Joe Gazdula

Closing the Loop; Employer perceptions of graduates

employability skills gained from real world projects

Session Outline

This session looks at the effect of real world enterprise projects on graduate employer perceptions

It considers a cross section of the real world projects run with education students at Hope University

Looks at general employer perceptions of graduates employability skills

Advises of findings from a survey of 6 employers of undergraduates done in 2010

Employability

“...having a set of skills, knowledge understanding and personal attributes that make a person more likely to choose and secure occupations in which they can be satisfied and successful” (Dacre et al, 2007, p. 280)

Enterprise Skills

‘the skills, knowledge and attributes needed to apply creative ideas and innovations to practical solutions,’

‘initiative, independence, creativity, problem solving, identifying and working

on opportunities,’ leadership, acting resourcefully and responding to

challenges’ (Rea 2007

p.611)

Employability? Higher Ambitions(DBIS, 2009)

Not all graduates need employability skills – some already have them

Flexible routes into HE desirable part-time study and including work-

based learning 205,195 part time first degree

undergraduates in 2005 (HESA 2010) Philosophical arguments (Oakeshott

1972)

Current Perceptions - Gallup 2010

Pan European study showed 89% of employers thought graduates had the skills to work in their company.

However many employed ‘traditional’ graduates e.g. Solicitors and doctors

No measurement of the level graduates were employed at

Current Perceptions - Rae (2007)

Surveys suggest that employers value skills of leadership and team working, communication and presentation skills, and business awareness, for example, but that they experience difficulties in recruiting graduates with these skills (CIPD, 2006; AGR, 2003).

Reluctance to ‘skill up’

distortions caused by the Research Assessment Exercise which meant that academic staff have a greater incentive to publish in academic journals than to undertake joint research with business

Rae (2007)

The prevailing culture of academic organisations is often to focus inwards, on the organisation of academic structures and on the subject discipline of research and course curricula.

outdated and cumbersome university management practices that tended to be slow and risk averse (Hogarth 2007)

Some Approaches to Employability

Graduate Apprenticeship Scheme Sandwich courses WBL PBL Case Studies PlacementsBut still the skills gap persists for

employers

Our approach

Real world graduate enterprise placements

Difficult tasks Combined enterprise type skills with

problem based learning Often with added difficulties But well monitored Self funding or income generating

Real World Problems – Education Studies

Study Support Developments (Everton FC 2007)

Young Entrepreneurs Dragons Den (see ESCalate 2008)

Culture Clubs MacAttack (St Helens Library 2010) Children’s University (2011 unlikely to

proceed due to redundancy situation)

Our study

We asked 6 major regional graduate education employers about the type of skills they would pick up on the projects we have called ‘Real World Problem Solving’

Outlines of projects given to companies

1 month before survey Runthrough Skills identified Learning identified Questions

We Asked; If the projects would enhance the

ability of education graduates to get a job

Replies as a %

Yes 75%Likely 12%Unlikely 2%No

If the graduates would benefit from having better employability skills through doing the real world problem solving projects we had described

Improved Employability Skills

Yes 87%Likely 8%Unlikely 2%No 3%

If their recent graduates would benefit from improved skills in the following areas when they graduated and to make a comment

leadership team working, communication presentation skills, business awareness

This is what they said

leadership

Did Your Graduates Need Better Leadership Skills on Joining Your Organisation?

Yes 52%Most did 22%Most did Not 2%No 26%

Team working,

Did Your Graduates Have Suf-ficient Teamworking Skills on

Joining Your Organisation?Yes 75%Most Did 12%Most Did Not 3%No 10%

Communication How did you rate your graduates

communication skills overall

Insufficient for all aspects of the post 6%Insufficient for some aspects of the post 46%Sufficient for most but not all aspects of the post 38%Sufficient for all aspects of the post 10%

Presentation skills (These finding need to be tempered as some employers representatives

took the meaning to be personal presentation only and others actual presentations)

Were your new undergraduates pre-sentation skills adequate for their

post?

Yes in all aspects 25%Yes in most aspects 35%No in some apects 30%Not at all10%

Business awareness

How would you rate your new graduates business awareness?

Excellent 18%Good 20%Adequate 25%Poor 37%

Finally we asked if the Real World Problem Projects would improve these skills

Lead

ersh

ip

Team

wor

king

Comm

unicat

ion

Pres

enta

tion

Busine

ss S

kills

0

20

40

60

80

100

Yes

YesNo

Comments

Some graduates need simple skills like how to get up in the morning!

They don’t have to take any responsibility for their actions in university, these type of programmes will help them realise how important it is to get things right.

Your programmes will help them plan projects and be ready to take responsibility early

They’re very good but sometimes need a bit of help to get started

Why don’t all universities do this sort of thing? There is a clear difference between the ones who have work

experience – even if it’s in a shop- and the ones who don’t We don’t fast track graduates above other employees, they

have to perform

Summary

‘.....despite extensive development, and evidence of innovative practices to foster employability within universities, employability remains a complex and problematic area without clear or obvious solutions. Increasingly, enterprising students and graduates are regarded as more employable, and there appear to be advantages in integrating career and enterprise development themes within the curriculum.’ Rea (2007)

References

Dacre Pool, L. and Sewell, P. (2007), “The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability”, EducationþTraining, Vol. 49 No. 4, p. 277-89.

Gallup November (2010) Employers’ perception of graduate employability: Analytical report Flash EB No 304 European Commission

Rea, D (2007) Connecting enterprise and graduate employability; Challenges to the higher education culture and curriculum? Education and Training, Vol. 49 No. 8/9, 2007 p. 605-619 Emerald

UK Universities (2010) Higher Education Facts and Figures (http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/HigherEducationInFactsAndFiguresSummer2010.pdf - accessed 7/4/11)

Oakeshott, M. (1972) ‘Education: the Engagement and its Frustration’, in Fuller T. (ed.) Yale University Press.

Hogarth, T. Winterbotham, M. Hasluck, C. (2007) Employer and University Engagement the Use and Development of Graduate Level Skills -Main Report, Institute for Employment Research University of Warwick IFF Research Ltd