Delivered by Bob Gilworth, Director, Careers Centre, Leeds University and Lucy Hawkins, Careers Adviser, University of Oxford.

1. CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY
Bob Gilworth, Director, Careers
Centre, University of Leeds
r.b.gilworth@leeds.ac.uk
Lucy Hawkins, Careers Adviser, University of
Oxford lucy.hawkins@careers.ox.ac.uk

2. Overview
Interactive element: Labour market quiz 5 minutes
The Graduate Employment market 5 minutes
Destinations 10 minutes
Interactive element: Graduate job assessments 5 minutes
Enhancing employability 20 minutes
What is employability?
What can help students become employable?
What do careers services do?
What can be done right now?

3. The Graduate Market

4. The Graduate Market?

5. The Graduate Market?
• Employability ≠ (any) employment
Employer ranking, graduate level-jobs
• 6 month snapshot has major shortcomings
• Sample sizes can vary!
• Narrow view of the graduate job market…
• … and university experience

7. The Graduate Market
• Much more than just generic graduate schemes
• 2011 UP on 2010
• Climbing back to 2007 levels from 2009 low point (not uniform)
• Vacancies UP in 2011, 1/3 will go to “converted” interns/placement
• Many blue chips have more summer interns than “sandwich” places
• Many universities increasing the strength of their placements

8. The Graduate Market
• Graduate market ≠ wider employment market.
• Protected, global talent pipeline
• UK market is at least 60% “any discipline” (like the US, unlike much
of Europe).
• No need for prospective students to trade off enjoyment and
success for a vocational course if that is not their preference.

9. Destinations

10. Destinations overview
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Work
Russell Group
Work & Study
Study
Unemployed
All UK universities Unavailable
Source: DLHE 2009 census of leavers from 2008 10

11. Key Information
Set (KIS)
• Standardised
• Published from Sept 2012
– On successor site to
http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/
– Uni websites (via widget)
– UCAS course finder
• Containing:
– student satisfaction
– course information
– employment and salary data
– accommodation costs
– financial information, such as fees
– students' union information.

12. Current data available
12

14. Institutional information
14

15. Information for decisions
A minority of Oxford undergraduates work in the City
Other Education
Health
Computing &
IT
Other finance Management
Consulting
Recreation &
Media
Industry
Other public
service Accountancy Inv Bank
Source: DLHE stats 2007; CS analysis 15

16. Information for decisions
And there’s a variety of further study from Oxford
PG diploma
Not aiming
or
for qual
certificate
Other
qualification Higher
degree
course
Professional
qualification Higher
degree -
research
Source: DLHE stats 2010 of 2009 leavers; CS analysis 16

17. Information for decisions
Wide range of options: e.g. Oxford History graduates
Professional training Other study Work in own subject
PGCE
Law
Legal Training
Education
Other work
Business analysts
Artistic creation
Business related
Source: DLHE survey 2008
other 17

18. Enhancing Employability

19. What is employability?
It’s why employers hire those that they do:
Not important Possibly important Probably
Subject studied
Work experience
Internship
OU students work harder
Responsibility position
Clubs and societies
Personal tutorial system
Skills training
College system
Achievement in sport
Gap year
Source: CS survey 2009 of 300 employers

20. … and many 1st year students are very aware of the need
to increase their employability:
How important are the following?
Not0at all Slightly
1 2 3 Very Extremely
4
Work experience
Employability experiences
Working out what to do
Getting CV etc ready
Learning to network
Learning about an industry
Exploring further study
Practising interviews
Finding useful job ads
Source: CS annual 2011 survey of 950 students, 2010 survey of 830 students 20

21. What is employability?
It’s what leavers think they lack:
Less competitive areas for unemployed leavers
Don't know
Commercial awareness
Work experience
Skills
Entrepreneurship
Leadership
Communication
Other (please specify)
Team working
Tests
Self-management
Planning and organising
Initiative and problem solving
0 5 10 15 20
Source: Unemployed Leavers 2010 (Careers Service), 3-11 March 2011

22. What helps a student become more
employable?
An awareness of the skills and competencies
they might need to demonstrate
Opportunities to develop the above
Access to employers that value them

23. Graduate Schemes
• Have always been highly competitive
• Not grown in line with UK graduate output
• Some have a 2:1 cut-off, some do not
• Some screen on UCAS points, some do not.
• Majority take a hard line on SPAG!
• All want to know ‘why them’

24. Graduate employability
Motivations, commercial awareness, career
focus are often key differentiators.
Work experience as essential evidence
Increasingly as part of the recruitment process
through internships/placements.
For some this means competing at graduate
level mid- way through year 2.

25. Graduate networking
• Networks and the skill of networking are crucial
in many career areas-including business start-up.
• Alumni can play a very important part eg Leeds
careers network, Leeds for Life networking
events.
• Crucial distinction between social networking and
professional networking.
• Levels of cultural capital can affect networks
(connections) and the skill of networking.

26. Employer targeting
• Is a fact of life.
• Opportunities to meet top employers (Times Top
100 for example) on campus are greatly increased
by attending a highly targeted university.
• High Fliers Top Twenty is published annually (and
is dominated by Russell Group universities)
• Generally a major benefit of attending a RG
university

27. What do our careers services do?
• Job and internship boards
• 1:1 appointments
• Workshops, networking, speaker events
• Many opportunities to meet employers
• Support through departments, student societies
• Learning and development programmes (some
curriculum-linked)
• Business start up support
• Support for alumni (often for life)
• Present information – often publically available
• Support all - impartial, free of charge

28. To do now: for students
• Check motivation and focus for current
decision
• Learn information-gathering and decision
making skills (e.g. applying through UCAS!)
• Get pro-active and seek experience
• Ask questions and test assumptions

29. Any questions?
Bob Gilworth, Director, Careers
Centre, University of Leeds
r.b.gilworth@leeds.ac.uk
Lucy Hawkins, Careers Adviser, University of
Oxford lucy.hawkins@careers.ox.ac.uk