EXPLORING THE CHALLENGES OF EQUIPPING GRADUATES WITH THE RELEVANT EMPLOYABILITY

SKILLS

Southampton Diving Academy (SDA) is one of the top diving programmes in the UK catering for
athletes from beginner right up to Olympic level. They are currently looking into employing
graduates into their SME for sports coaching and development. They are interested in current
academic and field research in order to determine whether graduates will be effective in helping
them to grow and move forward. SDA has asked that a briefing paper be written to explore and
collate the information relevant to them to assist with their decision.
SDA fulfils the criteria of a SME as it has a turnover of less than 11.2million, a balance sheet total of
less than 5.6million and less than 250 employees, as stated in the Companies Act 1985.
Background
This brief will explore in detail some of the key challenges that are facing graduates as they leave
higher education and enter industry in the current economic climate. As the market place is
becoming increasingly crowded it is vital that graduates are equipped with the correct tools to get
employed.
The pool of graduates is increasing exponentially year by year(as seen below) and the graduate
schemes are not keeping up with this rate of growth, this is clear as the unemployment rate in
graduates in 2013 is 9% as opposed to 3% before the recession began (Daily Mail, 2013). This
suggests that of the 2,340,275 that graduate in 2013 (according to the Higher Education Statistics
Agency, 2013) 210,625 graduates will still be unemployed. Graduates need to be continually
improving their employability skills and tailoring applications to meet specific employers needs in
order to get a job.
Employability skills are what prospective employers look for in graduates, these are defined as:
the set of characteristics that increase the chances of an individual being in work and more
specifically the ability to sustain employment and to progress within work too Employability
Skills: A Research and Policy Briefing (2010).

(Daily Mail, 2013)
Current Research
Sport students will be the likely candidates for SDA, according to HECSU and the Education Liaison
Task Group of AGCAS (2012) 64.1% of Sports Science graduates left HEIs in 2011 and went straight
into employment, many went on to further education and 6.8% were left unemployed. Graduates
must become more and more proactive in searching for jobs, many they must seek out themselves
using such platforms as linked in and the like. Linked in is such a prominent way for graduates to
showcase their employability skills, achievements and to give themselves a strong USP. They are able
to network and forge connections with many relevant businesses, as well as looking at the industry
front runners and what they are achieving as well as looking for in the current market, this helps
them stay up to date and continuously learn so that their skills stay current and relevant ever
increasing their chances. Graduate schemes are essentially trying to seek out future protgs and
rising stars that will assist in pushing the business forward and bringing new and innovative ideas to
the table. Klasen and Clutterbuck (2002) suggest that The importance of learning for our survival
and continued wellbeing cannot be underestimated. Graduate schemes are essentially a form of
mentoring Klasen and Clutterbuck also state that among the repertoire of learning and
development methods, mentoring stands out as one of the most effective and powerful; one that
can be highly satisfying for all individuals involved. Reading these the reader could deduce that
firms are looking for graduates not only that they can train but that they can learn valuable skills and
information from. Hayman and Lorman (2004) propose that some blue chip employers have
retained their scheme, believing that hand picked recruits developed into the organisational
mould are more likely to achieve the medium to long term results so desperately sought.,
however they also state that dynamic employers want graduates that can take substantial
responsibility and contribute to bottom line profitability within months of joining an organisation.

Current Issues
Graduates are increasingly experiencing difficulties finding jobs after they leave higher education
and are finding themselves unemployed, this is likely due to universities not providing them with the
right tools and employability skills in order to gain the positions that they need to succeed. Since the
economy crashed in 2008 the number of graduates unable to find positions shot up, firms were
required to make some of their employees redundant and therefore unable to take anyone new on.
Since then the number of unemployed graduates is steadily declining and prospects are on the rise.
Although the graduate pool is overflowing with candidates for each position, this does not mean
that businesses have hundreds of suitable people to choose from, BBC News (2013) said that
graduates in 2013 saw a 4% fall in vacancies which meant that there was, on average, 85 applicants
per vacancy, this means that it is a highly competitive environment and why it is ever more
important for graduates to try to acquire more and more skills so that they stand out from the crowd
and gain that increasingly important position.
Implications for Employers
In order to keep up with this exponentially evolving market, employers must maintain good working
relationships with other industry competitors and HEIs so that their graduate schemes are sought
after and attract the correct candidates who possess the skills required to fill the position and help
the business move forward in the future. They must also maintain this relationship so that they can
tell HEIs what they are looking for and subsequently more and more graduates will be leaving
higher education with the academic and employability skills required to get that sought after place
on a scheme. Employers must also be clear on what exactly they are looking for and how they are
aiming to move forward.

Implications for Higher Education Institutes
In a study done by Humburg et al. (2013) it was determined that professional expertise (i.e. subject-
specific knowledge and expert thinking) is paramount followed by interpersonal skills which are
becoming more and more important also graduates need work experience to gain the job interview
in the first place; these were the top three conclusions. Therefore HEIs need to make sure that they
are putting an emphasis on these skills and teaching them in a practical and transferable way so that
graduates are leaving fully equipped with the employability skills necessary to excel in the working
world.
HEIs are required to release their employment statistics so it reflects badly on them if they do not
possess the required skills for their industry. Maintaining a good knowledge of; and relationship with
local and national businesses is a must if they are aiming to stay competitive within the HEI rankings.
Hager and Holland (2006) suggest that it is beneficial for HEIs to make a clear distinction between
employability and employment skills so that they are not seen as a poor substitute for on the job
training.
Conclusion
The graduate market is so competitive that graduates are always aiming to gain that edge to set
them apart from the crowd, as the market is growing exponentially year on year, it is becoming ever
more difficult to get a position on a graduate scheme and increasingly more necessary to specialise.
The schemes need to make their criteria more and more specific in order to get candidates with
appropriate skills that can help the businesses achieve their aims, long and short term. These facts
combined are resulting in more and more graduates finding themselves unable to get employed.
Recommendations
Businesses and HEIs need to make sure that they maintain strong relationships so that graduates
find themselves equipped with the correct employability and academic skills. It is also a necessity for
businesses and graduates to regularly update and sustain their online presence so that they are
visible and can find all possibly graduates/vacancies. Businesses need to make sure that their
graduate schemes have a focus on regular training and improvement and a clear path for moving up
in the business, they also need to keep an open mind to change and the new and innovative ideas
that graduates can bring to the table to help them move forward. Finally graduates need to gain all
possible work experience to help them to differentiate themselves.

References

BBC News, (2013). Graduate jobs '85 applicants each'. [online] Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23247176 [Accessed 9 May. 2014].
Daily Mail, (2013). Percentage of Graduates. [image] Available at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509883/Half-graduates-working-jobs-need-degree.html
[Accessed 8 May. 2014].
Employability Skills: A Research and Policy Briefing (2013). 1
st
ed. [ebook] UK Commission for
Employment and Skills. Available at:
http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=237776 [Accessed 7 May 2014]
Hager, P. and Holland, S. (2006). Graduate attributes, learning and employability. 1st ed. Dordrecht,
Netherlands: Springer.
Hayman, K. and Lorman, A. (2004). Graduate training schemes have demonstrably accelerated
promotion patterns. Career Development International, 9(2), pp.123--141.
HECSU and the Education Liason Task Group of AGCAS (2012). 1st ed. [ebook] p.20. Available at:
http://www.hecsu.ac.uk/assets/assets/documents/WDGD_Oct_2012.pdf [Accessed 8 May. 2014].
Humburg, M., Velden, R. and Verhagen, A. (2013). The employability of higher education graduates:
the employers' perspective. 1st ed. [ebook] Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/study/2013/employability_en.pdf [Accessed 7 May.
2014].
Klasen, N. and Clutterbuck, D. (2002). Implementing mentoring schemes. 1st ed. Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann.