The plan to incorporate employability skills as part of university degrees will be of great benefit to graduate employers, according to leading graduate careers website, WikiJob.
The University of Leicester, UCL, and Durham University are among the universities who have recently proposed the incorporation of employability skills into university degrees. Under such a scheme, students would gain extra credit for being able to demonstrate ‘corporate skills’, such as delivering a successful presentation or running a seminar.
The announcement comes amidst clear concern over employability by both students and employers. Recent data on university applications compiled by UCAS reveals that applicants are increasingly looking toward degrees with solid job prospects.
The introduction of employability initiatives would be welcomed by recruiters frustrated with the current lack of commercial skills displayed by candidates. Currently many Times Top 100 graduate employers specify a 2:1 result as a minimum entry requirement to their graduate schemes. However, despite this benchmark, employers have struggled to fill vacancies over the past few years.
Carly Barbuto, human resources specialist at WikiJob, says it is in the best interests of graduate employers to support and encourage the scheme. ‘Having a clear and consistent measure of student employability is an extremely useful tool for both graduates and employers’, she says. ‘It allows employers to clearly evaluate and assess how the strong academic results of a student are transferable to a corporate environment’.
Some universities have denounced the scheme, arguing that it is merely pandering to corporate demands. James Ladyman, Professor of Philosophy at Bristol University, believes incorporating corporate skills is ‘short term thinking’, leading to an emphasis on the ‘cash-value’ of a degree.
Carly Barbuto disagrees, stating: ‘These initiatives are not proposing to replace the core aspects of university learning, nor are they seeking to create a divide between academic and corporate skills’, said Carly. ‘Incorporating employability skills as an integral part of university education will encourage students to make practical use of the strong theoretical knowledge and academic skills gained at university’.
In February 2011, WikiJob will be helping students and graduates prepare for the graduate recruitment process, with Student Employability Week. WikiJob will be offering advice and information to students on interview preparation, CV writing, assessment centres and other key preparation areas.
To find out more about WikiJob.co.uk please call Carly Barbuto on 0845 625 9454.
