The Higher Education Careers Services Unit’s (HECSU) quarterly guide to the graduate labour market launched today (24 January 2012) with an interview with the Minister of Universities and Science.
Speaking in the winter edition of Graduate Market Trends, David Willetts commented on:
Careers guidance: “Since schools know the needs of their pupils best they will be free to decide what form this takes. The way that I envisage it is that there will be a lot of raw data which we will produce and release so that social enterprises can put into formats young people will use. For example, by creating mobile phone apps that enable young people to check out organised material on line. At some point however they will want contact with someone who has direct experience. So what I think we will see in schools and colleges in the future is analysed and organised data, supported by some form of direct personal communication.”
The initiative to make information about HEIs publicly available - Key Information Sets (KIS): “Young people have suddenly realised that going to university is very big decision about their future; that they will be paying 29 per cent income tax as an adult as a result of going to university; that they will spend three years of their lives, not just in union bars, but also working hard towards their chosen investment.
“I think that it (KIS) will drive a cultural change in universities to get them to focus on teaching as much as on research. There are strong incentives rewarding research but there have not been similar incentives focusing on teaching.”
Industry and higher education collaboration:“We need to do much better. I think that information and advice has to get a lot more ‘micro’, in other words I want to see granular and targeted advice…I want to see other industry associations ‘kite-marking’ the courses with the greatest value….Employers such as the BBC, Rolls Royce, GSK, etc - either individually or through representative groups they are members of – must signal the courses they value.”
How universities can help maintain international competitiveness: “Another important thing our universities can do is hold down their costs… In a nutshell, it is all about raising the profile, being proud of the brand of British higher education around the world, and holding down costs so that it is affordable. In addition to their deeper value universities are now a big part of the economy – and this is happening in advanced countries around the world.”
For the interview in full, see the winter edition of GMT here.
