There’s something vaguely terrifying about your final year. For some, it’s the idea of absolute independence looming. Yes, you’re living on your own, budgeting yourself and cooking yourself (not in a German cannibal way), but there’s always that nagging feeling of being handfed. You’re still learning, and in most cases, not working full-time. This inspires irritation in some and comfort in others, so similarly, the idea of entering The Real World – which you thought you’d done upon coming to university – inspires either relief or terror. Getting a job isn’t a scary prospect though. Not getting one is.
Which is why you’ll all be happy to hear that vacancies for graduate jobs are up by 16.4%. Hurrah! That’s that worry over then. I’ll be off.
…Sadly not (on both counts). As with almost anything reported in the news that’s more serious than a cat winning at bingo or a pensioner getting stuck up a tree – i.e. more serious than The South Wales Echo – there’s bad news to temper the good. Every silver lining has a cloud, and while you’ve been walking along looking at them, you’ve probably stepped in some dog turd.
The brilliant news that graduate vacancies are on the rise, and at top employers too, is unfortunately not without the grounding revelation that there aren’t enough well-qualified graduates to fill them (this is all taken from a Trendence survey of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, by the way). In other words, after years of study and, in many disciplines, hands-on experience, too many university leavers simply aren’t good enough at what they do.
That might sound a little harsh, but don’t take issue with me; take issue with 22.4% of the 217 big firms surveyed (so, presumably, 48.608 of them). Ignoring the apparent anomaly – it’s either that or a firm trying to atone for its indecisiveness by being incredibly specific about just how indecisive it is – nearly one in four companies “bemoan[ed] a lack of UK candidates with the right qualifications”. 16.3% (35.371 companies) cannot find enough British graduates “with the right skills”. Oh, and graduates are “demanding”, “self-centred”, and “greedy”. So, careerists then.
The reliability of this opinion-based rather than statistical survey could be questioned: the stigmatic student stereotype of having letters after one’s name but knowing sod all about the real world is entertained by many a potential employer. Nevertheless, young people leaving university under-qualified is a real problem; if the number of university attendees is going to dramatically increase, it would be nice to know that both they and the rest of society are going to get something out of it.
No doubt universities will be blamed for being inadequate and students will be accused of slacking off. But the real issue here may be vocation.
Even at 21, many students simply don’t know what they want to do for a living. This isn’t a fault in itself – just something they need to address before they find themselves stuck doing something they certainly don’t want to do for a living. Some people see university as a sort of waiting room: somewhere to hang around reading for a bit until ambition calls. Basically, three years’ study for a random degree that they hope will come in handy later on.
Of course, anyone sufficiently qualified to study at university is perfectly entitled to do so, and I wouldn’t suggest a ban on people who don’t have a life timetable laying out at what age they’ll get what job, when they’ll get married, when they’ll have kids and to which local schools they’ll send little Alexis and Guy Jnr. But students should at least try to get an idea of what they want to do.
But wait: why would an eye for vocation help students to be more qualified when they graduate? Because, hopefully, they’d have a better idea of how to prepare, where to apply and perhaps even get work experience in that line of employment. It’s not guaranteed to produce 100% highly-qualified graduates, but it’s a start.
You don’t want to be over-specialised, obviously. The biggest problem with the much-derided ‘McQualification’ diplomas is that they’re unlikely to be accepted by many institutions other than McDonald’s itself, and certainly not Burger King. But Philosophy students might want to philosophise on what comes next – when they pass on from higher education into the afterlife of employment (a strained metaphor worthy of religious leafleteers, that). I want to make it absolutely clear that that is not a dig at anyone except aggressive dogmatists with a passion for allegory. Some courses require more thinking about careers, that’s all. And I say that as an English Literature student.
University is a time to think about what you want to do with/for the rest of your life. Actually, secondary school is a time to think about that, but if you’re still undecided then university is really the time. Fortunately, Cardiff University has an excellent careers’ service. But maybe that’s not enough.
I’m not talking about Cardiff here, but university as a whole. Students should research careers themselves, naturally, but there is a lot to be said for a bit of encouragement and guidance beyond the occasional e-mail. The London Group is paid by London universities to advise their medical students on subjects such as location and work/life balance, and biosciences students at Cardiff have tutorials on specialised CVs and the like. Why can’t this be more widespread?
Humanities subjects really need it too. With taught hours rarely extending beyond ten hours a week, even those with part-time jobs could spare a couple of extra tutorials each term advising on career issues. They’d certainly be more appropriate than first-year lectures on spelling and grammar. Call me a snob, but there’s something not quite right about hearing a chorus of “Ahhh”s from university English Literature students when a lecturer explains the grammatical problem with this sentence: “You have an English A-Level, why do I have to teach you this?”
Perhaps some degrees could be generally more vocational: one could study not just English Literature or Cultural Criticism, but their use in society (that’s not meant to be ironic). Books and theory, wonderful though they are, can only get you so far.
Or maybe we just need to work harder. I’ve mentioned the employment difficulties of humanities graduates unsure about their future, but unemployment is a threat to all graduates and one solution is simply to knuckle down and get an excellent degree and extra-curricular vocational experience.
And that’s what I plan to do now. I just have this game of Championship Manager to finish first.
