Are there so many unemployed graduates because of the lack of jobs, or is it
because they aren’t equip properly for the world of work?
It’s a strange state of affairs when young people are paying £9,000 to get
higher educated, but then coming into a market-place where there are no job
opportunities. From an employer’s point of view, I think that these graduates
miss the vital part of the educational puzzle, experience. Education is geared
towards the theoretical side of learning, but employers want to see that there is
more to the individual than just a bunch of pass papers.
From a young person’s view, how can graduates gain experience when
employers aren’t prepared to offer them the opportunity to?
I think that the solution can be found at different levels, Universities need to start
incorporating more experiential learning and encouraging the students to go out
and seek opportunities rather than to rely on the qualification to do all the work
for them. It would be great to see Universities place more focus upon introducing
students to employers on a simple, friendly networking level. It’s a real cliché,
but as the old saying proceeds, it’s sometimes who you know, not what you
know.
Students should be prepared to volunteer and show employers that they are
worth employing based upon the experience that they have learned about
the business whilst in the volunteering stage. This is also a great opportunity
to show off your skills whilst in a real, practical environment and show some
results that will impact the organization that you are currently volunteering
with.
Businesses can start working with graduates more whilst they are still studying
and start equipping them with the skills that they need upon graduating because
then that way businesses have the chance to hand pick the best talent and start
training them for their organization before they even finish University.
This situation can get better and it will get better if each industry starts
speaking to each other and communicating because at the end of the day, it’s in
everybody’s interests to do so.
- Jamie Dunn (www.jamie-dunn.com)
Entrepreneur | International Speaker | Coulumnist
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