Written Report
"What are the challenges facing students for employment after finishing University?"
University graduate students face challenges in seeking employment after completing their study. These hurdles mainly include their lack of experience for the occupation and minimal networking opportunities. With further analysis, these challenges will be brought to the surface. When discussing experience, this is referring to having gained knowledge and skills through working in the sector. Networking is knowing people in the industry, and useful in acquiring a job, better positions and even being on potential employer’s radar. Experience needed for the graduate’s chosen profession is, more often than not, undergone through working in the field. This is, ironically, a requirement when applying for a position even if the candidate is qualified.
Lack of experience or no experience in an employee is a deterrent for employers. The experience needed for university graduates is easier to attain with the help of work experience, community service and internships. Tertiary education is getting the hint and trying to compensate for their graduates’ seeking employment. “There is an increasing convergence of opinion around the proposition that universities must now do more for their students than simply teach disciplinary content.” (Green, Hammer and Star, p. 18) Whilst this is in relation to a focus on the graduate’s attributes, it is still applicable to this case. “Aiming at future key agents for change, education for sustainability is about enabling students not only to acquire and generate knowledge, but also to reflect on further issues such as the complexity of behaviour and decisions in a future-oriented, global perspective of responsibility. Drawing on the work of researchers (e.g., Parkin et al., 2004, Shepherd, 2008) graduates specifically need to:
• know about sustainability issues
• have the skills to act sustainably if they wish to
• have the personal and emotional attributes that require them to behave sustainably.” (Thomas, Barth and Day, p.38) This stated after the discussion of the huge importance of acquiring life skills, but that graduates are not prepared by their study for entering the workplace as the two institutions operate differently. As aforementioned, it is ironic in the way it has been designed to tell people they need the tertiary education qualification to work for a business though they do not want these graduates because they are not trained for the workplace. They will only learn through this medium and companies using this as a scapegoat for not hiring university graduates are downright hypocritical. There are many factors involved within the issue of fresh university graduates struggling to find employment. Lack of experience is one underlying concern for some employers, along with minimal networking prospects. From each article it is seen the authors believe some action needs to happen in restructuring Universities’ skills and attributes policies. Blenkinsopp and Scurry (2007) discovered an alarming amount of university graduates in non-graduate jobs. This could turn sour as it affects the people with lower skill levels and their search for employment, essentially raising unemployment. Curtis (2009) noticed the students fighting particularly hard for a job were going back to complete a postgraduate qualification to make them more appealing for job offers. This is countered in Dunga’s (2016, p.72) article, stating a factor of the rising unemployment rate, in South Africa however, is workers are over qualified for irrelevant skills. It sounds appealing for highly qualified people to be working in society, but disheartening to realise the job hunt is that tough for recently graduated students.
An additional conflict faced by university graduate students is they struggle to network outside of their tertiary education. Networking is the idea of building a name for yourself that will be passed amongst other professionals, even employers, in your field. This is done through meet and greets, work experience, internships, etc. At networking social events, students attend to meet others in the hopes of being memorable and building your circle of professional contacts, as this can play a crucial role in getting hired as seen by "The Importance Of Mentoring For Individuals And Organizations"(2010). The only implication is once graduated, this proves much more difficult. Universities are beginning to understand these challenges for their departed students and are putting strategies into effect. Many higher educational institutes are encouraging students while they are attending to take advantage of as many opportunities as they can. This is done through more hands-on experience in the form of internships, volunteer work and work experience. In the advanced technological society we live in, networking has been made easier, with professional social media networking sites becoming more and more popular. These are proving extremely beneficial when done well (Toma, 2010). Classes are even held to provide extra help for learning how to do this most effectively and tertiary education is happy to endorse it.
As it is understood there are many obstacles for a newly graduated university student, two of the biggest implications being inexperience and minimal networking opportunities. Through the analysis of these factors, more complications were found including graduates having jobs they were over qualified for and other graduates being beaten for a position by someone with better qualifications, etc. Overall though universities are on the bend trying to accommodate as best they can to give their graduating students the best chances they can get.
References
Blenkinsopp, John and Tracy Scurry. (2007). "“Hey GRINGO!”: The HR Challenge Of Graduates In Non‐Graduate Occupations". Personnel Review 36(4): 623-637.
Curtis, P. (2009, Jun 11). Special report: Graduate unemployment: Deep in debt, the class of 2009 emerges to face harsh reality: They've sat their finals and polished the CV. now comes the real university challenge. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/244400418?accountid=14543
Dunga, Steven Henry. (2016). "An Exploratory Study Of The Variation In Unemployment Length Of Graduates Of Different Degree Programs". International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER) 15(2): 69-77.
Green, Wendy, Sarah Hammer, and Cassandra Star. (2009). "Facing Up To The Challenge: Why Is It So Hard To Develop Graduate Attributes?". Higher Education Research & Development 28(1): 17-29.
NB. (2010). "The Importance Of Mentoring For Individuals And Organizations". Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal 24(3): 27-30.
Thomas, Ian, Matthias Barth, and Teresa Day. (2013). "Education For Sustainability, Graduate Capabilities, Professional Employment: How They All Connect". Australian Journal of Environmental Education 29(1): 33-51.
Toma, Catalina L. (2010). "Affirming The Self Through Online Profiles". Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems.
