Europe’s graduates look to the future with op-timism / L'Oréal and IBM ranked No. 1 in The European Student Barometer 2007

More than two thirds of these students would not describe the current economic situation as bad and feel that it will not be difficult to find a job after graduation. At the same time they are seeking exciting and rewarding employment that fulfils more than just financial desires. The importance of quality of life factors is clear, with the selection of “work-life-balance” as an important employer characteristic. An attractive employer should also offer “attractiveness of work tasks” and “advancement opportunities”.

The European Student Barometer is in its fifth year and every year the study is further developed and refined. In 2006 the European Student Barometer ex-perienced a phase of considerable growth with the number of participants increasing to 40,000 and the addition of four new countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland).

L'Oréal and IBM are the most popular employers

While for business and economics students FMCG companies prove to be the most favoured employers, engineers tend to name companies involved in the IT industry as being the most attractive. L’Oréal managed to retain its number one position in the rankings among business students.

“Since trendence started The European Student Barometer in 2002, the major-ity of European business graduates have continually chosen L’Oréal as one of their most attractive employers. The company has managed to keep its place in the top three for five years now. This is due to its reputation for being a firm that provides graduates with international career opportunities and, more importantly, the opportunity to gain experience and expertise very quickly.” says Oliver Viel, trendence’s Head of Consultancy.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (13.8%) and Coca-Cola (13.5%) achieved 2nd and 3rd place respectively, ahead of Ernst & Young (13.4%) and adidas (12.1%). IBM is deemed attractive by 19.3% of engineering students. Microsoft (17.5%) and BMW (15.1) also succeed in coming in 2nd and 3rd place followed by Apple (14.1%) in fourth and Intel in fifth (12.9%) position.

About the survey
The European Student Barometer is an annual study conducted amongst students who are about to finish their degrees and enter the workforce. The study is the largest of its kind, covers 18 European countries and incorporates the responses of over 40,000 business and engineering students.

The Top Employer ranking is established from a list of more than 100 compa-nies. Students highlight which companies they are familiar with and would consider working for. Students may add additional companies to this list, which each year allows new companies (those most often cited by the stu-dents) to enter the list for the next survey.

About trendence Institute
trendence Institute specialises in empirical research studies based on the career perspectives and expectations of young people. It also provides con-sulting services to institutions in all areas of recruitment marketing. trendence assists companies in the task of gaining information about their potential work-force. For this reason, trendence devises questionnaires to find out the opin-ions of school-leavers, students and young professionals.