Graduate Employment and Training in SMEs in Northern Ireland

Using the UK Labour Force Survey, this paper considers whether graduate employment is more important in the small and medium-size enterprise (SME) sector in Northern Ireland than in other regions of the UK. The authors disaggregate their analysis by gender, occupation and industry to provide a detailed breakdown. The issue of whether graduates are more or less likely to receive on-the-job training is also considered, both by comparison with non-graduates (matched by industry and occupation groups) and graduates in other UK regions. Finally, given that company size, firm location, industry and occupation groups are all related to the proportion of graduates employed in the labour market, the authors use a multivariate approach to disentangle the extent to which there are differences associated with graduate employment in the Northern Ireland SME sector (having controlled for other factors). The policy implications of their findings for graduate employment are then considered.