April 28th saw almost 600 of Ireland’s graduate recruiters, course providers and stakeholders come together in the Round Room of Dublin’s Mansion House to celebrate achievement and innovation in the graduate recruitment area, on this the tenth anniversary of the gradireland Graduate Recruitment Awards. 2016 saw the largest ever Graduate Recruitment Awards, conducted in partnership with the Association of Higher Education Careers Services (AHECS) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA). The 2016 event attracted over 160 submissions from more than 60 organisations and almost 7,500 students participated in the vote to determine Ireland’s most popular graduate recruiter.
Opening the evening’s proceedings, gradireland Director Mark Mitchell said; “More organisations than ever are investing in defined graduate programmes. Graduate programmes that lapses during the recession are being reinstated and reimagined, this has led to increasing competition and a different set of challenges for graduate recruiters, careers services and students.” Mark also spoke of the importance of partnerships and invited Professor Maria Hinfelaar, former President of LIT, to give the keynote address on the evening.
Hosted by RTE’s Brian Dobson, the awards ranged throughout the graduate recruitment spectrum and also acknowledged achievement in the postgraduate course provision area. Indeed this area saw the first awards of the evening, the AHECS awards, being presented, the winners being:
Employability Award (Small and Medium Services)
Winner: National College of Ireland
Employability Award (Large Services)
Winner: Ulster University
Engagement Award
Joint Winners: Deloitte and PwC
The award winners on the night represented a broad spectrum of Irish and international industry. PwC landed the award for Employer of the Year, while KPMG was named Ireland’s Most Popular Graduate Recruiter in the student vote, displacing Google, who had held top spot for several years. Abbvie was judged to have the Best Specialist/Professional Graduate Training & Development Programme and Abbott was awarded with Best Internship Programme. The dynamic of the graduate recruitment sector was evident everywhere in the room. Stakeholders in industry rubbed shoulders with course providers, tasked with providing the next generation of talent. Commenting on the awards, Mark Mitchell, gradireland Director, added: “These awards are now firmly established as a key event in the year, enabling all of the stakeholders in the graduate recruitment process to create important networks as well as to celebrate success.”
The full list of winners (and silver and bronze awards) at the gradireland Graduate Recruitment Awards and Postgraduate Course of the Year Awards 2016:
The most popular graduate recruiters
Accountancy/Professional Services
Winner: KPMG
Banking, investment & financial services
Winner: Bank of Ireland
Consulting
Winner: Accenture
Engineering
Winner: Intel
FMCG
Winner: Jameson – Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard
IT
Winner: Google
Law
Winner: A&L Goodbody
Logistics, transport & supply chain management
Winner: Aer Lingus
Online retail services and telecoms
Winner: Amazon
Retail
Winner: Lidl
Public service/business organisations
Winner: Department of Education and Skills
Science
Winner: Boston Scientific
Utilities, Energy, Renewables
Winner: ESB
Ireland’s Most Popular Graduate Recruiter
Winner: KPMG
Best Graduate Recruitment Website
Winner: ESB
Silver: Aldi
Bronze: Jameson – Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard
Best Innovation on Campus
Winner: Deloitte
Silver: KPMG
Bronze: Intel
Best Student Marketing Campaign
Winner: Jameson-Irish Distillers
Silver: Glanbia
Bronze: PwC
Best Graduate Training & Development Programmes
Specialist/Professional Training programme
Winner: Abbvie
Silver: Abbott
Bronze: PwC
Business/General Training & Development programme
Winner: Glanbia
Silver: Jameson – Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard
Bronze: EMC
Best Internship Programme
Winner: Abbott
Silver: Abbvie
Bronze: KPMG
gradireland Diversity Recruitment Award
Winner: Enterprise rent-a-car
Silver: Abbott
Bronze: KPMG
POSTGRADUATE COURSE OF THE YEAR – BUSINESS, SPONSORED BY LIDL
Winner: DCU, MSc in Human Resource Management
POSTGRADUATE COURSE OF THE YEAR – ENGINEERING
Winner: UCC, MEngSc Information Technology in Architecture, Engineering and Construction
POSTGRADUATE COURSE OF THE YEAR – IT
Winner: UCC, MSc Information Systems for Business Performance
POSTGRADUATE COURSE OF THE YEAR – SCIENCE
Winner: NUI Galway, MSc Biotechnology
BEST NEW COURSE, SPONSORED BY JAMESON IRISH DISTILLERS
Winner: Maynooth University, Masters in Design Innovation
Graduate Employee of the Year
Overall winners
Robert Beirne, LIDL
Maxim Romancovs, HEDGESERV
Graduate Employer of the Year
PwC
