Help for parents of graduates
If you’re a parent of a graduate who can’t get a job, no wonder you’re tearing your hair out. What’s more, you’re not alone. Thousands of graduates and their parents find themselves in the same position. It’s not the fault of the graduates, either.
Contact us Success Stories
The five barriers to employment
It’s common for graduates to not know which type of career would suit them best. This leads to them adopting a scattergun approach when seeking employment. To stand any chance of being hired a grad needs to evidence in words and deeds why they are a suitable candidate for the role. Most aren’t so they fail.
For every graduate level vacancy, employers receive up to 500 applications. It’s a sad fact that university degrees don’t cut the mustard any more. Employers look for other accomplishments as well.
The current numbers of graduates looking for jobs are 800,000 from 2020; 1.2 million from 2017-19, and that’s not counting the 300,000 international students knocking on employers’ doors.
In 2021, we estimate that 230 grads are out there fighting for every role, as this infographic highlights. It is really hard for every graduate to land that first job.
Employers want to employ graduates who have experience of the workplace. Yet, it’s impossible to get that experience unless graduates are given jobs without having any experience.
Universities are totally focused on one thing: degrees. Not jobs. Their methods and mindset have remained largely unchanged since the 19th Century, a perfect grounding for the Victorian workplace perhaps, but hardly the 21st Century’s. So how can a grad overcome these barriers?
Advice for parents
A degree doesn’t guarantee a job. But we do. Over the last 12 years we’ve learned everything there is to know about the qualities employers seek from candidates in today’s highly competitive workplace – and how best to develop these qualities in the graduates we coach. Our coaches come from varied backgrounds with various skills and all strive to help your son or daughter start a career they will be proud of.
Parents testimonials
The transition from academia to employment is a struggle for hundreds of thousands of graduates and a worrying time for their parents. We turn degrees into careers. Hear from the parents of graduates whose lives we have transformed through our one-to-one coaching.
Read More Testimonials and see our 5 ***** Google and Trustpilot reviews.
How we help
Our coaching methods have been honed over 11 years, with a success rate that’s just shy of 100%.
Imagine, then, your sense of relief if we coached your son or daughter. Instead of frustration and angst, a feeling that something’s being done, something that will lead to a decent graduate level job. A series of positive steps, each of which will increase your son or daughter’s confidence. Things like how to work out what careers they are best suited for, how to write a decent CV. How to job search efficiently and then prepare and conduct themselves in an interview. We will also help them enhance their digital skills, demanded by all companies nowadays, even those who aren’t in the tech sector. In fact, everything a graduate has to do or know to land a graduate level job.
Athletes have coaches. Why not graduates?
Get in touch to find out more
As a parent, the prospect of finding the right job for your son or daughter may be daunting. But, you can take the first step right now.
Send us a message or call +44 (0)207 014 9547
How to enrol
We will fully support your son or daughter throughout their entire career Coaching Programme until they land their graduate job and we will continue to mentor them until they find their feet. You, their parent, can take the first step right now, which is to get in touch with us.
- Step 1: Call us on +44 (0)207 014 9547 or fill out this form.
- Step 2: Chris Davies will speak with you – this call is free of charge.
- Step 3: Your son or daughter will be invited to our London Victoria office (or video call) for a face-to-face consultation.
- Step 4: You will receive a bespoke coaching plan.
- Step 5: Your son or daughter will commence their Coaching Programme – we will coach them until they land their graduate-level job and beyond.
Chris Davies
Meet your Graduate CoachYou will be coached by Chris Davies, who is acknowledged to be Britain’s No.1 graduate coach. His achievements include:
- Over a decade of experience and a track record of getting over 5000 graduates into jobs.
- Highly successful careers in magazine publishing, advertising and marketing.
- Writing award-winning publications The Student Book and The Graduate Book.
Parents Testimonials
'Chris secured both of our children great jobs'
As parents of two children leaving University, we were concerned about how they would make the transition from University life into the working world while we were pursuing Expat careers overseas.
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- Parents of Pete and Annabelle
'Chris' recommendations really paid off'
Chris helped my son tremendously with job search and interview technique. The interview coaching was for both face to face and telephone interviews. He was very helpful at providing input about potential companies...
Read More
- Parent of Ian M
'I would recommend Chris to any parent'
My daughter graduated from university and moved to London expecting to gain a career in publishing. We had expected her to secure a position reasonably easily as she had attained a very good degree, not so. She was...
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- Frances, Parent of Emma
FAQs
Career coaching is a relatively modern concept but consider this; if you want to learn a musical instrument, you employ a music teacher. If you want to learn to drive, you hire a driving instructor and so forth. A graduate coach is no different, we teach you the skills you need to embark on a successful and fulfilling career.
It’s quite normal for graduates to not know exactly what it is that they would like to do after university, and due to the competition for graduate jobs, many candidates lose confidence as a result of being rejected multiple times.
A good Graduate Coach will help students and graduates to:
- Understand their skill sets and highlight their interests, ambitions and values
- Identify the right career and specific roles that they are suited to
- Write an achievements-based CV
- Provide application support
- Nail their interviews with comprehensive interview training
- Negotiate pay rises to match the level of value they’ll bring to their company.
Think of it this way, you wouldn’t expect your son or daughter to get really good at playing tennis without providing them with an experienced tennis coach.
Likewise, it is not realistic to expect your son or daughter to be really good at completing job applications and outperforming other candidates in job interviews.
Especially as they will have never received adequate training in these areas during their academic careers.
Parents hire graduate coaches not only to help their son or daughter to get a graduate-level job after graduating but to also equip them with lifelong skills and to boost their confidence.
In this video, a group of parents share their experiences of getting a graduate coach to help their sons and daughters.
Speak to Chris Davies! He has been coaching students and graduates for 10 years and is the founder of Graduate Coach – the UK’s leading graduate coaching company.
Chris has helped 500+ students and graduates to land the job of their dreams at large well-known companies such as Google, Facebook, PwC, National Rail, JP Morgan and more.
As well as helping graduates to get jobs at the larger corporations listed above, Chris has also helped candidates to get great jobs at much smaller companies too.
Chris’ mission isn’t to just get the people he coaches graduate jobs but to ensure that they get the job that is right for them and position them to thrive in their roles.
80% of the people we help have recently graduated or are about to graduate. They are still seeking their first graduate role.
Increasingly, we are also helping graduates employed in graduate-level roles, who either want to switch career type or simply move to a better role with a better company.
Occasionally, we also help non-graduates.
Chris is dedicated to helping as many students and graduates as possible, therefore, he has designed his services to be accessible to all.
He has had two books published: The Student Book & The Graduate Book, which you can get hold of for as little as £3.50 on Amazon.
Our fees highlight the full range of services that are available to help your son or daughter to land and thrive in the job of their dreams!
Our success stories include a large number of The Times Top 100 employers. More information, including Testimonials and Press can be found on Our Successes page.
Yes, we have many reviews on Google which are highly positive. Please also see Our Successes page, which includes Testimonials and Press.
Our USP is that we help graduates to find a job and career that matches their interests, values and unique skills. We then support them to land a great graduate job in that area. Lastly, we mentor each graduate through their first job to help them progress quickly. On some occasions, graduates have kept in touch with us for many years afterwards and we have helped them move to new companies for better opportunities.
Building the confidence of our graduates is one of our main selling points. Every graduate we meet has skills and natural abilities that they were not aware of or didn’t realise how valuable they are to employers. In addition, we build confidence by teaching interview technique that brings interview success.
Yes, we coach many of our graduates by video call and telephone, so even if you live outside of London you can still get the help you need to land a graduate job.
Additional Reading
Graduate Coach Prospectus 2023
Our complete guide to how we help graduates turn their degrees into great careers – what we do and how we do it.
DownloadCoaching is an investment
Coaching is an investment not just a cost and how to get a graduate job is what we teach at Graduate Coach.
DownloadExplore our services
Our professional coaches provide career advice and coaching for new graduates, helping you to achieve your full potential. We are experts in full career and 1-2-1 interview coaching, conducted face-to-face, via video calls or online.
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