STARK CONTRAST IN TALES FROM “THE BEST” AND “THE REST”
Hey, did you hear the one about “picky” graduates turning down top employers and reneging on job offers they’ve already accepted? Apparently, candidates are displaying dazzling confidence now that the graduate job market has picked up, and are now leaving employers desperate to fill empty chairs in their offices!
Except, this is not a joke. The story even made it on to the Independent’s front page on Monday. But who are these ‘picky’ graduates that High Fliers’ Graduate Market in 2016 research identified? And are we talking about the same graduate job market where tens of thousands of bright young people are still stuck in low-paid stop-gap job and unpaid internships, desperate for their first big break? It’s baffling to think these two realities exist, side-by-side.
How is it possible that there can be such huge variation in the graduate job market? Why are some graduates doing so well – and others so badly? Graduate Fog’s founder Tanya de Grunwald says it is becoming increasingly difficult to make sweeping statements about “the graduate job market”. Could that be because it’s no longer one thing?
Have TWO distinct graduate job markets emerged? One for the super-in-demand high fliers, and one for everybody else? The ‘picky few’ – and the ‘desperate rest’?
It would make sense. After all, we’ve been aware for some time that graduate salaries now appear to have diverged dramatically, which is why the true ‘average’ graduate salary is so hard to pin down, and news that £30,000 is the median graduate starting salary at the UK’s top graduate employers leaves everyone else weeping at the sight of their paltry monthly pay cheque (if they’re lucky enough to be receiving one at all). Unpaid workers are still struggling to push for the wages they deserve, and recent graduates earning the minimum wage are dismayed to discover they won’t qualify for the new National Living Wage if they’re under 25, so their wages will stay at £6.50 per hour. Yet the latest research shows that the median salary for a graduate entering investment banking is £47,000.
What do you think? Are two graduate job markets emerging? Or is it just two groups of graduates – what could be called “the best” and “the rest”? What’s caused this divide – and what is the solution?
* ARE THERE TWO GRADUATE JOB MARKETS?
We’d love to hear your views on our theory. Does it fit with your experiences of graduate job hunting in the UK today? What do you think has caused this dramatic split – and what are your predictions for what will happen next?
I you went to oxford, cambridge, imperial to lse you are golden.
I you studied medicine, dentistry or health sciences, you can almost work anywhere in the world.
If you studied engineering, maths or physics you have many options but it requires experience and / or a specialist postgrad to progress.
Then there are the rest who are “without” a vocation to fall back on. Again, they require experience in a role or a postgrad to form any semblance of a career.
@Bob
It sounds like you agree somewhat with this idea of ‘the best’ and ‘the rest’, but for you the division is the result of 1) where you studied and / or what you studied. Is that right?
In which case, do you think that university numbers should be restricted, so it is only possible to study at either a top university, or a really useful subject that will help you get a job? In other words, should less impressive universities who sell less useful courses be closed, or at least have their numbers restricted?
I don’t think I’d go that far, but I’d definitely welcome some sort of system whereby the number of places available to study any given subject was in some way tied to the size of that industry and the likely number of jobs available after graduation. And I think it was crazy that the cap on university numbers was lifted recently. How can it be right to sell thousands of extra places on a course where even the current graduates are already struggling to make their degree ‘pay off’?
If graduate employers are struggling to fill vacancies, maybe they should run a system not too dissimilar to UCAS Clearing whereby graduates who have been unable to secure a graduate role or have applied but were unsuccessful are given a second opportunity at securing a graduate role. It would reduce graduate underemployment and unemployment and would ensure no job goes to waste.
As for reducing the number of graduates struggling, one way forward could be for funding to be allocated to local authorities to hire graduates in areas of local government which need graduate expertise such as economic development, surveying and finance. I know that recently, Birmingham City Council hired 10 town planning graduates and set up a ‘Graduate Hub’ – surely a scheme like this could replicated across other local government departments in other areas. Another step might be to offer incentives for SME companies to hire graduates.
@ Tanya de Grunwald
Yes, I do believe that.
From an academic standpoint, the gap in quality between the top and the bottom universities is huge. All cost £9k, but the product and its value varies greatly. To put it bluntly, students from “lower” ranked universities are being short changed.
I speak from personal experience as I have attended Manchester and Salford University. Also Bob isn’t my real name. Salford is bad, the student experience is really, really bad. The courses are watered down, the facilities are ancient and most of the students shouldn’t be there. The outside door to my lab had to be held open with a brick, samples were damaged by builders, loud building work went on during exams (which were held in a cold sports hall), I could go on.
I am still really upset about my time at Salford. I went to the graduation ceremony on my parents insistence and a lot of my year group didn’t turn up. I never got to throw my cap in the air, or have any “yay we graduated” pictures with the academics or other students.
Compare that to Imperial where you graduate in the Royal Albert Hall, or Whitworth Hall at Manchester.
Do you see what I mean Tanya? I’m sure there are some lovely “lower ranked” unis, but from an academic standpoint the difference is staggering.
Most need to be shut down and rebranded as technical colleges which teach vocational skills.
Hi all,
If you haven’t seen it, we’re having a good discussion today about the reality of being a graduate going back to live with your parents to save money after uni. Swing by and share your views, if you have a minute!
https://graduatefog.co.uk/2016/4660/half-of-new-graduates-still-live-with-parents/