What makes you employable?

  • The road to success

    “I just need a degree, don’t I?”

    “ A degree is no longer a meal ticket to your future but merely a licence to hunt.”
    (Linsey Perry, Rail Track, quoted in: Hawkins and Gilleard, 2007, p. 6)

  • What's the competition?

  • What are you preparing for?

    📹 The future of work
    📹 How will the world be in 2020?
    📹 Shift happens 2015

    You are preparing for jobs that don’t exist yet.
    You will need to solve problems we don’t know yet.
    You will be using technologies that have not been invented yet.
    Half of what you are learning now will be outdated by the time you graduate.
    By the age of 38 you will have had 10 to 15 jobs.
    25% of you will stay with your employer for less than a year.
    50% of you will stay less than five years.

    📹 Did You Know?

    Additional Information

    The top ten jobs most in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
    A week’s information in a newspaper is more than any person in the 18th century would have come across in a lifetime.
    The information we create now is more than in the previous 5,000 years.
    The amount of technical information is doubling every 2 years.
    X
    X
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    X

  • Is it all worth it?

    “ While graduate employment in the short term will be affected by the contraction of the jobs market, in the longer term a degree is still a great investment.”
    (CBI, 2009 a, p.12)

    A degree is more than a pathway to a job; it is a “launching pad for lifelong personal and professional development.”
    (Knight and Yorke, 2003, p.11)

    What is education?

    “Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.”
    B.F. Skinner, New Scientist, May 21, 1964

  • Use your university experience to shape your life

    University is…
    a preparation for the rest of your life
    a practice ground for work tasks such as communicating as a professional, making presentations, influencing, negotiating etc.
    an invitation to take risks

    “ Take big risks early on. Don’t regret anything and learn something from it. Bite off more than you can chew – and then chew like mad.”
    (Hawkins and Gilleard, 2007, p.52)

  • Are you ready for the real world?

    Illustration interpreting jumping into the void

  • The CBI skills survey

    CBI speaks for 190,00 businesses; employing 7 million people between them; founded in 1965
    8th annual education and skills survey
    conducted in spring 2015
    responses from over 300 businesses collectively employing more than 1.2 million people

    What are employers looking for? (CBI, 2015)

    Employability skills/ attitudes/aptitude for work 89% (89% in 2014)
    Relevant work experience/ placement 64% (62%)
    Degree subject 62 % (68%)
    Degree result 55% (61%)
    University attended 17% (12%)

  • The importance of work experience

    “High Fliers” Survey: 100 of the UK’s best known and most successful employers (2014)

    “A record 37% of this year’s entry-level positions are expected to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations – either through paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work – and therefore are not open to other students”

  • Priority subjects for employers (CBI, 2015)

    STEM
    (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)    		 40%
    No subject preference 34%
    Business 19%
    Social Sciences 5%
    Arts 1%
    Language 1%

    Some evidence of dissatisfaction
    What do graduates need to improve? (CBI, 2015)

    Foreign language skills 54% (51% in 2014)
    Business and customer awareness 46% (53% )
    International cultural awareness 39% (37%)
    Relevant work experience 43% (37%)
    Self-management skills/ resilience 33% (31%)
    Team-working 26% (19%)
    Knowledge about their chosen career 33% (30%)

  • What is employability?

    “ A modern, competitive economy needs workers who possess skills, knowledge and attitudes they can take to any work situation and have the ability and willingness to continually adapt and prosper in a changing world.”
    (CBI/ Universities UK, 2009)
  • The USEM Employability Model
  • The Shared Responsibility Model

  • Have you got what they are looking for?

    The ‘Big Seven’ employability skills

    1. Self-management
    2. Team working
    3. Business and customer awareness
    4. Problem solving and critical thinking
    5. Communication and literacy
    6. Application of numeracy and information technology
    7. Entrepreneurship/enterprise

    1. Self-management
    Are you ready to accept responsibility for your work?
    Are you assertive?
    Can you manage your time effectively?
    Can you improve your performance based on feedback?

    2. Teamworking
    Do you respect and listen to other people’s point of view?
    Can you persuade and negotiate with others?
    Can you contribute to discussions?

    3. Business and customer awareness
    Do you understand the key drivers for business success?
    Do you have good networking skills?

    4. Problem solving and critical thinking
    Can you analyse facts and situations and develop new solutions?

    5. Communication and literacy
    Can you express yourself clearly in writing and in speech?

    6. Numeracy and IT skills
    Do you have mathematical awareness and basic IT skills that can be applied to practical contexts?

    7. Entrepreneurial skills
    Are you creative and dynamic?
    Are you open to new ideas and make them happen?
    Are you prepared to take calculated risks?
    Can you be a leader?

  • What is employability?

    A range of different views

    📹 Ted Talk : Forget about employability. It’s all about mindset
    📹 What is employability?
    📹 Interview tips for graduates
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  • How can you learn these skills and attitudes while being a student?

    Employment Tree Structure

  • How do you know you are getting it right?

    I feel optimistic about my career prospects.
    I have a good understanding of my personal strengths and weaknesses.
    I have a PDP (Personal Development Plan).
    My expectations about what I can achieve are informed by knowledge about the graduate labour market.
    I feel confident that I have valuable skills and experience to offer potential employers.
    I know where to get up-to-date information about graduate jobs and training opportunities.
    I have realistic expectations about the current job market.
    I understand which transferable skills I have learnt during my studies.

  • What will the future look like?

    The 21st century view

    a road symbolising a modern career path

    Traditional view of a career path

    a road symbolising a tradityional career path

    Used under creative commons licence

    Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Author: Piotr Małecki

    “There is no such thing as a career path. It’s crazy paving and you have to lay it yourself.”
    (Skills for graduates in the 21st century, quoted in, Hawkins and Gilleard, 2007, p. 12)

  • References

    Confederation of British Industry (CBI) (2015) Inspiring Growth, CBI/ Pearsons Education and Skills Survey 2015; London: CBI
    http://news.cbi.org.uk/reports/education-and-skills-survey-2015/education-and-skills-survey-2015/

    CBI and Universities UK (2009), Future Fit: preparing graduates for the world of work, London: CBI

    Hawkins, P. and Gilleard, C. (2007) If only I had known: making the most of higher education, Association of Graduate Recruiters and Connexions; available from:
    http://www.agr.org.uk/Content/If-Only-I-had-Known

    High Fliers (2014) The Graduate Market in 2014, London: High Fliers

    Knight, P.T. and Yorke, M. (2003) Assessment, learning and employability, Open University Press and McGraw Hill Education, Maidenhead