Last week 69 applications for “sought-after graduate job” were guaranteed to be displayed for the best students and their parents. The complicity is that there are fewer jobs than it was expected for the graduates and the idea that there are more graduates than the jobs available is elitist.
According to High Fliers’ June survey of the graduate market, there is 18% increase of jobs for graduates as many recruiters are going to increase their recruitment in the approaching autumn. The report proves that in spite of the increase in applicants, their “employability skills” are not still improved. The survey of 300 Oxford University recruiters conducted this year showed that in such “employability” factors Oxford students are stronger than UK students but lack on teamwork and business awareness.
Universities are not simply employment training centers but institutions which teach students how to learn, conduct various researches and to write essay papers. There is no need to include to the curriculum those “employability skills” that are valued by potential employers because universities give enough knowledge and skills to graduates during the process of studying. Their main purpose is to help students transfer the acquired skills of teamwork and business awareness into those which might be required later. For example, Oxford has already introduced specific experiential learning opportunities and the system that monitors these employment skills for students.
Nowadays the main challenge for universities is to develop all these skills during their studying at universities.