Why can't graduates get jobs?
- By Jamie Dunn -
- Jul 03, 2012
Today's guest blog focuses on whether graduate unemployment really is due to a lack of jobs...
Are there so many unemployed graduates because of the lack of jobs, or is it because they aren’t properly equipped 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 do so?
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.
By Jamie Dunn. Tweets at @JDEntrepreneur and is the author of new book "Crack On"
This guest blog complies to Virgin.com terms & conditions.
