HEAR hear, a credible alternative to a 2.1?

The latest figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency show yet another increase in the proportion of graduates achieving a First or Upper Second degree. In the academic year 2011/12, 66% of those graduating achieved this distinction, a rise of 2% over the previous year. As recently as 2007/08 only 61% did so well.

It’s difficult to be anything but pleased for those who ‘made the grade’ as it were. Employers, at least those in membership of AGR, value the First and Upper Second (a 2:1) highly. So highly in fact that three quarters of them when recruiting graduates have an automatic cut-off which excludes those who have achieved anything less.

With growing numbers of graduate applications to contend with it is a simple way to reduce numbers. Some employers receive well over a hundred applications for each vacancy, so having an academic cut off point is strategic. However, the weakness with this approach is that the degree classification system is not a national standard. Put another way, you cannot accurately compare one candidate’s achievement of a 2:1 with another candidate’s unless they studied the same degree at the same institution at the same time. The degree then is a blunt instrument and recruiters need to treat it with caution.

What’s the alternative? Well, some recruiters do not exclude candidates at the screening stage on the basis of their degree classification by applying other criteria, such as relevant work experience. The higher education sector has been working hard over the past few years to develop an alternative record of students’ achievement that show the academic achievements throughout the degree programme and also captures extra-curricular achievements which employers value so highly. It’s called the Higher Education Achievement Record or HEAR and a majority of higher education institutions have signed up to it. Graduates will be able to permit employers to access their HEAR which, as well as providing additional granularity over the crude degree classification, will be verifiable data.

In a recent GRB poll of graduates just over half claimed that they would always be honest on social networking sites. There’s a difference between what you say about yourself on a social networking site and a job application, so the findings cannot be extended to applications. Other research claims that as many as one in four people misrepresent educational qualifications.

Carl Gilleard, AGR Chief Executive, says “These are tough times for job applicants and recruiters. Both are grappling with increased competition for vacancies. Using the degree class as the prime cut-off is problematic and can result in talented candidates being excluded. Using the UCAS points (A level grades) to de-select candidates is even worse practice.”

Until now, it has been difficult to come up with an alternative but the HEAR might well provide a credible remedy. After 200 years of the degree class system evolving, employers should at least allow time for the HEAR to become embedded in the HE sector before passing judgement. The more encouraging employers are and the more use they make of it, the more likely it is that universities will adopt it. People need to support a new idea, not be instantly sceptical; a little faith is a required to bring about change. In this case, a definite change for the better for all concerned.

Graduate Salaries - We Predict Your Future!

Today GRB launches an exciting new service for students and their parents considering University.

Ramla, the all-knowing graduate salaries fortune teller can give you a prediction of what you're statistically set to earn after you graduate, based on detailed sets of data researched through UCAS, HESA and GRB's Independent Research Team.

Here at GRB, our Independent Research Team has been hard at work to create Ramla, the all-knowing graduate salaries fortune teller, giving you a prediction of what you're statistically set to earn after you graduate, based on previous graduates who have done the same course and at the same university as you.

First year Undergraduates across the UK are the first to experience the higher university tuition fees, capped at £9,000 per year. There are hundreds of news stories and blogs dedicated to the topic but a very small quantity of these are doing much in the way of helping prospective and current university students to make an informed choice on how best to decide on university courses and institutions, how best to spend time whilst at university or how to make sure while studying, you're maximising your value for money.

Against all predictions, the fees haven't done a great deal by way of deterring students from attending university and the higher fees are probably here to stay so instead of thinking about the debt you may have incurred over the next three or four years, get excited about the career options and potential graduate salary earnings you are statistically set to receive after you finish your studies. The salaries are based on detailed sets of data researched through UCAS, HESA and GRB's Independent Research Team.

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www.grb.uk.com/graduate-salaries-fortune-teller

Employers Still Hungry For Graduate Talent

Futuretrack, the most reliable and extensive piece of research to surface on graduate behaviour points to several reassuring findings for parents and sixth formers contemplating Higher Education. You will get a return on your investment on many levels and employers especially value the skills graduates bring to the workforce.

The ‘Futuretrack’ study was commissioned by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit and undertaken by Warwick University’s Institute for Employment Research. Starting with the 2005/6 population of applicants for full-time UK undergraduate study, they have succeeded in tracking 17,000 graduates and where they ended up 6 years later. The bottom line figures look reassuring with 71% of graduates snapped up by employers in a variety of roles across all sectors.

The research went into further detail about graduate’s experience of Higher Education. An overwhelming 96% of those who took part in the survey said that they are glad that they had taken their degree despite the financial cost. Two thirds also stated that they felt positive about their long-term career prospects. 29% loved it so much that they stayed on to do post graduate study!

Many sectors, like IT, have consistently found shortages and now sectors like Engineering and Banking are embarking on a war for talent, especially for numerate graduates, so it is vital Universities keep developing this talent for employers in the future. Dan Hawes, co-founder of Graduate Recruitment Bureau says: “We were delighted to be able to support the study and achieved the largest number of responses by any commercial recruitment consultancy. We believe it sends a strong message to all stakeholders anxious about the changes to Higher Education. Since 1997 we have served graduate recruiters, large and small, and have seen our business grow like many other intermediaries also providing valuable services over the last decade. The job market is definitely there for graduates so we are always surprised to hear about high calibre graduates struggling.”

“This survey also confirms our belief in the added value graduates bring not just to employers but the economy as a whole at a time when we need an injection of fresh blood. We track high calibre graduates that we place and this research confirmed what we are already seeing that graduates start their career in all sorts of places, not just on graduate schemes, but on other well paid, graduate level jobs. The problem is graduates simply miss these opportunities as they exist in a hidden market.”
Jane Artess, research director at HECSU says: “Graduates’ perceptions of the value of their degree in finding work changes remarkably after they have been in the labour market for some time, which helps us to understand the magnitude of the downturn on this group.”

Professor Kate Purcell at the IER adds “Students focus mainly on their studies while at university, particularly in their final year, so graduating into one of the worst recessions in history has hit them particularly hard.  The main finding for me is that even in the wake of the recession, the onset of higher fees and large debts, the graduates remain positive in the face of adversity with great confidence that their degree has been worth it."

DO YOU RELY ON THE 2:1?

With degree grade inflation hitting the headlines, employers are struggling to find ways to fairly and accurately assess graduate talent. Here, Carl Gilleard from AGR - the voice of graduate recruiters - explains a new way ahead for our guest post.

Three quarters of AGR members use the 2:1 degree classification as a screening tool. Hardly any recruiters resist using the degree classification at all in the recruitment process.

With such wide usage of the degree class, you’d expect that employers had total confidence in the way that degree classifications are allocated. Yet, in my experience, employers are not always that well informed on how the degree class is arrived at. Using the degree class as a screening tool, suggests that employers think of it as a national standard that can be used to compare one candidate against another. It’s not, and a quick look at the proportions of students who receive firsts and upper seconds from different courses and institutions proves the point.

At best, the degree class is a blunt instrument to use in selection, at worst it can rule out perfectly good (and able) candidates from obtaining a graduate level job. I sympathise with recruiters faced with scores of applicants chasing each vacancy. It’s a tough challenge in these straitened times but rigid use of the degree class can adversely impact on other business goals such as improving the diversity of the workforce.

When employers are asked what they look for in graduate recruits they place relevant work experience, life and work skills and attitudes as being important factors in determining success. The 2:1 clearly does not provide any insight into these important factors. But help is at hand.
AGR has consistently supported the introduction of the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) and now that more than eighty institutions have signed up to it, it will not be long before graduate job seekers ask employers to take their HEAR into account.

The HEAR has the potential to change graduate recruitment for the better. It is intended to give a broader and more balanced picture of a graduate’s achievements, including a full transcript of results for all modules, and a record of extra-curricular activity such as the students union, societies, sports clubs, prizes and skills awards. The very things that most employers want to know about the achievements of graduate job candidates; more than that the information contained in a HEAR is verifiable.

Employers often have to rely on the candidate’s own prediction of the degree class they will obtain; a prediction that is invariably optimistic and with good cause. To state that you hope to obtain a 2:2 will mean disqualification from many graduate level job vacancies. The HEAR will allow employers access to achievements before the course is completed so it can be used even when selecting interns.

The HEAR is not replacing the degree classification, at least not in the short-term, but I am optimistic that if employers are prepared to give the HEAR a chance to prove itself against a classification system that is widely regarded as no longer fit for purpose, they will discover lots of benefits, one such being that students might become less fixated on obtaining the ubiquitous 2:1. That has got to be a good thing. A university education is greater than the sum of its parts: not just a series of course options but a challenge to think about the connections between these elements; not merely a chance to make friends for life, but an opportunity to work alongside peers in teams that thrive on diversity; a time for indulging one’s thirst for knowledge and preparing for a fulfilling career. The more that the 2:1 becomes the ‘gold standard’ the less likely that the student experience will be truly enriching.

The Graduate Without a Future - Says who?

The Guardian's recent broadcast "Graduate class of 2012: A 2:1 just won't cut it anymore" is just one part of an entire online series dedicated to "the graduate without a future". Excuse me? I certainly don't feel doomed. Alongside numerous articles of a similar tone, this video emanates disillusion and despair, from the depressing personal profiles of 2012 grads, right down to their coffee cup dregs being emptied down the drain.

Nobody's about to sit and tell you it's going to be an easy ride, but to doom the entire generation to life in a call centre, "mired in debt"? Be reasonable.

Subtle snipes at the humanities disciplines and recruitment industry were of course the icing on the cake but we'll save that for another day... (No really, we will). None of us are strangers to a newspaper trying to drum up readership but if you're starting to get drawn into the gloomy forecast, then set a good example to them and start re-adjusting your grip on reality. Playing into their hands gives yet another higher power the satisfaction of dictating how you live and quite frankly it's about time the new generation showed them how it was done. If a 2.1 won't cut it anymore then sitting around complaining certainly won't help. Expecting others to solve our problems is what got us into this mess and trust me they have far more than our best interests at heart.

For starters, creating an atmosphere of hopelessness over the situation is not only insulting to those already celebrating success, but it's hardly motivating for the rest who've barely had a chance to try. Brought up in a society where so much is instant, easy and taken for granted, it might not necessarily be a bad thing to spark a little competitive spirit. This may mean that those with the energy and ambition to embrace it are at a slight advantage, but I hope I'm not alone in saying, kudos to them.

Still, persevering is hard enough at the best of times. Is creating a moral panic going to make anybody's lives any easier? Where's the support and encouragement from the institutions so concerned with improving the economy? Demoralising those with the most potential to regenerate it isn't exactly productive thinking. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, over nine out of ten graduates in 2011 found work within six months; that's a huge 90.3% of graduates who aren't sat around feeling doomed, so why should we?

This downbeat tone is exacerbated in every aspect of the video, cut and pasted entirely to leave you feeling miserable and disheartened. The publication even manages to put a negative spin on the infinite potential of social media and the innovative new ways to "sell yourself". Instead of celebrating the prospect of brightening up the traditional scrap of A4 summarising your entire life achievements, a girl dejectedly states "it's always about making sure you?re this... perfect person which I guess doesn?t really exist." Welcome to the real world.

How many years have people been tweaking their grades and talking up their supermarket job?

The internet quite literally puts the world at your feet and whilst it may not make the job market any more attractive, it can certainly improve your CV.

Perhaps we are becoming, and I quote The Guardian's video journalist John Harris, "restless ever-changing human beings", but nobody's complaining when the next iphone's on its way out or we make progress towards curing a crippling disease.

Surely the most adaptive, open-minded and technologically advanced generation to date can channel some of this energy productively towards their future?
Choose a direction, work hard and aim high. No, a 2.1 alone will not be enough, but nobody is doomed if they set their mind on success. Starting out with a negative attitude won't make you any more attractive to an employer and it's hardly out of character for the media to hype anything worth a reaction. If all of this struggling is good for anything, it will perhaps teach us to genuinely appreciate the fantastic prospects "the generation abandoned" are building for our future.

Ps. our buzzer does work.

The Value of Higher Education - It's Up To You.

Already introduced at the University of St. Andrews  and with 90 other Universities signed up, the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) is set to get students thinking about all the things they can squeeze out of university apart from just a degree certificate.

The HEAR is a six page electronic document intended to provide a single comprehensive record of a student's (full time, part time undergraduate and postgraduate) achievement at University. It will adhere to a common structure and be verified by the academic registrar. Apart from details of your degree programme, which employers are particularly interested in, it also includes information on activities such as prizes, volunteering, internships, sport, widening participation activities, additional study, etc.. Any omissions on your part may then cause concern to employers so you may want to think how you are going play this.

Although not compulsory for students, GRB thinks this is a positive step in raising awareness and thus encouraging students to build their skills in preparation for employment. This is echoed by NUS, Employers and intermediaries who have been closely consulted throughout the process to get it right for everyone involved in education and recruitment. GRB recently attended a consultation on online graduate recruitment and how HEAR would be used. Around the table it was viewed positively as long as students and employers take it seriously - more information is a good thing when it comes to matching graduates to employment as it enables a recruitment consultant to better "sell" your skillset.

Fee paying students are very much in the driving seat as they embark in the new world of Higher Education from September 2012. Some quarters may view HEAR as a way for Universities to justify these fees through this "itemised" list of benefits but we want to know if you are aware of HEAR and if so what do you think?

PS. There's more info here: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/hear

Going public?

This article was written by a graduate we know well - Arnab Datta. Enjoy!

Choosing an industry for your graduate job is difficult and you need to consider many factors. These include deciding whether you wish to work in the private or public sector. Completing work experience will help you make a decision, but it is also worthwhile speaking to people in the career and following current developments in the news.

A recent graduate recruitment survey has revealed that the public sector is actually the most popular sector with students, for the second year in a row. The survey incorporated the views of 25,000 students from more than 100 universities, so can be considered a fairly good indicator of students’ current opinions. This is quite surprising in the context of both the economic situation and the budget cuts, but perhaps show that students want to join careers that are trying to help the UK get back on track.

So, what are the main benefits of working in the public sector? Generally, you may feel that you are contributing more to society. For example, if you are a teacher, work in local government or a doctor, then you may feel that these are more rewarding careers. Also, if you work for a charity, then the aim is not to maximise profit, but rather to maximise efficiency for the organisation and help people more. Historically the public sector has been quite a stable place to work (despite recent events) and some of the employment benefits have been more favourable. In the end, there will be a different working culture to the private sector, since the overarching objectives of government organisations and private sector companies inevitably vary.

Still, you must remember that the private sector includes many opportunities in a wide range of sectors, including engineering, consumer goods, science and retail, which were classed second to fifth place in the same recruitment company’s survey. Interestingly, financial related careers did not seem that popular with the students surveyed, although they offer higher starting salaries and firms are still recruiting staff, despite the difficult economic climate. Perhaps this is a cultural shift, with more people wanting to work in different industries. However, it is likely that students from particular universities are still geared towards careers in the financial arena.

Overall, the decision to work in the public sector should be based on whether you are genuinely interested in that career path and aim to contribute to a particular area of society. Still, working in the private sector is rewarding, as there are many industries available, each with opportunities to develop new skills and progress your career.