This is the twenty-eighth of a series of bulletins produced by ISE to update members on key data and policy on Covid-19. This covers the period 01/10/2020-07/10/2020.

You can access all of the Covid-19 bulletins on ISE insights.

Latest Covid-19 data

Data taken from Wikipedia and from the government’s Covid-19 dashboard.

The UK has now had a total of 544,275 identified Covid-19 cases and 42,515 deaths. Problems with the reporting of data meant that recent statistics have probably been under-estimating the seriousness of the growth of the disease.

Lockdown policy

• The Prime Minister argues that people have got complacent over Covid-19.
• There are big questions as to how effective the series of local lockdowns have been. The BBC has catalogued all of the different local lockdown restrictions currently in operation.

Education

• The government has updated its guidance to schools on handling the pandemic.
• NFER publishes extensive research on how schools are handling Covid. While the Career Development Institute have gathered together resources and research on Covid for careers professionals.
• Apprentices stuck in limbo as Covid hits functional skills tests.
• The government has announced that there will be more opportunities for adult learners, including extending access to T-levels to adults. The Metro explains how these courses can be accessed.
• The number of cases and outbreaks are growing in UK universities. At least three universities have had to suspend face-to-face teaching. However, international students appear to be continuing to come to UK universities.

The labour market

• The overall number of jobs being advertised has been steadily climbing back to where it was last year.
• A new scheme has been announced to support job seekers. Meanwhile there are concerns about how the existing funding for the National Careers Service is being managed.

The student labour market

• New analysis from the ONS on the current situation in the UK labour market (in summary, things are bad for young people). The NCFE podcast discusses what can be done about youth unemployment while Learning & Work discuss how to make Kickstart work.
• Graduate labour market update from Charlie Ball.
• Graduate jobs – what matters in the pandemic? Tristram Hooley’s presentation to National Graduate week.

Student recruitment

• The pandemic is challenging many firms’ commitment to student recruitment. Dan Hawes argues that there is a need to advocate for the value of graduates within businesses.
• The secret to first class virtual onboarding. ISE blog from Stephanie Hopper.
• Lyndsey Rowe of SAP discusses their current graduate recruitment strategy. While Irina Fransson of Bloomberg discusses theirs.
• What students want. ISE webinar based on new research that also spawned 8 tricks to better student recruitment.
• It is important that firms don’t lose their commitment to diversity and inclusion during the pandemic. Tristram Hooley argues that truly inclusive recruitment means focusing on nuances.

Employer insights

Insights gathered from ISE employer ‘town halls’ and other interactions over the last week.

• Firms are using a variety of online recruitment and careers fair platforms in their recruitment. This generally seems to be going well.
• There is a mixed approach to the induction of new joiners. Many are being inducted from home although in some cases limited office working is beginning. There are concerns about whether this is impacting on performance, but no clear data as of yet.
• Winter vacation intern schemes are to be run mainly online. Although some firms are hoping to be able to include a visit as part of the internship.
• Some interest in engaging with the government’s Kickstart scheme, but many firms are still exploring this