Most students miss graduate scheme deadlines not because they weren’t trying, but because the information available is genuinely bad. Rolling deadlines are listed as fixed ones. “Apply early” appears everywhere without anyone explaining that finance schemes at the Big Four are effectively full by November, not January. Nobody tells you that a £32,000 London salary and a £27,000 Manchester salary produce similar disposable income once you factor in rent.
The advice that exists is either employer-produced marketing or vague enough to be useless. Students end up applying to three schemes in December, wondering why they got nowhere.
We built the Unifresher graduate schemes hub to fix that. Specific numbers. Honest assessments of which schemes are actually worth your time. Real application timelines by sector, not generic “apply before the deadline” advice.
What’s live now
Nine guides covering every major question students have going into applications:
- What is a graduate scheme? — including the real difference between a scheme and a graduate job
- When do graduate schemes open? — by sector, with rolling vs fixed deadline explained
- How to write a graduate scheme application — including before and after examples of what strong answers actually look like
- What to expect at an assessment centre — what assessors are scoring in each exercise, and what most candidates get wrong in the group exercise
- Graduate scheme salaries in 2026 — real numbers by sector and employer, including why the Civil Service pension changes the comparison entirely
- Which schemes accept any degree? — and which employers have dropped grade requirements entirely
- Graduate scheme vs training contract — the distinction matters and most students get it wrong
- Do I need a 2:1? — which employers are flexible, which use contextual admissions, and what to do if you have a 2:2
- How many should I apply to? — with the actual probability maths behind why three applications is not enough
Our city specific guides
We also published city guides for London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Leeds, and Glasgow. Each one covers which employers actually have schemes in that city, what the salaries look like, and whether the financial case for being there stacks up versus London.
What’s coming next
Sector pages and individual employer guides are in production. We’ll publish as they’re ready and update the hub as they go live.
Start at the graduate schemes hub.
