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Sunday 14th March 2010

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Employers urged to expand recruitment horizons

08/02/2010 Employers urged to expand recruitment horizons Female graduates from ethnic minorities who have attended a university outside of the Russell Group may still struggle to land a top job in the IT industry or other sectors, a new report has suggested.

According to research carried out by Race for Opportunity, while the proportion of ethnic minority students attending UK universities has doubled over the past decade, within the top 20 establishments, progress has been significantly slower.

Indeed, only around one in ten Oxbridge students are currently from minority backgrounds, while such under-representation is also commonplace in nearly all universities outside London, with the exception of just four.

In addition, the study also found that top employers largely continue to focus their graduate recruitment drives on Russell Group candidates, with equality campaigners arguing that by doing so they run the risk of overlooking a 'major pool of talent'.

Commenting, Sandra Kerr, the national campaign director at Race for Opportunity, said: "If more school leavers from ethnic minority backgrounds study at Oxford, Cambridge and other high achieving universities are we likely to see British ethnic minorities progress into senior management and key leadership positions."

At the same time, however, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has welcomed the latest figures from the National Equalities Panel, which show that women in their 30s and 50s with middle incomes have seen an overall improvement in their rate of pay over the past year.


Interested in hiring more female technologists into your organisation? Get in touch with womenintechnology's recruitment services team.
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