What next for student employability?

Stephen Isherwood

Chief Executive

Vacancies unfilled – in a recession!

Percentage of graduate recruiters with unfilled vacanciesSource: AGR Winter Surveys

%

Why?

Did you know…

75% of AGR

employer members

don’t stipulate a

degree discipline

What do employers want?

• An ability to work collaboratively with teams of people

• Excellent communication skills: both speaking and listening

• A high degree of drive and resilience

• An understanding of the political, economic, commercial issues affecting an organisation

• An ability to embrace multiple perspectives and challenge thinking

• A capacity to develop new skills and behaviours according to role requirements

• A high degree of self-awareness

• An ability to form professional networks

• An openness to and respect for a range of perspectives

• A willingness to play an active role in society at a local, national and sometimes international level.

Or put more simply…

• Can work with and get things done with other people

• Practical intelligence to think through problems clearly and deliver solutions

• A passion for your chosen industry/career

• The resilience to do difficult – sometimes dull – work in challenging, changing circumstances

The skills gap

Sources: CBI Education and Skills Survey 2014; Prospects and Work Ready Graduates, 2015. Exact wording of categories varies between surveys e.g. top green bar is “self-management/resilience” in CBI survey.

Student life

• The student as consumer

• Clear tasks

• Flexitime

• Quest for perfection

• Peers

Employee life

• The employer as consumer

• Ambiguous tasks

• Working week

• Quest for efficiency

• Hierarchies

Millennials get to work