Top undergraduate employers announced

The top 100 undergraduate employers in the UK have today been announced by RateMyPlacement.co.uk. Using over 7,000 student reviews throughout the 2013-2014 academic year, the table ranks organisations that recruit over 15 students a year on placements, internships, vacation schemes and insights; and have at least 15 reviews on the website.

This year sees banking and financial giant, Barclays, regain its top spot of 2012 after professional services firm, Grant Thornton, moved up to first place last year. As favourites this year, Barclays received reviews averaging 8.8 out of 10, with criteria including: amount of responsibility given, whether they felt valued by colleagues, impressions of the company overall, training and development opportunities, and transferable skills gained.

Jane Clark, Global Head of Early Careers Recruitment said, “Barclays strive to create rewarding work experiences for both internship and placement students to help them develop their careers to their full potential. We are thrilled that the investment we have made into our programmes has once again been recognised within the industry as one of the best.  Being rated top by the students themselves is also a great honour for us”.

Barclays’ leading position is reflective of a general trend this year that has seen the top 10 dominated by financial firms, in contrast to 2013, which witnessed tech firms such as Microsoft and Intel rise through the ranks.

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A number of major organisations also made the cut for the first time, including Goldman Sachs – which remarkably went straight into the top 10 (8). Other notable new entries include retailers Tesco (48), the John Lewis Partnership (55) and Lidl (60), as well as international real estate firm, Jones Lang LaSalle (33).

Ollie Sidwell, Co-founder at RateMyPlacement.co.uk commented: “In today’s highly competitive jobs market it is essential for students to showcase practical experience in their desired field in addition to their university learnings. Choosing the right undergraduate employment can heavily influence future career choices and our top 100 list should really help students make the best decisions for them – as well as providing a key platform to attract promising students to the top employers.

“It’s great to see once again a wide range of sectors featured in our table; spanning financial services, law, technology, engineering, retail and FMCG brands, to name but a few. This opens up fantastic opportunities for students – wherever their aspirations lie – and we hope that pitching them all in together will encourage companies to continually raise the bar.”

For the full 100 please visit www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/top-employers.