Recruiters hiring people for finance graduate jobs have been urged to look beyond "arbitrary" academic qualifications, it has been reported.

Chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters Carl Gilleard told Personnel Today that 2:1 degree classifications are a "very crude tool" for assessing potential candidates, and said employers need to widen their screening processes.

"The difficulty is that particular criteria is flawed and you will be missing out on some very good talent by using an arbitrary degree classification cut-off point," he told the news provider.

"For employers it’s important that when you are going to invest many thousands of pounds in graduates that you recruit the ones that have the potential to develop as you want them to and are likely to stay the course."

The call by Mr Gilleard follows the introduction of a new graduate scheme by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which will change assessment routes to identify a new set of potential candidates.

The PwC Inspired Talent Scheme, which will work alongside its established recruitement programme, aims to focus on an applicant’s "all round" qualities instead of just traditional academic performance.

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