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9. EMPLOYERS' AWARENESS OF FTWISS
9.1 In policy terms, employers were always seen as playing an important role in making FTWiSS work. Not only were employers well placed to benefit from highly educated and skilled graduates already on FTWiSS in the labour market, they could be pro-active in encouraging students or applicants that might contact them to apply for the scheme.
Employers and the Fresh Talent Initiative
9.2 Employers have been consistently identified as a weak link in the FTI chain and this applies to FTWiSS as well. The Fresh Talent Progress report highlighted difficulties in making employers aware of the scheme and getting them to consider the potential benefits of employing migrant workers. 73 For employers in the UK, especially those looking to hire highly-skilled workers, many still rely on the domestic labour market to fill vacancies rather than actively look abroad. 74
9.3 Research has consistently shown that awareness of FTWiSS is much higher and more developed in academia than it is amongst businesses and employers and the most recent study carried out on this topic in 2007 confirmed this. The second phase evaluation of the Relocation Advisory Service found that amongst those they surveyed who were responsible for recruitment in recruitment agencies and businesses in Scotland, awareness of FTWiSS was low. This was recognised by RAS customers and key partners as well. The report warns that a lack of understanding amongst employers means that they may continue to be put off hiring migrants because they see work permits as too complicated and this could have implications for those on FTWiSS who may be turned down for job opportunities. It goes on to make a series of recommendations about how FTWiSS might be better marketed to employers and use RAS as a way of actively helping employers with work permits and visa applications. 75
Links Between Employers and Academia
9.4 Given the issue of resourcing a widespread marketing campaign or enabling the RAS to take on the capacity to cope with an increased level of enquiries from employers, it may be that something more targeted is required. As was mentioned earlier, John Salt and Jane Miller have highlighted the potential scope for universities and employers to work more closely to identify opportunities for graduates; this sort of model may offer a more sophisticated approach. If FTWiSS is known about and used by universities to get students to come to Scotland to study, then there could be a natural synergy with employers who are interested in hiring students after they have graduated. The opportunity to use FTWiSS to stimulate universities and employers to work in new ways could see the scheme more effectively meet the expectations of the graduates on it.
Employers' Recognition of FTWiSS
9.5 A major barrier to finding employment particular to people on FTWiSS was that most employers were not aware of the FTWiSS scheme or had little or the wrong understanding of what the visa was, and were therefore reluctant to even consider candidates on FTWiSS. Participants in the research with those nearing the end of their 2 years reported being repeatedly asked to explain their immigration status in interviews and having to try and convince potential employers that they were eligible, and felt that this should not be necessary:
Trying to explain what Fresh Talent is not easy, somebody like me explaining it to the employer is going to look like I'm just trying to cook up some story about the kind of visa I have. It would be better if they heard it from the organisers at the Scottish Executive.
I had to convince the people in my temp agency that I was allowed to work full time permanently because they kept only giving me temp placements and I kept saying to them 'No, No, I can work a real job, a full time, permanent job'.
9.6 Interviewees felt that there was a gap between the rhetoric ('Scotland wants you') and employers indifference. There was a feeling that the then Scottish Executive could have focused its attention on making employers aware of the programme, rather than just targeting potential applicants:
I think because it's a new scheme employers are not aware. I think the problem is with information between most employers and the scheme. The main thing is education, there should be more communication between Fresh Talent and especially the main big organisations, because Fresh Talent is not recognised by most organisations, that has been my personal experience.
I have to say while the Scottish Executive has done a good job in bringing the Fresh Talent scheme about, some work is still to be done and that work is letting organisations or employers know what the Fresh Talent visa is all about. More information should be sent to employers, because the information you guys are giving out at the moment is mainly for us [individuals on FTWiSS]. If there's any network through which employers get informed about employing foreigners, that should be used, so its not always news to them.
9.7 Some interviewees also felt that employers were reluctant to employ people on FTWiSS because they were unsure about whether they could retain them after the two year visa ran out. They argued that employers needed to know more about the options for transition to other schemes:
If agents and employers in Scotland knew more about this visa and what's gonna happen after it expires, that I have an option to switch to other programmes, they would be more willing to consider me seriously. Because you see if a big company is going to employ me, it's going to take them a year at least before I start giving them profit, so two years on Fresh Talent and then unknown is not enough.
9.8 The qualitative comments collected from the monitoring questionnaire confirm the findings from the qualitative research. Many respondents stated that in their experience employers would only consider job applicants on the Highly Skilled Migrants programme or with indefinite leave to remain and would reject individuals on FTWiSS out of hand because of the perceived difficulty of applying for a work permit after the two years and the uncertainty about whether it would be granted. Although this evidence cannot claim to be representative of the wider FTWiSS population, it is clear that more could be done to involve and engage employers.
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