notgoingtouni.co.uk

Site's statement

Jobboard Finder’s opinion

Summary: Created in 2008 by Tom Mursell, a young entrepreneur who now works as a consultant for CleverTouch Marketing, NGTU (Not Going to Uni) is a specialist job board for apprenticeships and entry-level jobs. It has gained a lot of attention over the years and continues to attract jobseekers. 217 830 views are recorded per month and many followers stay updated on the website news: 44 400 followers on Twitter, 7 741 on Facebook, 236 on YouTube and 826 on LinkedIn. Over time, the job board has collaborated with the Royal Air Force, which is featured in the logo and around the screen.

Design: On the homepage, users must select what they’re looking for to access the appropriate list: apprenticeships, alternative courses/degrees, college courses, college higher education, sponsored degrees, distance learning, work experience, employment & training, gap year, jobs, professional qualifications and traineeships. There are featured “providers” (companies) on the homepage, which are all hiring, and featured jobs in square boxes. Once in the listing, the filters include the sector, the location and the start date. If you picked a category (apprenticeship, etc.), a definition of the category appear above the listing. There are logos, job titles and keywords in the list, but not publication date. Once you’ve opened one, it can include a map, photos, an application start date, deadlines, salary information and a description. Similar job offers appear underneath. All over the website, the Royal Air Force is featured as a kind of backdrop, which is advertising space that any copany can purchase (for a limited time). There are company pages, which have a description, a logo and job offers.

The job board objective: NGTU was designed for those who have dropped out of university or didn’t go in the first place. It offers job and apprenticeship opportunities to people without degrees.

Recruiter observations: Recruiters need to contact the website to advertise.

Jobseeker observations: It’s very easy to create an account. For some offers, you’re redirected to an application form. Otherwise, there is a short form to fill out.

The job offers: There are 4 568 offers on the site at the moment. There are an overwhelming number of offers in business and admin and most are apprenticeships.

Reactivity: The team answers very quickly, but they didn’t answer all of our questions.

Special features: The hundreds of YouTube videos; the events (of which there are none); “Be Inspired” by true stories; the feedback on articles; following companies; the Twitter field; the category definitions.

Verdict: NGTU is a great place to find apprenticeships in the UK. The feedback from other apprentices is also useful for those venturing out into the workforce. A CV database would be nice though.

Written by Ali Neill

As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website's social media pages.