Graduates travelling across the country for job interviews will be offered free accommodation in London, Manchester and Birmingham, under an initiative from a high street bank.

The scheme is designed to highlight the financial difficulties jobseekers face when applying for roles. Beginning on Monday, 30 October and lasting for a month, Barclays will pay for up to two nights in a studio apartment close to where graduates’ interviews are taking place. The offer applies to interviews with any company, not just Barclays.

“We hope that by offering free accommodation in some of the most popular cities for graduate jobs, we’ll go some way to helping those who would otherwise struggle,” said Sue Hayes, managing director of personal banking at Barclays.

The bank polled 2,000 graduates and found that four in 10 students have turned down interviews because travel and accommodation is too expensive. Half said they have not even applied for jobs in certain locations because they cannot afford to travel for interviews.

UK graduates spend an average of £507 to secure a job after leaving university, including £52 on travel and accommodation and £58 on clothing per interview, on top of the average student debt of £50,800 Barclays said.

More than four in 10 graduates polled said they had been forced to seek support from family and friends to fund the cost of attending interviews, while close to one third had resorted to overdrafts or credit cards to cover their costs.

“It’s shocking to see the true cost of landing that first job out of university,” Ms Hayes added.