Manchester Digital tackles the brain drain

More than 1,000 students turned out for Manchester Digital's 'talent day' at Manchester Town Hall.

The digital sector trade body organised the event on February 22 as part of a plan to forge stronger links between businesses and the city's universities.

The idea is the companies get access to potential employees and the city's wider talent pool benefits from less brain drain to London.

"It's been fantastic for our members and what we've been able to say to the students is there are 100 jobs on offer here," said Manchester Digital's chair Shaun Fensom.

"The message we've been getting to our members is you need to start talking to students now to stop them going to London when they finish."

Code Computerlove's founder Tony Foggett was involved in organising the day and was also manning the company's stand.

He said: "In Manchester there are lots of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but graduates are focused on going to work for large corporates.

"What this is all about is getting these SMEs together to show them there's a vibrant opportunity here and it's worth staying.

"The other thing for students is recognising what opportunities an SME can offer as opposed to a corporate. It's often a fast-track learning process because you're given roles and experiences that you might not get in a larger business."

Among the firms actively recruiting was Livelink, a Manchester-based web design and online marketing agency which has 20 employees. Staff were handing out flyers inviting people to apply for five vacancies through a QR code.

"We don't recruit through agencies, we use things like Twitter, we're looking for interns and full-time staff," said head of development Paul Johnson.

"We'd rather recruit raw talent and fresh, bright, young thinkers because this is an industry where it's not always experience that matters."

He added: "There's no recession in digital. Since January we've seen a real resurgence of demand."

The Warrington-based online marketing firm Latitude was also looking for new recruits, and directing potential applicants to its Facebook page.

Richard Hudson, a director at Heaton Chapel-based web developer Vanilla Storm, was also looking to fill vacancies.

"Students are a great source of new talent, and we've got a shortage which is not helped by the BBC moving here," he said.

The Macclesfield advertising agency McCann was more interested in raising its profile among students.

"For us it's less about getting job applications and more a question of raising students' awareness of us and the different career paths we offer," said talent and development manager Tracey Harman.

Connor Barlow a first year student at Manchester Metropolitan University said: "I'm just looking around to see what different companies have to offer and if they have internships.

"When you're online it's difficult to gauge whether you have the experience to do something, but here they talk to you and give you the confidence to think you could do it."

But Bamdad Dashtban, a post-graduate computer sciences student from Iran, admitted he was disappointed at the size of the companies present.

"I came here to talk face-to-face with big companies, but it's more agencies. My plan is to stay in Manchester if I can find a good job. If not, I'm going to cities like Cambridge, Reading and London where there are more big companies."

As well as the firms mentioned above How-Do spotted: KMP Digitata, Eventility, Stardotstar, TBWA/Manchester, Laterooms.com, Carat, IAS B2B, Orchard, BJL, Ixis, Blueleaf, Code Computerlove, Ampersand, Matmi, JD Sports, theEword, I-COM, Mediacom, CBJ Digital, RealtimeUK, Fig Creative, Madhouse, Clicks and Links, Textmimedia, and Access.

Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.