GradTouch, the UK’s most-followed graduate jobs board, and leading student assessment centre provider, SRS, have revealed the new brand for their group business, Careerpass Network.
The new network launches with services that encompass media and display, talent assessment and processing and industry-leading creative, and it’s all underpinned with a single technology platform that tracks candidate data throughout their career.
Zac Williams, Co-Founder of GradTouch and Chief Executive Officer at Careerpass Network, said: “2019 was a record year for both GradTouch and SRS, and following our merger, along with the acquisition of university society sponsorship software, Kaampus, it was time for us to unify under one exciting new name and brand.”
“Typically leading brands go to a broad range of different providers for many different services across recruitment advertising,” adds Williams, “but Careerpass Network offers the industry a fully-integrated service to its clients, with products and offerings across media placement, branding, campus engagement and talent processing.”
GradTouch and Kaampus have a combined database of over 500,000 university students and graduate candidates and SRS hosts assessment centre and recruitment processing events with attendances of up to 500 students a day.
Between these brands Careerpass Network has the ability to engage with hundreds of thousands of student and graduate candidates across multiple channels, with creative services being provided by the network’s in-house agency, Offended.Marketing.
Careerpass Network’s Chief Strategy Officer and Founder of SRS, Sophie Milliken, says, “the wide range of services we offer across the network helps us achieve our core goals of improving the career outcomes of young people in the UK and allows our clients to attract and nurture the talent they need more effectively.”
The unification of the Careerpass Network means the business now has offices in London, Manchester and Newcastle.
Chief Brand Officer at Careerpass Network, Sean Talbot, says: “Each individual brand within the network works in similar ways and with shared goals - being honest and providing impactful work that helps others, whether that’s students looking for meaningful employment, employers wanting to diversify their workforce or universities hoping to boost the prospects of their students”
“Our values are centred around integrity, trust, empowerment and understanding,” he adds, “and we’re all working together to hold ourselves to these standards to really improve the industry for everyone.”
The Careerpass Network currently consists of GradTouch.com, SRS, Offended.Marketing and Kaampus.
Notes to editors:
Careerpass Network is a fully-integrated talent solutions business. Launched in 2020 following the merger of GradTouch.com and SRS, it combines owned media channels with industry-leading creative and tailored employability services.
GradTouch.com formed in 2011 and is an award-winning jobs board specialising in student and graduate opportunities. GradTouch.com has the largest social media following of any graduate jobs board and works with clients such as JP Morgan, PwC, Lloyds Banking Group and Direct Line Group.
SRS is a leading and award-winning provider of student assessment centre simulations and tailored recruitment processes. SRS has assessed over 40,000 university students and helped employers screen over 100,000 candidates for their graduate and apprenticeship roles. SRS merged with GradTouch.com in 2019.
Offended.Marketing launched in 2018 when Dan Kelsall, formerly of Vonkel, joined GradTouch. It is now Careerpass Network’s in-house creative agency offering industry-redefining viral marketing and employer branding and works with clients such as N26, Missguided and Wiser.
Kaampus was acquired by GradTouch.com in 2019 and is an email marketing software that connects employers directly to over 450 university societies through sponsorship.
2019 has been an exciting year for us here at GradTouch, and it's just gotten even more exciting.
As of today, 26th September 2019, we have officially joined forces with award-winning experts in graduate recruitment design and delivery, Smart Resourcing Solutions (SRS).
SRS shares our vision of supporting all students across UK universities and their future employers by providing best in class employability solutions which allow graduates to secure the best-fit role for their careers.
The merger will see no change in what you can expect from GradTouch and SRS as you know them.
We will continue to support employer brands at every stage of their attraction and application process by giving them access to the UK’s largest student and graduate recruitment based social network and innovative jobs board product suite.
Meanwhile, SRS will continue to provide assessment design and delivery services to employers, on top of being the leading supplier of large-scale assessment centre simulations for universities.
“I'm really excited that SRS is joining forces with GradTouch,” said Sophie Milliken, Managing Director of SRS. “We've worked with the GradTouch team on various collaborations for around two years and the time is right to formalise our partnership, supporting our joint aim to best help students get the graduate jobs they want.”
Left to right: Joe Twigg, Sophie Milliken and Zac Williams
Zac Williams, GradTouch's Co-founder & Director, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome SRS to the GradTouch family. After working closely together over the last few years, making our partnership official in this way felt like a no-brainer.”
“The partnership will see SRS continue to equip students and graduates with the skills and tools they need for the world of work. GradTouch has gained the ability to better service the employer brands we work with by giving them the opportunity to showcase their schemes to a new audience of job-ready candidates.”
Now with strongholds across Newcastle, Manchester and London, we're looking forward to what the future holds as we continue to deliver on our core business plan and look toward joining forces with further experts within the graduate recruitment industry; those which share our mission to help every student through their journey from university into the world of work.
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Since GradTouch first started out back in 2011, it's been our mission to make the process of matching students and graduates to the right career for them a clearer, quicker and less-burdensome task for both candidates and employers alike.
We're immensely proud of all the work we've done over the previous eight years to advance that mission. From the many hours of film we've produced to showcase employers' culture in an accessible and attractive way to the many millions of students we've engaged with on social media on behalf of those same employers.
We've grown faster each year, but never as rapidly than in 2019.
To say that it's been a busy one for us would be a tremendous understatement. Not only have we increased our database by over 130,000 users, we've now also merged with not one but two fantastic companies.
New merger with Kaampus
Last month we had the pleasure of announcing that we'd joined forces with award-winning Smart Resourcing Solutions (SRS), the UK's leading supplier of large-scale assessment centre simulations for universities, with whom we are providing employability solutions to students.
Now, we can finally reveal that a second merger has taken place with Kaampus, the digital platform connecting university societies with sponsorship from top graduate employers.
Bringing Kaampus under our wing enables us to take yet another enormous leap forward in our mission of providing students with easier access to valuable and highly relevant employment opportunities, while simultaneously giving employers unrivalled access to students within their target audiences.
Zac Williams, GradTouch's Co-founder & Director, said: "I'm really excited to welcome the Kaampus team into GradTouch. We've been tracking their progress over the last year and it's amazing what they've achieved so far."
Left to right: Joe Twigg, Billy Butt, Zac Williams and Joe Daniels
"Their offering to both students and employers is really unique in the marketplace, and after meeting with them we knew straight away that we wanted to find a way of working together long term," explained Zac.
"I'm so happy we were quickly able to come to an agreement, and I can't wait to roll the product out to more university societies and employers."
Integrating Kaampus into GradTouch's core business offering, we will now be able to provide exclusive access to over 800 societies from UK universities for the employer brands we works with, enabling targeted and trustworthy student engagement campaigns, endorsed by society presidents.
Whether a FTSE 100 employer is looking to target Females in STEM societies across the country, or a well-known shaving brand wants to partner with rugby clubs for Movember, Kaampus gives us the capabilities and infrastructure to facilitate such a partnership.
This is in addition to our core jobs board suite, applicant tracking software and social network already on offer to employers.
With both Kaampus and SRS on board, we're looking forward to the future, better equipped than ever to help students make a smooth transition from university into the world of work.
