PQ’s Top Pick A rags-to-riches story is our YouTube choice

Graduate salaries starting to soar! Graduates in the UK will be entering one of the strongest job markets for many years, as vacancies for graduates surge and salaries are pushed up.

New data from Adzuna shows grad pay is up 7% compared with a year ago, with the number of grad vacancies up nearly 60% compared with May last year.

Just over 14,500 job adverts were posted in May for graduates, compared with under 10,000 in May 2021. The salaries on offer are a six-year high with average pay rising from £24,389 in 2021 to £26,076 in 2022.

Adzuna’s Paul Lewis said: “Despite the negative headlines, plenty of sectors remain desperate for talent and looking to grads to fill those gaps. It’s a welcome piece of good news for the Class of 2022, who battled remote learning and pandemic pressures over the last two years.”

CityAM recently reported that JP Morgan was offering fresh graduate’s salaries of £70,000 a year and rivals Barclays are offering £50,000.

Dealing with failure

Asif Mohammad is CEO of MCA international and a fellow of the ACCA. He is a serial entrepreneur and has started over 17 businesses – not all of them successful, but all came with a learning experience.

He studied accountancy at Kaplan in the UK, and top tutor Neil da Costa recently sat down and talked to him about his journey as part of Kaplan’s #failfast campaign.

Mohammad stressed that the only time you really fail is when you give up. We quickly discover on day three of coming to the UK from Pakistan to study as a 17-year-old all his belonging were stolen, along with £2,000 of savings. All he had left was the £38 he had in his pocket and the clothes he was wearing. After sitting down quietly for 20 minutes he decided he was going to try to make it work, in what was an unknown country. It was a tough journey that included sleeping rough and sleeping on buses all the while still studying for his accountancy qualification.

He admits the loneliness was tough, as he couldn’t tell his family back home.

The YouTube interview is PQ magazine’s TOP PICK this month, and you can watch it at https://youtu.be/ pdXb3khqu1w .

THE BIG QUESTION

Does everyone agree that remote invigilation is a good thing going forward? Quick Yes/No answer please. Gail Boag – ICAS: “Yes, here to stay at ICAS.” Adam Birt – ICAEW: “Yes, as long as there is choice.” Andy Brodrick – CIOT: “Yes, the problem for us is that offering a choice is too expensive, we have to run the exams as one or the other unfortunately.” (Source: LATDG group)