A recruitment expert has warned that young computing graduates should try to gain experience “by any means possible” if it will help them enter the workplace.

Last week it was revealed that the UK needed to recruit 110,000 more IT workers over the next year. It's a positive figure for the industry, but one that conflicts with anecdotal and statistical data that suggests Computer Science graduates struggle to find employment when they leave college.

“At the moment it's still very competitive and very difficult for raw graduates,” said Richard Nott, website director for CWJobs. “The big employers have not been doing the traditional graduate intake because they have wanted people with experience who can hit the ground running.

“It's a Catch 22 because even with a good computer science degree if you have no experience it's very hard to find a job, although you can't get experience without a job.”

While the idea of working for low or no pay might be unattractive for graduates with ballooning student loans to pay off, Nott suggested they might have to take whatever productive employment they could find in order to build up portfolio, rather than waiting for the right jobs.

Yes, graduates have no life, no bills and don't need to eat.

Sounds more like a plan to create a tier of slave labour for IT firms.

I don't think graduates should expect to walk into a fantastic salary straight off the bat, but they should be paid something for their efforts.

Yes, graduates have no life, no bills and don't need to eat.

Sounds more like a plan to create a tier of slave labour for IT firms.

I have worked on a voluntary basis for two months at a local school during the summer break between the first and second years of my degree.

It did give me some experience, and a reference, which is great.

I am now 6 months into a placement year (like forquare1 did) and I'm sure that the reference and previous experience helped me get the job. It certainly gave me something to talk about and refer to in the interview.

I don't think I'd ever work for free. I've always worked over the summers, and have completed a placement year. I've a couple of job offers lined up so I'm not too too worried at present. I wasn't particularly aware of a shortage of job grads, as I think our dept has had everyone (who looked for employment) employed within 6 months of graduating for the last five or six years.

I'd take it if I could afford it.

And therein lies the problem for most graduates.