Will a graduate jobs roadmap show us the right way?

Released alongside the Universities UK conference, the Future Jobs Roadmap (developed alongside Pearson, supported by the British Chambers of Commerce) attempts to align work on graduate careers with the ongoing skills discourse and the soon-to-land Milburn report on young people not in employment, education, or training (NEETs.)

It’s a difficult argument to land precisely because of the prevalent framing of the “other 50 per cent” – concerns around the life chances of young people who choose (or are pushed onto) routes other than higher education. Couple this with a particularly bleak job market for young people and you would expect the focus to be on those already at a disadvantage.

On the face of it, that’s a reading the report – based on conversations convened with graduate employers – doesn’t do a lot to dispel. As UUK President Malcolm Press puts it:

The message we heard was clear: graduates possess significant talent and potential and employers value them highly. But we need to do even more to help students gain workplace experience, develop professional confidence and prepare for a changing economy.

The Jobs Road Map represents a significant output from one of the four Future Universities projects at Universities UK – future jobs sits alongside parallel work on future innovators, future communities, and future students. Findings from employer engagement activity form the first part of the report, which are operationalised via a series of recommendations aimed at universities, employers, and government.

You’ll occasionally see reports that we simply have too many graduates – a view that is not held by the kind of people who employ them. A survey of 500 employers finds that 81 per cent feel that the current number of people (or more) should go to university in order that we can meet future skills demands. But it is possible for this to be true and for employers to look for more from graduates – particularly basic job skills like timekeeping, communication, resilience, and problem-solving: only 35 per cent felt graduates had all the skills that might reasonably be expected.

A part of the solution is work experience (79 per cent of employers were in favour) – the report recommends that all undergraduates should have the opportunity to access work-based learning activities by 2035 (with an interim target of 50 per cent by 2030). It’s a laudable aim in principle, but would be strengthened if made in the context of a recognition that the majority of graduates will have worked to support themselves during their studies at some point. While the report dwells on the issues employers may face in offering such experience, it could give some thought to the idea of giving students credit for the work they are already doing. It is true that the default retail and hospitality jobs students do may not be “graduate jobs” (by definition, really), but those basic job skills are equally essential in holding down work in a bar or supermarket.

The headlines will likely be in response to another employer ask – making it cheaper to employ graduates. It isn’t quite a full recommendation, but the idea floated is an extension of the existing exemption of staff under 21 from class 1 (employer) national insurance contributions should be extended to all those under 25. This is based on 65 per cent of employers expressing the view that support to offset the cost of hiring entry level graduates would allow them to recruit more.

The recent (2.2 per cent) increase in employer NIC is often blamed for a reduction in the creation of “good” entry level jobs, for graduates and others, although the decline in young employment is a trend that extends longer than this increase has been in place. It’s an expensive proposal (a cost in the region of £7bn to the exchequer, I make it) but one that would address the general state of the jobs market for all young people – tying in with the MIlburn report ethos of helping young people into any kind of employment.

The remaining recommendations focus on making it easier for employers and universities to work together to support students and graduates in becoming more experienced and employable. There’s plans for a graduate scheme for SMEs (75 per cent of graduates aspire to work for smaller employers) managed regionally via strategic authorities and employer groups. And co-designed bite-size learning that would build on (employer) growth and skills levy and (student) lifelong learning entitlement funding, and – to me, at least – runs some risk of normalising the idea that employees fund their own training.

Many universities already offer extended (the UUK Blueprint called for five years) or lifetime access to careers support for graduates – Universities UK would like to see this made universal to take account of non-linear careers. And an understanding of graduate careers should be supported by embedding the UK Standard Skills Classification within universities as a way of conceptualising and defining skills and knowledge for general benefit.

Thinking about graduate careers tends to start from taking the needs of graduate employers (and, frankly, wider cultural and social perspectives on employment) as sacrosanct. This is a reasonable, if limited, approach – graduates want to get jobs in a likely future rather than an imagined utopia. But the approach does run the risk of instrumentalising the way graduates are prepared (academically and personally) to become the round pegs that fit the round holes already visible or currently being excavated. We should read the sections on AI with this perspective in mind – but bear in mind the words of the report as we do so:

The pace of change is significant and future direction is unpredictable