The telecoms giant BT has over the course of the weekend announced that it is suspending its graduate recruitment scheme with immediate effect. The move will not affect the 130 graduates who have already been offered positions to start in September of this year, but no further places will be offered to graduates looking for a job via this scheme in the future.
Last year BT received just under 5000 applications for around 130 positions, showing just how attractive the telecoms giant is to university leavers.
BT has sited the recession as the main reason for the suspension, but has also admitted that there are pressures to manage the company’s headcount effectively. Already in the past 12 months 15,000 jobs have been shed and around 5000 more permanent posts will go by the end of 2009. It is likely that a further 10,000 agency workers connected with BT will also lose their jobs.
