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Introduction
There is widespread consensus that, over the coming years, more and more graduates will enter small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) at an early stage in their post-graduation careers. This is mainly because of three factors:
However, this changing pattern of graduate employment poses difficulties for the development of policies and practices which facilitate the transition of undergraduate students to graduates in employment. Recent research has examined smaller employers' current and emerging practices in relation to graduate recruitment and employment (Williams and Owen, 1997). Various initiatives have been and are being taken to improve awareness of graduates as a valuable source of recruits, by smaller employers, especially to support strategies for enhanced competitiveness and for growth (DfEE, 1998). Yet very little research-based knowledge exists on graduates' experience of employment in such firms.
This report is intended to make a contribution to such research-based knowledge. Whilst information on smaller employers is important to the development of policies and strategies to influence their perceptions and recruitment practices, this deals with just one side of the employment relationship. Graduates, as any employees, are not mere passive objects in the recruitment and employment process, but actively make decisions about what jobs to seek and whether or not to accept job offers. They make judgements about their experience in their particular employment situations, and decide whether, when and how to leave such employment. The patterns of graduate employment in small and medium sized enterprises can thus be properly understood only by taking into account the graduates' perspectives and actions as well as those of employers.
This report aims to contribute to such fuller understanding of graduate employment in SMEs, by presenting the findings of a pilot study of the experience of such graduates.