For immediate release, Tuesday 10 July 2007
AGR ANNOUNCES ANNUAL AWARD WINNERS
· NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme wins Best of the Best (and Graduate Selection and Assessment Award)
· GCHQ winner of 2007 Literature Award
· Best Website Award goes to Dresdner Kleinwort
· Chartered Insurance Institute take home award for Integrated Marketing Campaign
· The Innovation on Campus Award was scooped by the AGR Information Technology Sector Focus Group
The winners of the 2007 annual Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) awards were announced last night (Tuesday 10 July) at the organisation’s annual conference in Newport, Wales.
The annual AGR awards, now in their 19th year, recognise and reward graduate recruiters for creative and innovative campaigns that attract the best graduate talent. The awards are unique to the industry in that they are judged independently by students and professional graduate recruiters and are free for members to enter. They are designed to highlight best practice in terms of graduate attraction and to ensure standards within the industry remain high.
The ‘Best of the Best’ Award this year goes to the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme, which also took home the prize for the Graduate Selection and Assessment Award, a new category for 2007. The judges praised the scheme for communicating a strong link between cultural values and recruitment competencies. They were also impressed by its verification process involving senior managers, scheme alumni and trainees.
The overall winner in 2007’s Best Literature Award was GCHQ, whose materials were singled out for being exciting to read and memorable. Other winners in this category (based on number of graduates recruited) were Lawrence Graham, L’Oreal and Balfour Beatty.
Dresdner Kleinwort’s graduate recruitment website was overall winner of the Best Website Award, and was commended by judges for being easy to navigate, user-friendly and interactive. Other winners in this category were Parsons Brinkerhoff, Lovells and Allen & Overy.
The judges for the Integrated Marketing Campaign Award were looking for a campaign that had high impact, delivered against objectives and had relevance to its target market. The award went to the
Chartered Insurance Institute for being imaginative and high impact, dispelling myths about careers in insurance and keeping messages strong and consistent throughout. Both GCHQ and Argos were highly commended.
Winner of the Innovation on Campus Award this year was the AGR Information and Technology Sector Focus group, which took a combined approach to raise the profile of the sector on campus. Judges were impressed by the group’s collaborative approach, which used the combined draw of several big names to attract a large number of graduates.
Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the AGR, comments, “The quality of entries for this year’s awards was once again extremely high, and the judges had a difficult time singling out winners for each category. Attracting the best graduates continues to be competitive, and AGR members are rising to the challenge by demonstrating innovation and creativity in order to stand out from the crowd.”
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Notes to Editors
- A full list of category winners follows
- The awards ceremony took place on Monday 9 July at the AGR’s annual conference in Newport, Wales.
- The AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters) is the recognised national voice for all employers involved in graduate recruitment. Established in 1968, the AGR now has over 700 members including a significant number of public and private sectors businesses, which collectively employ 20 per cent of the graduate market. It represents those providing a high proportion of graduate vacancies in the UK and is increasingly involved with research in and around the recruitment needs of employers.
- The AGR has a growing membership and a reputation built on a tradition of networking and sharing of information on best practice. Resources include research publications, benchmarking reports, training events, sector focus groups and much more. To find out more about AGR membership and to join, visit www.agr.org.uk and click on ‘Join AGR’ or call Genevieve Cropper on 01923 623 263.
- Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the AGR, may be available for interview.
Full details of all winners below, including the agency responsible in brackets, where appropriate. If not mentioned, the campaign was devised in-house.
LITERATURE
OVERALL WINNER
GCHQ (TMP Worldwide)
CATEGORY WINNERS:
Companies recruiting up to 30 graduates: Lawrence Graham (McQueen)
Companies recruiting 30 — 100 graduates: L’Oreal
Companies recruiting over 100 graduates: Balfour Beatty (Barkers)
WEBSITE AWARD
OVERALL WINNER
DRESDNER KLEINWORT (Barkers)
CATEGORY WINNERS:
Companies recruiting up to 30 graduates: Parsons Brinkerhoff (Barkers)
Companies recruiting 30 — 100 graduates: Lovells
Companies recruiting over 100 graduates: Allen & Overy (Glass)
INTEGRATED MARKETING CAMPAIGN
OVERALL WINNER
CHARTERED INSURANCE INSTITUTE (City & Law)
HIGHLY COMMENDED
GCHQ (TMP Worldwide)
Argos (360 Degrees Advertising)
GRADUATE SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT
WINNER
NHS GRADUATE MANAGEMENT TRAINING SCHEME
INNOVATION OF CAMPUS
WINNER
THE AGR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR FOCUS GROUP
‘BEST OF THE BSET’ — BLUE RIBAND AWARD 2007
NHS GRADUATE MANAGEMENT TRAINING SCHEME