Plymouth University Professional Development Programme - Case Study Example

Professional Development Planning Background The employment environment has been changing over the years. With universitiesand colleges producing a growing number of graduates each year, employers are having a larger pool of potential employees to pick from. Unlike in the past where only a few graduates were available, many employers have to sift through numerous job applications from graduates seeking employment. Considering the high number of potential employees, employers are now considering previous work experience as one of the main criteria for selecting job applicants. According to High Fliers (2014: 26), over 50 per cent of recruiters believed that graduates without previous work experience stand no chance of getting jobs. Work experience enhanced a graduate’s chance of employment. Work experience for graduates mainly comes from job placements through internships or coaching. Already, many universities in the UK are offering job placements for their graduates. This has led to an increase in the number of graduates with work experience. According to graduate-jobs.com (2013: 1), about 80 per cent of graduates in 2013 had work experience. Even with this impressive statistics, there are still a considerable number of graduates without work experience. Part of the reason for this is the fact that job placements may be unpaid. This often makes graduates feel that unpaid job placements are not that important (see Whistler, 2014). Although employers are looking at graduate’s work experience, they are more concerned with relevant work experience (graduate-jobs.com, 2013: 1). Based on this background information, this essay compares 30 universities from the UK based on their job placement programmes. The comparison will be based on how elaborate, relevant, and effective these job placement programmes are for the graduates in terms of job prospects. Plymouth University Professional Development Programme Plymouth University provides graduates from different faculties with job placement opportunities. The university has formed partnerships with various stakeholders to ensure that graduates can get work experience through internships and other job placement opportunities. This job placement programme covers students from all faculties such as health, education, science, and travel and accommodation among others. The university’s website provides loads of information about the job placements that graduates can easily access and contact the relevant offices for assistance (Plymouth University, 2015a). According to the latest CUG ranking, Plymouth University came at position 79 out of 123. With regard to graduate prospects, the university achieved 57 out of 100 (The Complete University Guide, 2015). This means that only 57 per cent of graduates from the university have chances of getting jobs. Basing this on the employers’ requirement for work experience, the university’s job placement programme should be enhanced to produce more experienced graduates because this is far below the 80 per cent average in the UK (see graduate-jobs.com, 2013). Plymouth University has a professional development programme, CPD. The programme seeks to provide appropriate, relevant, and effective opportunities for professional development to students, staff, and employers. Through the CPD, the university offers a varied, diverse, and flexible range of activities including focused short courses and job placements (Plymouth University, 2015b). Bournemouth University The university has a student placement scheme that establishes partnerships with prospective employers to provide BU students with job placements. The university’s student placement scheme is one of the best in England because it has the highest number of students in job placements than other universities (Bournemouth University, 2015; graduate-jobs.com, 2013: 1). Bournemouth University is ranked 69 in the latest CUG ranking. With regard to graduate prospects, the university scored 63.4 out of 100 (The Complete University Guide, 2015). This is still below the national average. University of Surrey The University of Surrey has an effective student placement programme known as the professional training programme. Under this programme, the university works with multiple partners within and outside the UK to find job placements for its students (University of Surrey, 2015). According to graduate-jobs.com (2013: 1), the Surrey was ranked second in the UK in 2013 for having 87.93 graduate students with work experience. According to the CUG 2015 rankings, the university’s graduate prospects point is 74.9 out of 100 (The Complete University Guide, 2015). This means that the university’s student placement programme is highly effective in enhancing the graduates’ employability. Aston University Aston University also has a student placement scheme. Through this scheme, over 70 per cent of the university’s students undertake job placements in their third year either within the UK or abroad (Aston University, 2015). The university’s placement scheme has been very effective such that in 2010, it received an award from RateMyPlacement.co.uk (Aston University, 2010). According to the latest CUG ranking, Aston University was awarded 73.0 out of 100 in terms of graduate prospects (The Complete University Guide, 2015). This shows that the placement scheme is highly effective. London Metropolitan University The university has a dedicated career team that helps students to find job placements. Students wishing to find job placements can seek the assistance of this team in identifying placement opportunities and applying for them (London Metropolitan University, 2015). A high number of students (over 80 per cent) from the university have work experience (graduate-jobs.com, 2013: 1). However, job prospect for graduates from the university is below 50 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Loughborough University The university partners will businesses to secure job placements for its students. Through this partnership, the university helps to link the prospective employers will students through different avenues including graduate recruitment, undergraduate placements, and recruitment support for local SMEs (Loughborough University, 2015). In 2013, the university produced over 85 per cent graduate students with work experience (graduate-jobs.com, 2013: 1). In terms of graduate job prospect, the university graduates have over 75 per cent chance of employment (The Complete University Guide, 2015). University of Westminster The university has one of the most comprehensive programmes for student professional development programmes. Through this programme, the university prepares students for professional work through internship programmes, school placements, student volunteer programmes, and linking students to prospective employers (University of Westminster, 2015). The job prospect for the graduates is about 52 per cent according to latest CUG ratings (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Sheffield Hallam University The university’s professional development programme involves partnering with the business community to provide students with job placements, internships, knowledge transfer, mentorship, sponsorship, and career development support (Sheffield Hallam University, 2015). With regard to graduate employability, the latest CUG ranking shows that Sheffield Hallam graduates’ probability of employment is 57.3 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). University of Hertfordshire According to graduate-jobs.com (2013: 1), out of the total graduates from the university, 82.97 per cent had work experience. This suggests that the university is keen on ensuring that its graduates impress prospective employers. According to the latest CUG ranking, the graduate prospect from the university is 62.2 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Nottingham Trent University As part of the professional development planning, NTU offers job placements to its students. Apart from job placements within the university, students can also use the InPlace portal to find placements based on their courses. The university advices students on the importance of taking up job placements to enhance their employability (Nottingham Trent University, 2015). Based on recent CUG ranking, the employability of NTU graduates is quite high at 76.8 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). University of Leeds The university has a career centre that enables students to prepare for professional roles after graduation. Through this career centre, students can find job placement opportunities and career advice (University of Leeds Careers Centre, 2015).The career centre seems quite effective because according to the latest CUG ranking, Leeds graduates’ employability is 69.1 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Cambridge University of Cambridge has a dedicated careers service that provides various services to students ranging from finding work experience and jobs to career advice from professional career advisors (University of Cambridge, 2015).In 2015, Cambridge emerged top of the CUG ranking with graduate prospects of 84.7 per cent, which is significantly high (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Oxford Oxford University also has a dedicated careers service offering a wide range of career and professional development services. The careers service has the internship office and work experience that helps students to get job placements and to acquire work experience (University of Oxford, 2015). According to latest CUG ranking, Oxford University emerged second overall. In terms of graduate prospects, the university was awarded 78.4 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Durham Durham University has a careers, employability and enterprise centre that provide professional development and career support services to students. The centre helps students and graduates to find job placements and employment opportunities to gain work experience (Durham University, 2015). From the 2015 CUG university ranking, Durham emerged fifth overall with a graduate prospects score of 82.4 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Bath University of Bath’s career service offers career advice, information, and guidance to graduates, researchers, and students. The service also collaborates with prospective employers linking them with the students for job placements and job vacancies (University of Bath, 2015).Based on the most recent CUG ranking, Bath graduates employability rating is 83.3 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Exeter Exeter students can get internships, graduate jobs, job placements, volunteer jobs, part-time jobs, and other career related services from the university’s career zone. Students need to log in to access these services (University of Exeter, 2015). In the latest CUG ranking, graduates from Exeter probability of getting employment is 76.9 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Bristol With a dedicated careers service, Bristol students and graduates can get guidance, advice, and support to boost their employability. Part of this involves students and graduates finding and applying for jobs and job placements on the career service website (University of Bristol, 2015). 78.8 per cent of graduates from Bristol can hope to get employment easily based on recent CUG ranking (The Complete University Guide, 2015). West of England, Bristol The university has a careers and employability support for students, which provides career guidance, advice, volunteering information, placements, job vacancies, and many other career services (UWE, 2015). According to latest CUG ranking, 67.5 per cent of UWE graduates could expect to get employment (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Falmouth Falmouth University operates a career hub. This is an online portal for providing students with career support, advice, training, and resources. Students can access employability events as well as find placement and job opportunities via the portal (Falmouth University, 2015). In terms of graduate prospects for jobs, the recent CUG ranking awarded Falmouth 60.1 per cent (The Complete University Guide, 2015). Arts University Bournemouth The university’s careers service provides career support to students including job applications, job vacancies, and placement opportunities (Arts University Bournemouth, 2015). In terms of graduate employability, the graduates from Arts University Bournemouth have a chance of 68.4 per cent of getting employment (The Complete University Guide, 2015). OtherUniversities Other universities in the UK that provide career services and support to students especially in getting job placements are listed below. Bath Spa Royal Agricultural University Gloucestershire St Mark and St John Imperial College London Warwick London School of Economics Lancaster East London Southampton Leicester Since all the 30 universities are offering career advice and support for students in getting work experience, it would be difficult to rank them using their specific career services. The best criterion for ranking the universities is by using the graduate prospects data, which is available from the 2015 CUG ranking. The prospects data is an appropriate criterion because it shows the employers’ perception of students from different universities based on their work experience. Table 1 below ranks the 30 universities based on how employable their graduates are considering the importance that employers place on work experience. Table 1: Professional Development Planning University Ranking Ranking University Graduate Employability/CUG Graduate Prospects 1 Imperial College London 88.7 2 Cambridge 84.7 3 Bath 83.3 4 Durham 82.4 5 Bristol 78.8 6 Oxford 78.4 7 Warwick 77.7 8 Exeter 76.9 9 Nottingham Trent University 76.8 10 London School of Economics 76.4 11 Loughborough University 75.3 12 Southampton 75.1 13 University of Surrey 74.9 14 Aston University 73.0 15 Lancaster 72.7 16 Leicester 71.6 17 University of Leeds 69.1 18 Arts University Bournemouth 68.4 19 West of England, Bristol 67.5 20 St Mark and St John 63.5 21 Bournemouth University 63.4 22 University of Hertfordshire 62.2 23 Falmouth 60.1 24 Gloucestershire 60.1 25 Sheffield Hallam University 57.3 26 Plymouth University 57.0 27 Bath Spa 56.8 28 University of Westminster 52.8 29 London Metropolitan University 44.6 30 East London 42.7 References Arts University Bournemouth. 2015, ‘The careers service’. [Online] Available at: http://aub.ac.uk/about-us/employability/careers-service/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Aston University. 2010, ‘Aston awarded for excellent placement year scheme’. [Online] Available at: http://www.aston.ac.uk/about/news/releases/2010/march/aston-awarded-for-excellent-placement-year-scheme/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Aston University. 2015, ‘Placement years – the Aston advantage’. [Online] Available at: http://www.aston.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/placements/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Bath Spa University. 2015, ‘Careers’. [Online] Available At: https://thehub.bathspa.ac.uk/services/careers[Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Bournemouth University. 2015. ‘Student placements’. [Online] Available at: https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/business-services/student-placements-studentships/staff-student-placements/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Durham University. 2015, ‘Careers, employability and enterprise centre’. [Online] Available at: https://www.dur.ac.uk/careers/s/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Falmouth University. 2015, ‘Careers and employability’. [Online] Available at: http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/careers [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. graduate-jobs.com. 2013, ‘Four out of five 2013 graduates have work experience’. [Online] Available at: http://www.graduate-jobs.com/pr/graduate-jobs.com-Nearly-eight-out-of-ten-graduates-has-work-experience.pdf [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. High Fliers. 2014, ‘The graduate market in 2014: Annual review of graduate vacancies & starting salaries at Britain’s leading employers’. [Online] Available at: http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/GMReport14.pdf [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Imperial College London. 2015, ‘Careers service’. [Online] Available at: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/careers [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. London Metropolitan University. 2015, ‘Building your career’. [Online] Available at: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/why-london-met/the-london-met-experience/employabilty-and-building-careers/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Loughborough University, 2015, ‘Student and graduate recruitment’. [Online] Available at: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/enterprise/recruiting/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Nottingham Trent University. 2015, ‘Employability: placements’. [Online] Available at: http://www.ntu.ac.uk/employability/placements/index.html [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Plymouth University. 2015a, ‘Business & partnerships’. [Online] Available at: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/business-partners [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Plymouth University. 2015b, ‘Professional development (CPD)’. [Online] Available at: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/business-partners/professional-development [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Royal Agricultural University. 2015, ‘Student job portal’. [Online] Available At: http://www.rau.ac.uk/jobs/student-graduate-job-search [Accessed 26. Feb. 2015]. Sheffield Hallam University. 2015, ‘Working with our students’. [Online] Available At: http://www.shu.ac.uk/business/working-our-students [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Bath. 2015, ‘Careers service’. [Online] Available at: http://www.bath.ac.uk/students/careers/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Bristol. 2015, ‘careers service’. [Online] Available at: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/careers/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Cambridge. 2015, ‘Careers service’. [Online] Available at: http://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/VacAndOpps.asp [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University Of East London. 2015, ‘Careers and student employability’. [Online] Available At: http://www.uel.ac.uk/eet/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Exeter. 2015, ‘Career zone’. [Online] Available at: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/careers/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Leeds Careers Centre. 2015, ‘Careers centre’. [Online] Available at: http://careerweb.leeds.ac.uk/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Leicester. 2015, ‘Career development service’. [Online] Available at: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/careers-new [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Oxford. 2015, ‘The Careers service’. [Online] Available at: http://www.careers.ox.ac.uk/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. University of Surrey. 2015. ‘Professional training’. [Online] Available at: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/discover/professional-training [accessed 26 feb. 2015]. University Of Westminster. 2015, ‘student and graduate talent’, [Online] Available at: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/business/student-graduate-talent/employers-on-campus [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. UWE. 2015, ‘Careers and employability’. [Online] Available at: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/careersandemployability [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Warwick. 2015, ‘Student careers & skills’. [Online] Available at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/scs/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Whistler, R. 2014, ‘I vote yes to unpaid internships’. [Online] Available at: http://www.graduate-jobs.com/blog/post/411/I_Vote_Yes_to_Unpaid_Internships [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Read More