity at the AGR live event in May 2005; leading a workshop at the AGCAS Heads of Service conference in January 2006 and speaking at the AGCAS older students task group conference on Age in November 2005.

1 March 2006

The Co-operative Group were delighted to not only sponsor, but also hold a workshop, at the recent AGCAS 'Heads of Service' conference in Sheffield on the 11th Janaury 2005.

The workshop, entitled 'age legislation and the future of graduate recruitment programmes', included the Group's benefits and learnings from recruiting older or more expereinced graduates and a case study of the Group's marketing and recruitment approach to complement the new age legislation. This includes industry-leading changes such as no limit on the year of graduation, no minimum number of UCAS points required, the inclusion of the date of birth in our diversity monitoring section as well as dramatic changes to our approach to personal development, reward, location and the social aspects of the programme. However the changes have not only been limited to the recruitment and management of the programme but also the marketing and attraction strategy adopted by the Group - starting with the development of the 'altogether different' brand and stretching out much further.

If you would like a copy of the presenation please contact us on graduate.recruitment@co-op.co.uk or alternatively you can read a case study of our approach in the Prospects guide 'Are you ready? A guide to age for graduate recruiters' published earlier this year, available on-line at www.prospects.ac.uk/downloads/rdesk/age_guide_for_grad_recruiters.pdf

4 October 2005
The Co-operative Group were proud to recognise excellence within the Careers Advisory sector by sponsoring and presenting the Innovation Award at the recent AGCAS conference. The contenders were:

New Directions In Career Education, Dublin Institute of Technology
A first for Ireland in providing an effective way to provide equality of access to Careers Education across all academic departments. This project has resulted in a remarkable improvement in take-up by academic departments and students. Fitting into the overall push to get careers into curriculum it has also attracted excellent student feedback.

Student Communications Team, University of Newcastle
As part of its review of its marketing to students, Newcastle University Careers Service set up a team of home-grown 'brand managers'. 45 students were recruited to carry out a range of specified duties and though they were not paid, they were eligible for various awards and prizes. The benefits included students acquiring high level employability skills and enhanced CVs, the Service increasing its profile, credibility and effectiveness.

Student Development Fund, University of Sussex
This fund provides an opportunity for students to implement a group project with personal and community development outcomes. Students initiate and manage projects while developing their self-efficacy, confidence and skills. The project has excellent aims and supports the development of students. However its impact is inevitably limited to the small numbers of bid winners.

Our congratulations go to the Dublin Institute of Technology, who deservedly won the award, the University of Sussex as runner-up and the University of Newcastle who were commended.

22 September 2005

The Co-operative Group has now recruited ten graduates, who are due to join us on 26th September 2005. We listened to your feedback at our careers adviser open days earlier this year and you asked us for two things. Here we aim to respond to those requests:

1. Where our successful graduates have come from
Of our ten successful graduates two achieved degrees from the University of Central Lancashire, three from Manchester University, one from Oxford Brookes University, one from the University of Kent, two from the University of Birmingham and one from York University. Two of our successful graduates also achieved post-graduate qualifications from the University of East Anglia and Manchester University.

2. Common issues during the 2005 recruitment process
Application forms: The standard of application forms has been highly variable, however there is an encouraging number of applicants who could dramatically improve their scores through better research and application form techniques. We would continue to encourage all applicants to revisit our website, our application form hints & tips document and our competencies before submitting the application form.

Common issues include:

• Neglecting to provide information at every opportunity i.e. additional information relating to the university experience is often left blank
• Poor understanding of the complex nature and diversity of our co-operative business
• Poor responses to the four ‘difficult' questions in the ‘tell us more about you' section within the application form

Interview: The standard of candidates at interview has generally been good, however there continues to be a lack of awareness within certain behavioural areas. This has particularly noted in the behavioural area of ‘developing capability' that concerns taking action/ownership of your development and that of others.

We hope this brief update gives you a flavour of how the recruitment process has gone this year. If you would like to find out more about the process or discuss how graduates from your university performed please come along to one of our forthcoming careers adviser open days, where we will be happy to discuss your questions about this year and next. You can find out more in the events section of the careers adviser zone.

29 June 2005

The Co-operative Group introduces a new CIMA accredited finance programme for two exceptional graduates to join us in September 2005. The new programme, a 3-year specialist stream of the existing general management programme, is open for applications up to the 29th July 2005 on-line at www.altogetherdifferent.com. The finance programme is open to graduates from any degree discipline, although a finance / numerical based degree would be advantageous. As with the general management programme, successful graduates will be confident, tenacious, resilient and flexible. Interviews and assessment centres will then be running throughout July and August.

Like the general programme, graduates will be given real projects with clearly defined responsibilities, allowing them to develop an in-depth understanding of the key role finance plays within our business. The programme consists of a comprehensive induction together with graduates on the general management programme, a two-week customer-facing placement and four nine month projects spanning the length and breadth of the Group. This will provide graduates with exposure to a variety of Co-operative businesses in addition to experience of a range of departments within the finance function such as; internal audit, financial accounts, business planning, business support and specialist areas such as tax or treasury.

Salary progression will be linked to successful completion of each stage of the programme and professional exams as follows; certificate level £500, managerial stage £750, strategic and TOPCIMA £1750. Total salary increase is therefore £3,000 over 3 years.

If you would like further details about opportunities for graduates to join us this September on this new programme or the existing general management please do not hesitate to contact me.