Developing Employability Skills to Achieve Graduate Job - Essay Example

According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters the graduate job market is becoming increasingly competitive with 49 applicants per vacancy in 2009 compared to 28 in 2006. Evaluate the importance of work experience as a valuable way of developing the employability skills required to be successful in achieving a graduate job. The past number of years has seen a massive increase in the number of people who pursue postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom (UK). In fact, there was a 36% increase in the number of people studying for higher degrees (Connor et al, 2010). Unfortunately, an increasing number of these graduates are having a hard time making their entrance into the job market. This is especially true given light of the recent recession. According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) in the UK, there has been a 6.9% drop in graduate vacancies in 2010 as of July. In addition to this, the AGR also reported that there has been an increased race for graduate jobs and the average salary has not shown any increase from £25,000 per year for the past two years. Employers are now seen to require a minimum of a 2.1 degree compared to only 67% in 2008 (AGR, 2010a). To add to the bad news for graduate job seekers, the number of job applications for each job is now at 69, up from 49 in 2009 and 31 in 2008(AGR, 2010a). A look at all these statistics provides a bleak outlook for graduate job seekers and presents the question of what other skills and assets employers potentially look for when hiring apart from academic qualifications (Connor et al, 2010). Probably the primary factor taken into account when an employer looks at potential candidates for a job is to determine their levels of ‘employability’. The Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team (ESECT) has defined employability as ‘a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations’ (Booth, n.d). It must be noted that while this definition is provided, ESECT has stated that the acquisition of desirable skills is not the only factor towards employment, the employers recruitment practices also come into playing addition to several other factors. In addition, skills can be of a wide variety and can be gotten from a wide range of activities. Also, the fact that a person holds a degree and a skill set gives them a better shot at a job but does not necessarily mean they will be successful at this job (Booth, n.d). Some of the skills that employers typically tend to look for in potential employees can broadly be broken up into four main types-people skills, self-reliance skills, general skills and specialist skills. People skills generally translate to having leadership qualities, being able to work as part of a team and having the ability to interact effectively with other people. Self-reliance skills are usually being confident with the work done, being resourceful to get the job at hand done and having strong networking skills. General skills encompass having the ability to be flexible in one’s work, be able to solve problems and staying committed to the task. Specialist skills are the ones that are provided by the academic degree that was obtained (Hawkins and Gilleard, n.d). It can generally be said that while specialist skills are learnt at university, the other skills are ones that are picked up in work situations which is the reason why employers are more likely to prefer candidates with some experience. A survey done of graduate students in 2010 certainly indicated that they believe experience was a primary factor when being considered for a job. Graduates were asked to rate what features they thought they would use if they were the ones hiring and a huge 61% selected work experience. 21% opted for degree classification, 17% cited the university attended and 1% gave A ‘level results (AGR, 2010b). Furthermore, research has suggested that graduates who have no work experience do not possess ‘personal, transferrable and employability’ skills that are essential in a working environment (Davies, 2000). A pilot project was launched to allow students to do part-time work which would improve their chances at employability. This had the following tasks in mind: 1) Preparation of material to help a student for part-time or temporary learning experience (Davies, 2000). 2) Preparation of material that would allow students and their employers to acknowledge and appreciate their transferrable skills (Davies, 2000). 3) The preparation of material to serve as a mentoring guide for the employer or the supervising staff (Davies, 2000). It was clear that the students were picking up essential skills and aptitudes that would be exceedingly useful when they entered the job market after graduation (Davies, 2000). As it seems clear that work experience will be a definite plus when attempting to find a job after graduation, it has been recommended that students attempt to find work placements, work based projects, internships, sandwich placements, part-time work, shadowing or even volunteer work during their holidays (National Council for Work Experience, n.d). Universities seem to actively encourage their students to start thinking about job opportunities in their first year and to try and network so as to improve chances in the job hunt later on (Hawkins and Gilleard, n.d). In addition, students are encouraged to take-part in activities that will better their skills such as joining a debate team or taking extra courses where possible which deal with presentations for example. These are all skills that would be extremely transferrable and useful in a work situation (Hawkins and Gilleard, n.d; Target jobs, n.d). It must be noted that graduates sometimes tend not to put jobs that are not related to their careers on their resumes (Woodcock, n.d). This, unfortunately, works against them. Employers do understand that other jobs allow graduates to acquire valuable skills. For example, work in a gift shop or restaurant will enable a person to become more sensitive to dealing with customers, handling money, working under stressful situations and becoming more organised. In fact, Marks and Spencer has stated that "Academic qualifications are not our only important requirement. We will also expect you to have taken on positions of leadership and responsibility and show real ability to take initiative." (Woodcock, n.d). The important thing to recognize from this is that it is not enough to have an academic qualification; graduates need to know how to portray themselves adequately to future employers. Also, students are recommended to keep detailed records of their achievements and the skills gained from any work experience and when looking for a job, to attempt to make known to the employer how they could utilise these skills acquired to suit the job at hand (Hawkins and Gilleard, n.d). Moreover, note must be taken of the fact that studies have indicated that up to a startling 38% of graduates were over-educated for their first job and this remained the case six years later (Dolton and Vignoles, 2000). This raises the question as to whether graduate degrees are in fact still appreciated in a working environment or is it primarily the factors related to employability? This question can be answered by the results of a survey carried out by the Leitch Review where the hiring bodies of fifty-seven businesses, including several businesses that recruit globally, were asked questions about whether they do actively attempt to recruit graduates. 70% of these employers said that they actively did attempt to hire people with a Masters degree and in 90% of these employers; the main reason was the problem solving skills and the analytical thinking that a Masters degree encourages. Similarly, 70% actively attempted to hired people with a PhD and in this case too, nearly nine out of ten appreciated the subject matter and technical skills brought to the table by this degree while seven of ten appreciated the innovative ideas such candidates would have to offer (Connor et al, 2010). While these degrees are appreciated, what stands out is that employers were concerned with the skill set that the graduate would have as a result of their degrees and this correlates with the notion that employers want recruits with the skills needed to work in their organisation and this can be obtained through experience. A mention must be made of the fact that despite evidence to the contrary in several situations, the AGR reports some surprising statistics. Only 33.5%of employers said they considered work experience and instead it was degree classification (77.5%) which was mainly looked at (AGR, 2010b). Unfortunately, it appears graduates are unaware of this and employers need to make known this fact to potential employees. To conclude, the job market is becoming increasingly more difficult for recent graduates to enter in to. It is not enough to just be armed with an academic degree anymore. Most recruiters seem to consider the overall employability that a candidate has to offer. The employability is defined not only by the academic degree but also other skills that an individual may have that will help them in their work environment. A major factor that graduates believe will make them more employable is gaining work experience. More and more students are being encouraged to attempt to find work while still students in their chosen careers and if this is not possible, to at least attempt to do so volunteer work to build u these skills. Surprisingly this is not always the case as was seen in a recent survey done by AGR in which only 33.5% of employers cited experience as a factor when being considered for a job. Taking this into consideration, it can be said that while gaining some work experience while still a student will definitely be beneficial in the long run, it is also the degree classification which is of high importance and these two need to be balanced out. References AGR. 2010a. Class of 2010 Faces Uphill Struggle for Jobs. [Online]. Available from < http://www.agr.org.uk/Content/Class-of-2010-Faces-Uphill-Struggle-for-Jobs> [Accessed 3 Dec 2010]. AGR. 2010b. What Counts is Brain Power!. [Online]. Available from < http://www.agr.org.uk/Content/What-counts-is-brain-power!> [Accessed 4 Dec 2010]. Booth, J. n.d. Briefings on Employability 6 for the Graduate Careers Advisory Services Briefings. [online]. Available at [Accessed 4 Dec 2010]. Connor, H.; Forbes, P. & Docherty, D. 2010. Talent Fishing What Businesses Want from Postgraduates A CIHE Report for Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. March 2010. CIHE. Davies, L. 2000. Why kick the “L” out of “LEarning”? the development of students’ employability skills through part-time working. Education + Training, 42, 436-444. Dolton, P. & Vignoles, A. 2000.The incidence and effects of over education in the UK graduate labour market. Economics of Education Review, 19, 179-198. Hawkins, P. & Gilleard, C. n.d. If Only I’d Known: Making the Most of Higher Education. A Guide for Students and Parents. National Council for Work Experience. n.d. About Work Experience. [Online]. Available at http://www.work-experience.org/employers_about_work_experience.htm [Accessed 3 Dec 2010]. Target Jobs. n.d. Selling your Work Experience to Graduate Employers.[Online]. Available at [Accessed 3 Dec 2010]. Woodcock, B. n.d. Developing Employability Skills. Careers Advisory Service University of Kent. [Online]. Available at < http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsdevelop.htm> [Accessed 4 Dec 2010]. Read More