Graduate

Employment

TrendsTrends

Head of Careers Service

Julian Rhys-Williams

Aims of the session

To review

• Key features of the labour market

• Employability and graduate skills• Employability and graduate skills

• Key sources of data on graduate outcomes

• Recent outcomes and impact of recession

• Graduate and non Graduate jobs

• Further data and outlook

Key features of market for

graduates(1)

• 60% of ‘graduate jobs’ don’t specify subject discipline

• About 60% of 1st degree graduates go into labour market within 6 months

• Formal graduate training schemes make up only 10–15% of opportunities

• Reliance by some employers on pre university grades as well as degree

• Some emphasis on 2:1 (potential or actual) result in selection procedure

• Use of tests on line

Key features of market

for graduates (2)

• Degree/academic results not enough - need to demonstrate range of skills and some work experience.

• Extra curricular achievements expected especially for ‘fast track • Extra curricular achievements expected especially for ‘fast track ‘schemes

• Significant number of formal placements lead to jobs. Internships growing.

• Issue of type of jobs entered into by graduates

Key features of market

for graduates (3)• Relevant vocational degrees required in some areas – eg

engineering, science, medicine, nursing , social work , art and design and others.

• Very high graduate employment in many of these

• More mixed in others especially art and design

• Art and design has highest numbers going into self employment

• Significant numbers of first degree graduates go on to PG or other further study - 15% plus

• For some areas a requirement eg legal professions , teacher training, psychology

• Funding issues

Underlying trends for

graduates (1)• Increasing demand for higher level skills in ‘knowledge’ based

economy

• Decline in UK manufacturing and increase in service and professional skills

• Importance of business innovation and small and medium business growth with graduates

• Smaller proportion of graduates in ‘traditional’ graduate jobs and wider range of jobs graduates do

Underlying trends for

graduates (2) • Higher earning potential than non graduates and less likely to be

unemployed in the long run

• Increase in time to get a ‘meaningful’ job and need to adapt and commit to lifelong learning

• Need for career management skills

Graduate Employability

SkillsCBI report ( 2009) ‘Future Fit

• Self management

• Teamworking

• Application of numeracy

• Application of IT

• Business and customer awareness

• Problem solving and analysis

• Communication and literacy

• POSITIVE ATTITUDE

• Enterprise /creativity

• ‘To be employed is to be at

risk, to be employable is to be risk, to be employable is to be

secure’

• Dr. Peter Hawkins, 1999

• author “The Art of Building Windmills’ and co-founder of windmills programme

Data/statistics/research

• Annual & Longitudinal DLHE (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education) surveys ( 6 months and 3 years)

• What Do Graduates Do www.prospects.ac.uk including detailed profiles by subject area.

• Unistats website and destination data on university websites• Unistats website and destination data on university websites

• League Tables eg Times, Sunday Times , Guardian, based on various measures of graduate jobs/ further study and unemployment

• Employment Performance Indicator (EPI) via HESA: www.hesa.ac.uk , with benchmarks allowing for entry quals and ethnicity

• ( an important measure for HEI like Mdx)

Data/statistics/research

• Warwick Institute for Employment Research: Researching the Graduate Labour Market ~ Class of ‘99, Future Track, Moving On, Seven Years On www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/glmf

• HECSU LMI & Graduate Employment Trends www.hecsu.ac.uk• HECSU LMI & Graduate Employment Trends www.hecsu.ac.uk

• AGCAS www.agcas.org.uk

• AGR www.agr.org.uk

Some statistics :DLHE 2009

cohortUK Ist degree• 274,385 graduates • 224,895 responded to DLHE survey

• 59.2% employment• 8.0% work & study • 8.0% work & study • 15.4% further study/training • 8.9% unemployed • 8.4% other activity ( not available , time out etc)

• 62.4% were in ‘graduate jobs’

• Average salary was £19,695 • Locations nearly 40 % in London and south East

Further analyses and

impact of recession• For the 2009 graduating cohort recession had significant impact

• Continuing decline in employment and continuing increase in unemployment

• Slight increases in full time further study and taking time out

• Many areas of employment affected : building /architecture/civil • Many areas of employment affected : building /architecture/civil engineering, financial services ( esp banking), manufacturing, marketing /advertising, IT , also journalism and design

• Energy and health, social and welfare and education sectors more or less steady levels of employment. Also sport and fitness

• Increase in numbers going into ‘non graduate ‘ jobs. Though less decline in recruitment for major graduate schemes

• Continued importance of internships for graduates in 2009 sometimes unpaid.

Types of Graduate Job

• Measure devised by Elias and Purcell of IER, authors of major longitudinal studies and fitting into SOC classifications

• Traditional eg solicitor, doctor, architect, research scientist

• Modern eg IT programmer, journalist, primary school teacher

• New eg marketing, management accountant, therapists , social workers , engineers

• Niche eg nursing, retail managers, graphic designers

• Non graduate eg admin assistant, secretary, sales assistant, some technician and ‘craft ‘ level jobs

Graduate and non Graduate jobs %

six months after graduation

(all Unis)

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

� Traditional 11.2 11.5 11.7 12.4

� Modern 12.3 12.6 13.8 13.7

� New 15.5 16.0 17.2 16.6

� Niche 23.3 23.7 23.8 23.0

• Non 37.5 35.6 33.5 34.3 37.6

Total grad level: 62.5 64.4 66.5 65.7 62.4

Further data

• Evidence from most recent longitudinal survey of 2005 graduates 3 years

on showed : 81 % in graduate level occupations ie clear increase on

figures 6 months after graduation. Also decline in unemployment.

• Recent detailed longitudinal survey of art and design graduates called

Creative Futures showed similar increases in those in higher level work Creative Futures showed similar increases in those in higher level work

often using their creative skills. Also 40% had experienced self

employment /freelancing in 3 yrs plus since graduating

• However wide range of salary levels for graduates both starting out and

in long term with eg overall accountancy , computing , engineering and

medicine grads doing much better than arts graduates.( though some v

high achieving arts grads will certainly do v well in business sector). Gap

between grads and those with A levels or equivalent lifelong earnings

likely to narrow.

Graduate preferences

Top 10 employers

Civil Service

Accenture

changing

• 91% good work/life balance was important

• 67% had to be happy with the PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Army

KPMG

HSBC

BBC

Proctor & Gamble

NHS

Deloitte & Touche

• 67% had to be happy with the ethical record of a prospective employer

• ‘successful career’ and ‘good salary’ came further down the list of things graduates most wanted

• ‘Generation X & Y’?

Outlook

• Possible steadying of unemployment rate

• Increase in non graduate employment and some further study

• Some increases in private sector graduate recruitment

• Still highly competitive entry• Still highly competitive entry

• Decline in many areas of public sector recruitment

• Continuing importance of opportunities for graduates to gain

• experience and some specialist skills

• Long term positive outlook but graduates need to be realistic and well prepared to secure opportunities suited to them