Higher Education has lost its Relevance

There’s a growing disconnect between higher education and employment in the UK. For the majority of university students who’ve spent three or more years living off student loans, the prospect of full-time employment and greater financial freedom is highly appealing. Yet, research by the Office for Students (OFS) found that less than 50% of students coming out of university find employment in the first year after graduating. What’s more, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that even for those in work, more than one third  (35.6%) work in a non-graduate role, i.e. a position that didn’t require three years of studying to attain. 

There are currently more job vacancies than unemployed people in the UK, so if the battle to find a job can’t be blamed on the labour market, then why are so many recent graduates struggling to gain meaningful employment after university?

The answer is that most university courses are failing to adequately equip students with the skills they need for the workplace. A recent Institute of Student Employers (ISE) survey found that graduates are lacking the workplace and technical skills that employers require. The ISE interviewed employers about their views on graduate skills and there was an overall concern that students didn’t possess the necessary workplace and technical abilities required to succeed in the world of work.

Over three quarters (78%) of the employers interviewed agreed that graduates who had completed an internship or work placement were more skilled than those who had not, but according to the ISE the availability of these opportunities has decreased 29% and 25% respectively in the last few years.

Given the average student loan debt now amounts to around £45,000, it seems illogical that after studying for three or more years, graduates should need to undertake additional training or low paid internships in order to be “work ready”.

“it seems illogical that after studying for 3+ years, graduates should need to undertake additional training or low paid internships in order to be “work ready””

From my own experience of the higher education system and my current position as Managing Director of iconoClass, a business school, which offers four month intensive bootcamps in business development, I can see where many higher education providers are getting it wrong. The focus of iconoClass is to ensure that our students find permanent employment in a professional sales role within three months of completing the course. We seek to bridge the gap between education and employment, while many other institutes concentrate solely on the former and ignore the latter entirely, which is a huge detriment to students. 

The way I see it, there are three key things students need out of higher education options to ensure they graduate ready to hit the ground running in their chosen career.

Practice not theory

Degrees on the whole tend to be largely theory-focused and the problem with theory is that it doesn’t translate to workplace skills. Employers seek candidates with practical experience, but few young people leave university with practical know-how unless they’ve been lucky enough to secure work experience in their chosen field during their studies. To help boost graduate recruitment rates, higher education providers need to ensure that practical based learning supplements theory on courses, otherwise we will continue to see young people coming out of university ill-equipped for the world of work and struggling to find employment. 

Condensed courses

The majority of university courses are three years or more, and leave students with a significant amount of debt. Looking back on my own experience of university, the knowledge I gained that was really relevant to my chosen career could have been concentrated into a much shorter course. While I spent five years at university, I could probably have learnt what I needed to in a year. What helped me jump the career ladder after completing my degree was not the course, but the fact that I supplemented it with work throughout. 

Gaining practical experience while studying was a game changer, but I had to sacrifice nearly all of my personal time to study and hold down a job. I worked hard at both and was proud to obtain a good degree from a prestigious university, but not once in my entire career has an employer ever asked me about my education, leaving me wondering whether I wasted a significant period of my young life on a degree that didn’t open any doors. 

“Not once in my entire career has an employer ever asked me about my education, leaving me wondering whether I wasted a significant period of my young life on a degree that didn’t open any doors”

What’s more, I needed to supplement my degree with additional practical courses to gain a diploma and experience within my chosen field, because the degree alone didn’t provide me with the competences I required.

Unfortunately, this is the case for too many students coming out of university, and it’s why higher education needs to look at slimming down courses to focus only on what is really going to help students succeed. Shorter education programmes will also mean students can leave higher education with far less debt, and would therefore encourage more young people to go into higher education and improve their employment outcomes. 

Career mentoring and connections

Higher education doesn’t place enough emphasis on preparing students for their careers. Careers advice should be offered to all young people in higher education, and there needs to be greater collaboration between higher education institutes and employers. Training and lectures run by senior professionals in companies that are looking to hire graduates would be highly beneficial to students and provide them with a taste of what certain careers are really like in practice. It would also enable students to connect directly with potential employers, thereby boosting their chances of securing a job upon immediate completion of their course.

As it stands, many higher education faculties in the UK are failing students by not adequately preparing them for employment, and consequently contributing to the high graduate unemployment rate and the skills deficit in the UK. We need to see greater focus on more sustainable higher education options; shorter and less costly courses, which provide students with all the practical skills they need to succeed in their chosen career.