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Graduates 'turning their backs on banking'

Published: Tuesday, 06 January 2009   Category: Professional & financial services

Fewer university students are attending City and financial jobs fairs as they seek "safer" careers such as maths teaching, it has been reported.

According to the Independent, Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick University have all seen a decline in the number of students expressing an interest in banking positions as a result of the economic downturn.

Gordon Chesterman, the head of the Cambridge's careers service, said students were becoming "suspicious" of the banking sector.

"By the time they returned in early October, they had heard war stories from their chums who had had internships in the sector and not been offered jobs."

He added that students had clearly been affected by media headlines about 120,000 jobs going in the finance sector.

The newspaper has reported that those financial institutions which are still hiring graduates have narrowed their recruitment pool to a few select universities, a move described as "disappointing" by Pam Tatlow, the chief executive of think tank Million+.