Diarist
“Universities are great in terms of the freedom they give you to plough your own furrow, but they are accidentally dysfunctional organisations where the more senior you get, the harder it is to get things
done.” Chris Phillips UK Publishing Director GTI Media speaking to RI5
AND IT’S GOODNIGHT FROM HER…
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I do wish we could eradicate this nonsense about ‘graduate and non- graduate’ jobs. It is a definition beloved by government and researchers but is pretty meaningless to careers consultants and their clients.
F
uturetrack* is an ambitious research project tracking the experiences of 50,000 students who
applied to UCAS in 2005/6 (both those that went to University and those that didn’t). They were the first to pay fees and many graduated into the Lehman madness (aka banking crisis) and so I was keen to see how they were faring in the final survey conducted in Autumn 2011. The good news was that 96% of those that went to University would do so again and regarded the experience as value for money. Sadly this was rather overshadowed by the bad news that there was a significant increase in the percentage of them in ‘non-graduate’ jobs, although the increase was partly due to a change in job classification. I do wish we could eradicate this nonsense about ‘graduate and non- graduate’ jobs. It is a definition beloved by government and researchers but is pretty meaningless to careers consultants and their clients. Yes it is true that a percentage of students are keen to get into graduate schemes but the vast majority just want jobs that will give them some satisfaction and pay the bills. Insisting that some jobs are more worthy than others is to misunderstand the diversity of people and their individual aspirations.
“Universities are great in terms of the freedom they give you to plough your own furrow, but they are accidentally dysfunctional organisations where the more senior you get, the harder it is to get things done.” Chris Phillips UK Publishing Director GTI Media speaking to RI5. All my Colleges have transparent governance
and management systems but in many of them it is impossible to uncover how this links to what actually happens on the ground. Colleagues confirm that this is widespread within the sector. Within a single institution
30 GRADUATE RECRUITER
you will regularly find three different committees looking at employability, two at the implementation of HEAR, two separate internship offices, three volunteering units, or two internal temp agencies. I spend much of my time telling careers service managers how to play the politics, how to identify where the power is and how to get things done without limiting their prospects. No wonder employers complain that we are impenetrable. Is it a malaise of all large organisations that the governance, the management and the operational delivery just don’t join up in any cohesive way? After ten fabulous years, the AGR editorial board has
wisely decided to call a halt to my rants. Don’t worry, you will still get news from the coal face but it will be from a variety of contributors which will give you a much broader spectrum of views. My first diary was written way back in February 2002
but is lost. In my second piece in April I was dispensing advice to employers about communicating with students. “There’s no magic to it.
It is like applying successfully for
jobs. Research your product and your customers, draft an appropriate message, ensure the right person reads it and create a good impression when you meet.” Despite the seismic changes in communication methods since 2002 it remains good advice. Goodbye, and if you have been, thank you for reading.
*
http://www.futuretrack.ac.uk/index.php
Anne-Marie Martin Director of Shared Services for Students and Graduates, University of London
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