R ESEARCH
Employer and University Engagement
in the Use and Development of
Graduate Level Skills
Main Report
T. Hogarth, M. Winterbotham, C.Hasluck,
K. Carter, W.W. Daniel, A.E. Green and J. Morrison
Institute for Employment Research
University of Warwick
IFF Research Ltd
Research Report RR835A
Research Report
No 835A
Employer and University Engagement
in the Use and Development of
Graduate Level Skills
Main Report
T. Hogarth, M. Winterbotham, C.Hasluck,
K. Carter, W.W. Daniel, A.E. Green and J. Morrison
Institute for Employment Research
University of Warwick
IFF Research Ltd
The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for
Education and Skills.
© IFF Research Ltd 2007
ISBN 978 1 84478 901 6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
Title
Page
Acknowledgements
iv
Executive Summary
v
Introduction
1
1.1
Employer Engagement with Higher Education
1
1.2
HEI and economic development
1
1.3
The demand for graduates
2
1.4
Scope for greater employer-HEI collaboration in knowledge transfer
3
1.5
Geographical patterns behind employer-university collaboration
3
1.6
Method
5
1.7
Structure of the report
6
Promoting employer-HEI engagement
7
2.1
The need for business-HEI engagement
7
2.2
What is meant by engagement with HEI?
8
2.3
What forms does engagement take?
8
2.4
The benefits of employer-HEI engagement
10
2.5
The constraints on employer-HEI engagement
11
2.6
The levers for promoting engagement
12
2.7
The institutions responsible for promoting engagement
13
2.8
National policy to promote employer-HEI engagement
14
Graduate Recruitment
15
3.1
Introduction
15
3.2
The demand for graduates
15
3.3
Why employers recruit graduates
19
3.4
How employers recruit graduates
21
3.5
Recruitment practices
22
3.6
Targeting universities
27
3.7
The value of placements
28
3.8
Recruitment: what works?
30
1
2
3
i
Contents (continued)
Chapter
4
Title
Page
Graduate employment, utilisation and development
33
4.1
Introduction
33
4.2
Employer satisfaction with graduate recruits
34
4.3
What do graduates bring to the organisation?
36
4.4
Career development and training
37
4.5
Retention of graduates
38
4.6
How do different employers utilise and develop their graduate workforce?
39
4.7
Graduates versus non-graduates
42
4.8
Recruitment at sub-degree level
43
4.8
Conclusion
45
The spatial dimension to recruitment
47
5.1
Introduction
47
5.2
The spatial pattern to graduate employment
48
5.3
The origins and destinations of graduates
51
5.4
Recruitment of recent graduates
57
5.5
The regional aspect of graduate recruitment
59
5.6
The employers view of “local”
59
5.7
What types of employer target local HEI?
61
5.8
Recruitment to local fast-track training programmes
62
5.9
Specialist recruitment
64
5.10
Ad hoc recruitment at local level
64
5.11
How do employers benefit from recruitment links with local HEI
65
5.12
Barriers to the development of local HEI links
66
5.13
Conclusion
66
Other links
67
6.1
Introduction
67
6.2
Technical assistance
67
6.3
Continuing professional development
69
6.4
Foundation degrees
70
6.5
Lecturing and provision of other advice to HEI
72
6.6
How systematic are employer-HEI links?
73
6.7
The spatial element
73
6.8
Conclusion
74
5
6
ii
Contents (continued)
Chapter
7
Title
Page
Conclusion
75
7.1
Introduction
75
7.2
Graduate Recruitment
75
7.3
Technical assistance/R&D
76
7.4
Continuing professional development
76
7.5
Geographical considerations
77
7.6
Formal, systematised engagement
78
7.7
Improving engagement
81
Annex A
Semi-structured interview schedule
83
Annex B
City regions
93
Annex C
Sampling of case studies
99
LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
1.1
Selection of city-regions and associated HEI
6
3.1
Models of general graduate recruitment
20
3.2
Classification of graduate recruiters
22
5.1
Distribution of graduate type jobs for all graduates
50
5.2
Distribution of graduate type jobs for all graduates aged under 34 years
51
5.3
University at which studies by region of origin
53
5.4
University of study and destination of employment
54
5.5
Graduate recruitment by city-region
58
5.6
Employer satisfaction with graduate recruits by city-region (all employers)
60
7.1
Typology of employer-HEI linkages
80
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
Page
1.1
HEI-employer engagement: HEI as hubs
3.1
Percentage of employers recruiting a recent graduate, by size of employer
15
3.2
Percentage of employers recruiting a recent graduate, by industry of employer
16
3.3
Distribution of graduate jobs
18
3.4
1999 graduates use of graduate skills in current job by SOC(HE) category
18
4.1
Preparedness of graduate recruits
34
5.1
Origins and destinations by occupation and city-region of study
55
iii
4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The study was conducted by IFF Research and the University of Warwick Institute for
Employment Research (IER). This forms part of a larger body of research under the direction
of Mark Winterbotham, Terence Hogarth and Chris Hasluck into employer behaviour in the
labour market.
The study was funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Mark Wilberforce
and his successor Chris Woolliscroft generously gave much assistance and advice in
managing the research for which many thanks are due.
The research team would like to thank the steering group which provided many helpful and
instructive comments over the course of the study. The steering group consisted of:
Charles Ritchie:
DfES, Higher Education Analysis: Higher
Education Research and Evaluation
Owen Fernandez:
DfES, Higher Education Employer Engagement
Helen Connor:
Council for Industry and Higher Education
Sean Mackney:
Higher Education Funding Council for England
Louise Potter:
British Chambers of Commerce
Brandon Ashworth:
Sector Skills Development Agency
At IFF, Katie Carter and Joe Morrison assisted with the interviewing, analysis, and drafting of
the report.
At IER, W.W. Daniel (CBE) and Richard White played a similar role while Anne Green
undertook much of the spatial analysis. In addition, Jo Ciriani provided administrative
support to the research process. L.L Conaghan provided assistance in the final stages of
the report’s preparation.
Mark Winterbotham
Terence Hogarth
Chris Hasluck
January 2007
iv
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Aims and objectives
This study addresses a number of research questions relating to the engagement of
employers with higher education institutions (HEI). These include:
•
•
•
•
how do employers use and view graduate skills;
what are employer views on high-level skills development and HEI;
is there scope for greater employer-HEI collaboration in pursuit of knowledge transfer
through high-level skills development; and
what are the geographical patterns of employer-HEI engagement and is this engagement
organised at national or local (city-region) levels?
Method
Evidence was gathered from a literature review, a compilation of statistics from the Labour
Force Survey, National Employers Skills Survey 2005, and HESA Origins and Destinations
data, as well as case studies with 74 employers, all of whom had recently recruited new
graduates. The case studies were distributed across 18 city-regions in England.
Forms of engagement
HEI can be seen to interact with employers and their local community in a number of
different ways. In summary, these are:
•
•
•
•
•
through graduate recruitment (as a supplier of labour)
as a source of labour demand (many HEI are now amongst the largest employers in
their city-regions);
as a source of lifelong learning / continuous professional development and training
(CPD);
as a supplier of research and development (R&D); and
as a player in a variety of economic development related networks and partnerships,
typically publicly funded (by UK Government, EU, etc.).
The report develops a typology of HEI–employer engagement that is based around four
factors. These are:
•
•
•
•
geographical – local, regional, national, and/or international;
employer type – old/mature, new/growing industries, SMEs;
scope of links – labour supply, CPD, R&D, partnership/networks; and
the extent to which links are systematic – formal links as opposed to more ad hoc
arrangements.
Most employers were engaged in some form of targeting for graduate recruitment purposes
and this sometimes included a local dimension. Employers that had no specific links with a
local HEI tended to be large firms that recruited nationally or SMEs who simply advertised
for graduates without any direct engagement with HEI.
CPD links tended to be local, because employees need to be close to the university at which
they were studying. Where R&D links exist, these tend to be formal where the company had
a specialist need, but informal and ad hoc for most companies.
v
Graduate recruitment
Evidence from the National Employers Skills Survey 2005 demonstrates that employers,
overall, are satisfied with the graduates they recruit. This is an important finding, given that
the number of graduates has increased substantially in recent years. Many employers
indicated that graduates brought benefits to the business. Some of the most commonly
mentioned were that they:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
challenge how things are done / ‘questioning’;
assimilate things quicker (when compared to non-graduates);
are flexible;
come at things from a different perspective (often theoretical);
are problem solvers;
bring new ideas and energy;
use their initiative and act without waiting for instruction.
Nonetheless the case study evidence reveals that some employers, especially employers in
sectors that are new to graduate recruitment, and in some small enterprises, still struggle to
engage with HEI.
Employers looking to recruit graduates tended to target their engagement with HEI in a
number of ways. Patterns of engagement included:
•
•
targeted engagement:
o local universities because it was easier to engage with local universities;
o universities where previous experience suggested that there was a good potential
to recruit high quality employees;
o universities that provide the specialist courses from which the employer wanted
to recruit;
o universities where there were personal links;
o universities considered to be the “best”.
no targeting:
o using the ‘milk round’
o limited or negligible engagement;
Where limited or no targeting took place this tended to relate to:
•
•
large employers with well established graduate recruitment programmes who liaised
with all or most HEI
employers, often SMEs, that simply advertised generally for graduates.
Some larger employers with graduate schemes recognised that contacting all HEI was not
the best use of limited resources, and targeting was required in order to achieve depth to the
employer-HEI relationship. There were three main reasons why targeting was useful:
•
First, rather than engaging with many different HEI, resources could be focused on
universities considered to be the ‘best’ or which offered a particular course or subject
of benefit to the business;
•
Second, because it was easier to maintain contacts with local HEI (for instance by
maintaining strong professional relationships with career services and, sometimes,
academic departments); and
•
Third, several employers wanted their graduate recruits to settle and develop a
career locally, especially where they were seen as being the future management of
the company. By targeting local universities they were more likely to find people who
wanted to remain in the area.
vi
Links beyond recruitment
When employers target particular HEI this often results in lasting relationships being
developed, with the potential to spread beyond recruitment into other areas. The social
networks that develop through targeting for recruitment purposes, especially for the smaller
organisations, can lead into other forms of engagement – R&D, lecturing opportunities,
advising on the qualities employers look for in graduates, and so on.
Universities can provide expert scientific assistance to companies, but the evidence from the
case studies suggests that such relationships are both informal and uncoordinated with
graduate recruitment. Also, employers tend to engage with individual academics rather than
particular institutions, continuing to work with them if they move away from their local
university.
Regarding CPD and lifelong learning, the employer-HEI relationship tended to be local,
because employees needed to study near to where they worked. It was notable, however,
that it was typically companies or employees that initiated these links and institutions were
relatively passive. In addition some employers were critical of the lack of flexibility in the
provision of CPD by HEI.
The third type of link arises as a result of companies and their employees delivering lectures
and providing advice on a range of subjects, such as the vocational preparedness of
graduates. Motivations here often mixed altruism (putting something back into the sector)
with improved access to graduates (for example getting their company name known to
undergraduates through lecturing).
Difficulties with the relationship and improving engagement
For employers with limited resources to liaise with HEI, targeting provided an efficient means
of engagement. But it required the employer to make an investment in the relationship. For
a group of employers, typically smaller ones often relatively new to graduate recruitment,
there was limited engagement with HEI. Their graduate recruitment was often not regularly
recurrent and they had little idea how to engage effectively with HEI. This resulted in
recruitment, for example, being scattershot – aimed at all graduates and all universities
resulting in applications being poorly matched to the job on offer and sometimes
dissatisfaction with the person eventually recruited.
One overall finding of the research is that employer engagement with HEI is sub-optimal,
with employers put off by relatively high transactions costs, but that there is a substantial if
latent demand for the services HEI provide. What is lacking is a channel that will allow
employers with limited resources to engage more fully with HEI.
For smaller employers, effective engagement with HEI is unlikely to be achieved by
themselves, especially where their recruitment requirements are infrequent. Effective
engagement is only likely to come about through some form of brokerage that allows them to
connect more readily with the HEI when the need arises. There are many intermediaries that
might take on such a role – SSCs, RDAs, etc. and some are already doing so informally,
with some success.
vii
Summary of key findings
A number of key findings emerged from the study. These were as follows:
•
Mass higher education has extended graduate employment into new sectors and
occupations where employers operate differently to traditional graduate employers and
often lack the experience or expertise to effectively engage with HEI.
•
A large proportion of students entering university are from the local area and,
correspondingly, a significant proportion of new graduates enter employment in the
vicinity of the university from which they graduate.
•
The majority of employers are satisfied with the recent graduates they had recruited.
Many employers in the case studies indicated that graduate recruits brought significant
benefits to the business, including a critical perspective, flexibility and adaptability.
Employers greatly value work placements and the skills that sandwich degree graduates
develop. Despite this, the proportion of undergraduates undertaking sandwich
placements has declined in recent years.
•
There is already a considerable degree of employer engagement with HEI, especially
amongst larger employers. Knowledge transfer and lifelong learning for employees were
both in evidence in case studies, but graduate recruitment was the most common form of
engagement. The extent of engagement varies across sectors of the economy. The
barriers to engagement appear greatest for small or medium sized enterprises.
•
Large employers tend to target specific HEI and focus on those considered the ‘best’ or
those who are top of their field in specific subjects of particular relevance to the
business. Smaller employers value engagement with local universities because it is
easier to maintain contacts with local HEI or because the employer wanted graduate
recruits who would develop a career locally.
•
Engagement for R&D tends to be both informal and ad hoc, unless the company has a
specialist need. Also, employers tend to engage with particular academics rather than
their institutions.
•
CPD is mainly a local relationship, as employees need to be able to study close to where
they work. However, it was typically companies or employees who initiated these links
and HEI were relatively passive. Some employers were critical of the lack of flexibility in
the provision of CPD by HEI.
•
The introduction of Foundation Degrees, although highly regarded by those employers
that have committed to them, has had little impact on employer-HEI engagement.
Comparatively few employers have been involved so far and, in general, the level of
awareness of Foundation Degrees amongst employers appears low.
•
The factors underlying the extent and form of employer-HEI engagement are not simple
and vary considerably between employers. It is unlikely that there is a single ‘one size
fits all’ method to encourage engagement as the support required must reflect the needs
of individual businesses and the barriers to engagement that each face.
•
Some employers, especially new graduate employers, are unsure about how to engage
with HEI. There may be a role for a broker, or intermediary, to help facilitate employerHEI engagement. A broker could assist employers to articulate their needs to HEI and
communicate to employers to obtain the most from the services of HEI.
viii
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1
Employer Engagement and Higher Education
Two recent Government commissioned reviews have implications for employer engagement
in higher education. The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration stressed the
economic need for a better flow of innovation and ideas between business and universities,
and the Leitch Review – “Prosperity for All in a Global Economy – World Class Skills” - had
employer engagement writ large in its recommendations of how to increase investment in
skills.1 This report addresses employer engagement with Higher Education Institutions (HEI)
and, in so doing, sheds light on how employers can constructively liaise with HEI to the
benefit of the economy as a whole.
The specific objectives of the study are as follows:
•
how do employers use and view graduate skills;
•
what are employers’ views on high level skills development and the interaction of
businesses and HEIs;
•
is there scope for greater employer-HEI engagement and how is this best achieved;
•
what are the geographical patterns of employer HEI collaboration and to what extent
are these links organised at national, city regional and/or regional levels?
The research is timely given the recommendations of both Lambert and Leitch and, in its
focus on employers and city-regions, brings new dimensions to the analysis of the
contribution higher education can make to the economy both nationally and locally.2 The
primary focus of the study is upon skills but also addresses the role HEI in lifelong learning /
continuous professional development and training, and technology transfer.
1.2
HEI and economic development
Why the emphasis upon HEI, and why the focus on the city-region dimension? Evidence,
much of it from the USA, has demonstrated the role of higher education institutions (HEI) in
fostering economic development. There is, for instance, interesting data from California on
what has been referred to as High Skill Ecosystems (HSEs) where, amongst other factors,
universities are seen as nourishing growth - Californian universities were able to supply new
talent to the new industries developing in the region which led to closer industry university
links 3,4. Similarly, the renaissance of the Massachusetts economy over the 1980s identified
the importance of local universities supporting the ICT industry 5.
1
The
Lambert
Review
can
be
accessed
at:
http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/media/DDE/65/lambert_review_final_450.pdf and the Leitch Review at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/523/43/leitch_finalreport051206.pdf
2
Previous research – such as H. Connor, W. Hirsh, and L. Barber, Your Graduates and You:
Effective Strategies for Graduate Recruitment and Development, Institute for Employment
Studies, Brighton, 2003 – has provided information on effective graduate recruitment – but
this has not systematically addressed the regional dimension to employer behaviour.
D. Finegold, ‘Creating Self Sustaining High Skill Ecoystems’ Oxford Review of Economic
Policy, 15(1), p60-81
M. Porter, Competitive Advantage of Nations, Macmillan, London, 1990; P. Krugman,
Geography and Trade, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1991
P.B. Doeringer and D.G. Terkla, “Business Strategies and Cross-Industry Clusters”,
Economic Development Quarterly, 1995, Vol.,9, No.3, pp.222-237; M. Porter, “Location
Competition and Local Clusters in a Global Economy”, Economic Development Quarterly
2000, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 15-34
3
4
5
1
In the UK there is considerable interest in recruiting and retaining the highly qualified in order
to foster regional economic development in an increasingly knowledge-driven economy. In
the UK the role of HEI in generating economic development has been addressed in the
Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, commissioned by HM Treasury, DfES
and the DTI, and published in 2003. It marked an important point in the development of a
strategy for increasing and improving the links between the business community and higher
education, though it had little to say about graduate recruitment.
The Lambert Review concluded that increased collaboration between business and
universities would bring significant economic benefits to the UK but that the biggest single
challenge in achieving this lay in boosting the demand for research from business, rather
than in increasing the supply of ideas and services from universities. The Review made a
number of recommendations. These included:
•
•
•
•
•
•
giving Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) a greater role for facilitating
knowledge transfer in their regions;
creating a new funding stream for business-relevant research, along with increased
and improved ‘third stream’ funding for knowledge transfer;
the development of a university code of governance and an agreement that if HEI
demonstrated good management and strong performance this should be matched by
a lighter regulatory touch by Government and the Funding Councils;
the development of model contracts and a protocol for intellectual property (IP) to
speed up IP negotiations;
the encouragement of new forms of formal and informal networks between business
people and academics, including the establishment of a business-led R&D
employers’ forum; and
the provision of more information by universities on student employability, and
businesses to take a greater role in influencing university courses and curricular.
The Lambert Review also concluded that concerted action by business, universities and
Government will be required in order to grasp the opportunities for the UK economy.
This study is concerned with the engagement of employers and HEI but has a particular
emphasis on the role of HEI in economic development in England, principally acting through
the supply of highly skilled and qualified personnel (graduates) but also through other forms
of linkage such as provision of research and development (R&D) and as a supplier of
continuous professional development (CPD).
1.3
The demand for graduates
With the expansion of higher education there has been a commensurate increase in the type
of economic activity in which graduates engage. Before the first major expansion in higher
education in the 1960s, a university education was viewed primarily as preparation for public
service6. With each further expansion in HE participation the range of jobs where a degree
was required for entry was similarly expanded, first into the professions (e.g. accountancy),
then into management, media, etc.
Accordingly, the notion of a graduate job is now so varied that it might be simply defined as
any job where many of its incumbents are graduates. One of the rationales for increasing
participation in higher education was to increase the supply of graduates into those parts of
the economy where they had previously been scarce. It was expected that the high level
skills new graduates would bring to these jobs would be such that they would be able to
6
Political and Economic Planning (PEP), Graduates in Industry, George Allen & Unwin,
London, 1957; K. Purcell et al., Class of ’99, Department for Education and Skills, Research
Report No. 691.
2
broaden the scope of those jobs and the employer would thereby obtain a range of business
benefits from their decision to take on graduates.
Companies that have a strong demand for higher level skills have in many cases already
developed relationships with universities to ensure that the HE system produces the type of
technical and generic skills they require, and to ensure that they have access to a supply of
suitably skilled graduates. The capacity to achieve this type of relationship is typically
related to scale of activity; larger companies being better able to foster these types of links
with HE institutions.
It is important to consider the orientation and aspirations of different types of graduate
employer. It is easy to concentrate upon those companies at the leading edge, but these
form a relatively small part of the population of employers of graduates. They are certainly
important, but they are in many respects unique and often possess strong local, regional,
national, and international links with HEI. Much less is known about other types of
organisation that employ graduates and how these employers develop links with universities,
recruit graduates, and subsequently develop their graduate employees through further HE
courses). This raises the question about how responsive HEI are to meeting employers’
workforce development needs outside the bachelors, masters, and doctoral courses they
run.
Turning to employers’ recruitment practices, previous IER research has indicated that
employers are sometimes critical of graduate skills (both technical and practical) outside of
the prestigious fast-track management training schemes.7 It is often difficult to gauge the
veracity of these claims, but it raises the question of the extent to which employers are
willing to work with universities to overcome reported skill deficiencies and the actions they
are willing to take to compensate for these deficiencies, and also the extent to which
universities are willing to work with employers.
1.4
Scope for greater employer-HEI collaboration in knowledge transfer
Typically, universities now have a range of policies in place to develop links with local,
regional, and national businesses. Some of these policies are funded through a number of
regional development programmes designed to persuade graduates to remain within a
region. The idea of the Science City is important here, as is the development of industry
clusters which guides many RDA approaches to industrial development.
An objective of the present research has been to ascertain from the employers’ perspective
what works for them currently, and what they need for the future. In relation to the latter
point there is a need to consider the extent to which existing arrangements are supporting a
declining area of activity, or assisting business moves into new areas of activity where future
demand is expected to be buoyant. Both the Developing Relationships study and the later
Lambert Review suggested that employers did not know who to contact within HEI to pursue
possible partnerships or to inquire about graduate recruitment. 8.
1.5
Geographical patterns behind employer-university collaboration
The focus upon the city-region dimension to employer – HEI engagement breaks new
ground. From a city-region perspective it is possible to regard HEI within a determined
geographical space as a hub (see Figure 1.1).
7
8
K. Purcell and T. Hogarth, Widening Participation in the New Graduate Labour Market,
Council for Industry and Higher Education, London, 1999
C. Simm and T. Hogarth, Developing Relationships, Report to the Coalition of Modern
Universities, 1999.; The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, HM Treasury,
London, July 2003.
3
Figure 1.1
HEI-employer engagement: HEIs as hubs
The role played by a particular HEI within a particular city-region will depend on the nature of
economic activity within that geographic space, the presence and number of other HEI and
other institutions which may act as potential competitors within that geographic space, and
the nature of the local/ regional role that the HEI wishes to play. HEI, from an employer
perspective, can be seen to have the following types of engagement:
•
•
•
•
•
as a supplier of labour (principally graduates);
a source of labour demand (many HEI are now amongst the largest employers in
their localities);
a source of continuous professional development and training (CPD) – especially so
at the local level9;
a supplier of research and development (R&D); and
a player in a variety of economic development related networks and partnerships,
typically publicly funded (by UK Government, EU, etc.).
Research conducted by DfEE in the early 1990s demonstrated the importance of the HE
sector in developing local and regional economies. Businesses with a large appetite for
research and development typically site their activities near those universities with particular
expertise they require. This develops a symbiotic relationship in both R&D and the
recruitment of staff. This is an integral part of what has been referred to as the High Skill
Ecosystem that underlies at least part of the Californian economy.
9
The case study evidence provided in this report indicates that CPD is primarily, though not
always, undertaken at local HEI.
4
In the UK, the most successful example of this type of agglomerative activity has been in
Cambridge where the orientation towards scientific inquiry in the University has stimulated
the local economy. There is evidence in other locations where local universities have
developed departments oriented towards the major types of economic activity in that area.
But as regional economies have become more heterogeneous the scope for universities to
specialise in this way has lessened.
This report presents examples of close university-employer collaboration which demonstrate
how universities can supply companies with highly skilled and qualified labour, and how the
relationship can develop through, for example, R&D ventures, where each supports the
other to increase high-skill activity.
1.6
Method
The study consists of three elements:
•
•
•
a literature review;
a compilation of background statistical evidence; and
case studies of 74 employers spread across 18 city-regions.
The aim of the literature search was twofold:
•
•
to unearth and review literature relating to the objectives of the study regardless of
the city-region dimension;
to find literature relating specifically to the situation in the city-regions incorporating:
a) information from the specific HEI in scope of the study; and
b) general information about the role of HEI in regional development.
In the report the statistical material and literature review have been combined.
The study is based around city-regions with the major source of data being semi-structured
interviews with employers (the semi-structured questionnaire used for the study is appended
in Annex A). The list of city-regions covered in the case study interviews is shown in Table
1.1 and how these were defined in terms of local authority district is presented in Annex B.
Nonetheless there is a need to put these findings in context. There are four principal
sources of data that are used to provide contextual, background information for each of the
case study areas, as follows:
o
o
o
o
data from Labour Force Survey on the number/proportion of graduates;
HESA data on origins and destinations of graduates for a given area;
employer recruitment of graduates (from the National Employers Skills Survey
2005); and
ad hoc surveys of graduates.
Qualitative face-to-face interviews were conducted with four to five employers in each of the
18 case study regions, and 74 interviews were conducted in total. The aim was to achieve
a broad mix of employers (for example by sector) rather than a representative sample.
The criteria for inclusion in the survey were that employers had:
•
•
a minimum of 20 staff at the establishment;
recruited at least one recent graduate in the last 12 months (or at least one member
of staff trained up to graduate level) if the establishment employed 20-49 staff, or at
least three recent graduates recruited in the last 12 months (or trained up to graduate
level) if the establishment had 50 or more employees;
A recent graduate was defined as an individual taking their first ‘proper’ job since graduating.
Details of the sampling can be found in Annex C. While the focus of the study was upon
employers and not universities or graduates, there was a need to ensure that a range of
5
different types of university were covered in the case study areas. At its simplest this
required pre- and post-1992 universities to be within scope of employer engagement within a
city-region case study area (see Table 1.1).
Table 1.1
Selection of city-regions and associated HEI
Case study areas
North
Newcastle
Teesside
North West
Manchester
Liverpool
Yorkshire and the Humber
Leeds
Sheffield
East Midlands
Nottingham
Northampton
West Midlands
Birmingham
Coventry
Main HEI in scope
University of Newcastle/Northumbria University
Teesside University
University of Manchester and UMIST/University of
Salford/Metropolitan University of Manchester
University of Liverpool/John Moores University/Hope
HE College
South East
Portsmouth/
Southampton
Canterbury
London
Central London
Middlesex
4
4
4
4
University of Nottingham/Nottingham Trent
Nene University College
4
4
Aston University/University of Birmingham/University of
Central England
Coventry University/University of Warwick
5
4
University of East Anglia
University of Cambridge
4
4
University of Bristol/University of the West of England
Plymouth University
4
4
Portsmouth University/University of Southampton
5
University of Kent at Canterbury
4
University of London/City University/East London
University/Westminster University
Middlesex University
4
Total employer
interviews
1.7
4
4
University of Leeds/Metropolitan University of Leeds
University of Sheffield/Sheffield Hallam
East of England
Norwich
Cambridge
South West
Bristol
Plymouth
Employer
interviews
4
74
Structure of the report
The report is organised as follows: Chapter 2 reviews some of the most germane research
evidence. Chapters 3 to 6 are based on the available evidence and the employer case
studies conducted for this project to reveal why and how employers engage with HEI.
Chapter 7 provides a summary and conclusion.
6
2
PROMOTING EMPLOYER-HEI
ENGAGEMENT
2.1
The need for business-HEI engagement
There is a widespread belief that competitiveness, at national and regional levels, lies at the
heart of maintaining and developing the UK’s economic future. The UK economy is
increasingly open to global competition and the effect of increasing competitive pressures
are felt at national, regional and even at a local level, as UK business seeks to defend its
current markets and to grow into new ones. At the regional and local level, the impact of
globalisation and international competition are manifest in economic change and industrial
re-structuring that can pit region against region and locality against locality. In this context,
business needs leadership, management, and innovation that will lead to higher valueadded products, services, and processes.
Traditionally the source of these ingredients of competitive success has been UK higher
education institutions (HEI). Industry, commerce and the public services have looked to HEI
to provide the high level skills, future talent, research and development and business
education necessary to help them gain a competitive edge. 10 It is, again, widely recognised
that the UK has in the past had a world-class higher education system producing world-class
knowledge and world-class graduates, largely because of the nature of the learning process
in the UK system. Nonetheless, questions have been raised about the capacity of UK HEI to
play this crucial role in the future.
There has been an enormous expansion of higher education in the past two decades,
leading some to question the standards and quality of graduates leaving HEI. Alongside this
criticism, there are continuing complaints by some sections of business that HEI do not
produce graduates with the vocational or generic skills that meet their needs as employers.
In regard to research and development (R&D), the share of UK business R&D expenditure
accounted for by UK HEI increased throughout the 1980s and 1990s but began to decline in
the 21st century. Some have argued that HEI are overly concerned with ‘academic’ research
and publications at the expense of applied or innovative research.
It would seem that HEI in the UK are no more immune to the impact of globalisation and
international competition than other sectors of the economy. The price of knowledge and
information is falling rapidly as global access opens up via the internet. Moreover, global
communication networks allow business to acquire information from around the world and
not to be limited to what is accessible locally. The opening up of markets means that
business in the UK can source skilled labour or R&D services from overseas (often at a
much lower cost). The products of higher education may be a key to competitive success for
UK business but if UK HEI cannot meet those needs, it is increasingly feasible to meet those
needs from HEI outside the UK.11
Business and employers too need to reflect upon their practices. There is a considerable
body of evidence suggesting an under-utilisation of the skills produced by, and other
resources of, UK HEI. The UK economy displays a polarised distribution of activities with
some very skill intensive, high-value added businesses co-existing with others that are low-
10
11
Brown R and P Ternouth. International Competitiveness: Businesses Working with UK
Universities, The Council for Industry and Higher Education, London, May 2006.
Brown R and P Ternouth, Higher Education: Meeting International Business Demand, The
Council for Industry and Higher Education, London, December 2005.
7
skill, low value added. 12 These differences are mirrored in employer-HEI engagement where
many businesses have substantial links with HEI but where many more have little contact,
let alone engagement, with HEI. Even where employers recruit graduates there is evidence
that such high level skills are under-utilised. 13
In this context, both business and UK HEI stand to gain from greater interaction and
engagement. This is not to say that significant links between business and HEI do not exist
or will continue to exist in the future. The question is whether the extent of engagement is
optimal and the presumption of recent government policy is that it is not. Strengthening
engagement and extending it to areas of the economy that have in the past failed to engage
with HEI has become a priority. One example of a mechanism that might help deliver such
engagement is the business-HEI partnership in which business and HEI work together to
determine the form of the HE deliverables, whether it be graduate skills, workplace training
or research, innovation, or consultancy outputs. Such a mechanism might help achieve a
greater utilisation of the skilled products of HEI and the knowledge and expertise located
within them leading to increased competitiveness and economic growth.
2.2
What is meant by engagement with HEI?
HEI offer a number of products, services and ‘outputs’, ranging from graduates, the
facilitation of workplace learning and professional development, through to research and
consultancy. Employers engage with HEI in a variety of ways, some passive and others
involving a more active form of engagement. Some engagement is passive in the sense that
employers simply purchase the products and services of HEI. In this instance, ‘engagement’
is little more than the reflection of a market transaction between the demanders of skills (the
employers) and the suppliers of skills (HEI). But some employers go beyond this purely
market relationship to become actively engaged with HEI in determining what is delivered by
HEI to employers, and such engagement involves an element of collaboration. The ultimate
expression of this kind of engagement is the notion of a business-HEI partnership in which
business and HEI work together to determine the form of the HE deliverables, whether it be
graduate skills, workplace training or research, innovation, or consultancy outputs.
2.3
What forms does engagement take?
The most obvious form of employer engagement with HEI is through the recruitment of
graduates. In some instances such graduate recruitment is almost incidental as graduates
are recruited to entry level jobs. In this instance, the level of engagement can be considered
minimal. In other situations employers have more formal graduate recruitment programmes
and these not uncommonly lead to engagement with HEI in terms of the recruitment
process, for example by dealing with HEI careers services or attending careers fairs. More
significant levels of engagement involve situations in which employers contribute to the
learning process in educational institutions in regard to:
•
•
•
•
•
12
13
funding;
work placements;
standard setting;
course design;
assessment;
Brown P, Green A, and H Lander, High Skills: Globalisation, Competitiveness and Skill
Formation, Oxford University Press, 2001.
Belfield et al, Mapping the Careers of Highly Qualified Workers, HEFCE Research Series
M10/97, Bristol, Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Dolton P and A Vignoles, ‘The incidence and effects of over-education in the UK graduate
labour market’, Economics of Education Review, 19, 2000.
8
•
•
involvement in / contribution to teaching, lecturing or workshops;
releasing staff for workforce development activities.
In addition to the production of skills, the Lambert Review (2003) identified R&D, and
knowledge and technology transfer as key areas in which employers and universities need
to interact if the UK is to remain competitive. 14
Where employers engage with higher education through recruitment of graduates they can
do so at two levels. ‘Mainstream’ graduate recruitment takes the form of recruitment of
graduates to formal graduate training programmes. The main driver of this type of
recruitment is employers having a requirement for graduate level skills and knowledge.
While this type of recruitment has been common in sectors such as engineering, aerospace,
and other science and technology based activities, such mainstream recruiting has spread
into the service sector in functions such as marketing, purchasing, and business planning. 15
This type of recruitment is usually formalised with specific types of graduates being sought,
with formal training programmes (sometimes leading to professional qualifications), and a
career path for those who make the grade. In contrast, ‘non-mainstream’ graduate
recruitment consists of situations in which employers recruit graduates into entry-level jobs
alongside non-graduates.
This type of recruitment makes little distinction between
graduates and others and little or no preference regarding the type of graduates recruited.
In terms of employer-HEI engagement, mainstream graduate recruitment is much more likely
to lead to engagement of one sort or another than non-mainstream recruitment. Employers
in the former situation often have an interest in the specific degree studies and may even
have views about the HEI at which the degree was obtained. Such employers are also more
likely to be selective in their graduate recruitment in terms of quality and thus seek out ways
– in some form of partnership (formal or informal) with HEI – by which they can secure a
supply of suitable, high quality candidates. Where graduate recruitment is non-mainstream,
employers are less likely to have an interest in the subject or origin of the recruit’s degree or
even whether the person has a degree at all. One graduate is much like another, or even
much like a non-graduate, and there is less incentive to engage with HEI in a significant
manner, partly because there is unlikely to be any particular HEI with which it is appropriate
to engage while at the same time the gains from engagement are much less.
Mainstream graduate recruiters engage with HEI in a number of different ways. It may take
the form of working with specific universities known to produce graduates who have studied
the right subjects and obtained the right skills. Often such links are with specific
departments or degree courses. Such links may then generate referrals to the business of
good recruitment prospects or facilitate work placements for undergraduates which then
provide the employer with an opportunity to assess a potential graduate recruit in the
workplace. Employers may sponsor students or provide other funding in order to attempt to
secure good quality recruits on their graduation. Clearly much will depend on the level of
competition for particular graduates and it might be expected that businesses experiencing
difficulty in recruiting suitable graduates would be more closely linked to HEI than other
employers who were not under such pressure.
The Lambert Review found that a link with an individual university department in response to
a specific business need was the most common way by which employers had become
involved with the development of courses and the undergraduate curriculum. 16 Lambert
notes a number of features of such involvement. First, while there were examples of longterm strategic links, in the main such links were transitory and short-term. In part this was
14
15
16
The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, HM Treasury, London, July 2003.
Mason G (2002), ‘High Skills Utilisation Under Mass Higher Education: graduate employment
in service industries in Britain’, Journal of Education and Work, 15, 4.
The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, HM Treasury, London, July 2003.
9
explained by the lack of any effective mechanism for business and HEI to identify future skill
needs. Some employers recruiting people to professional jobs (or as trainees for the
professions) reported that their attempts to influence the content of undergraduate
programmes were sometimes at odds with the requirements of professional bodies. Course
content was geared to providing a basis for professional accreditation but some employers
felt this stifled innovation and provision of practical skills.
2.4
The benefits of employer-HEI engagement
Employers do not necessarily need to engage with HEI any more than consumers need to
engage with business. They could rely on the market to supply them with the services they
require, be it graduates or research services. This implies that where employers do engage
with HEI it is because there is a business benefit from so doing. Such benefits arise from
the imperfections in the market for skills and knowledge, including imperfect information,
quality variation amongst graduates, and economies of scale in the generation of knowledge
and innovation through research and specialist expertise, as well as imperfect competition
amongst HEI and other educational providers.
Employers can gain from engagement with HEI when recruiting graduates through savings
in transactions costs and gains in productivity. While employers are concerned to recruit the
set of skills associated with graduates, there is likely to be considerable variation in the
quality of such skills (reflecting differences in quality of teaching, course curriculum, and so
forth). Moreover, graduate skills cannot be disassociated from the personal qualities and
attributes of the graduate. Employers therefore have to engage in a search process to
locate graduate recruits with the right skills in combination with other attributes.
Engagement with HEI may reduce the search and productivity costs of graduate recruitment
in a number of ways. By engaging with HEI, employers may be able to more easily identify
suitable (good) graduates.
Such engagement might take the form of establishing
relationships with selected HEI that offer specific and relevant degree programmes, by
establishing channels by which selected graduates are directed towards the employer for
possible recruitment or by establishing opportunities by which the employer can try out
potential graduate recruits (for instance through work placements). Such engagement can
reduce transactions costs of recruitment (for instance by eliminating much of the need to
screen large numbers of applicants and reducing some of the need to select amongst
graduates). Potential gains to employers come in the form of greater productivity and lower
turnover costs arising from a better match between recruit and the needs of the business.
A number of reports and policy statements (such as the Dearing Report [1997], the White
Paper on the Future of Higher Education, and the 2005 Skills Strategy) have observed that
there is often a gap between employers’ skill needs and the provision of further and higher
education providers. In part, this gap may be seen as a product of the local monopoly
position of many training providers. Such a gap will have consequences, and costs, for
business. Policy has often stressed the need to close the gap by promoting engagement
between employers and HEI in order to influence the curriculum, set standards, and to make
the supply of high level skills more demand-led. Businesses that engage in this manner
stand to gain in terms of more appropriate recruits, reduced training costs, and a more
immediately productive workforce.
Part of the reason for the existence of HEI is that they have emerged as specialist producers
of human capital. As such they offer a comparatively low cost means of producing skilled
people and of developing skills in the existing workforce. They also form a repository for
specialist skills and expertise that can generate new knowledge. Some of this new
knowledge will benefit business when it enters the public domain. The scope for such
external benefits may be becoming increasingly limited in a world of intellectual property and
the protection of knowledge. Engagement with HEI may allow business to gain access to,
even to influence the scale and direction of, such knowledge generation to the ultimate
benefit of the business.
10
At its best, employer-HEI engagement is a mutually beneficial relationship with both
business and universities reaping rewards from the link. The Lambert Review found that
businesses that engaged with HEI reaped a number of business benefits. These included
access to:
•
•
•
•
•
a supply of skilled graduates and post-graduates for recruitment;
highly skilled scientists and researchers;
the latest research and cutting-edge technology;
international networks of academics; and
continuing professional development for staff and management.
HEI also stand to benefit from links with employers and business. Many explicitly
acknowledge this in their mission statements or have explicit strategies to engage with
employers. The benefits of an employer-HEI link include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
2.5
an enhanced role in regional and national economic development;
access to funding not earmarked for specific purposes;
access to research funding;
access to real world problems and an opportunity to market ideas;
access to new facilities and equipment;
incentives to recruit, reward, and retain academic staff.
The constraints on employer-HEI engagement
Despite the benefits of links to both business and HEI, the Lambert Review found that the
extent of employer-HEI engagement was variable and patchy. For instance, the majority of
research and development was carried out in just four industries (pharmaceuticals,
aerospace, transport equipment, and communications equipment) and even within these
industries research and development was often concentrated in just a few firms. Overall, the
Review estimated that only around 16 per cent of UK businesses used information
generated by the HEI sector to help with innovation. Hawkins and Winter17 concluded that
even where employer-HEI partnerships had been formed ‘most of the employer links are, by
their very nature, marginal’. Duckenfield and Stirner18 suggest that a commitment to
engagement at the very top of organisations is required if the links are to be successful,
while Boud and Soloman suggest that contrasting cultures in HEI and business can often
limit the realisation of potential benefits.19
For engagement to take place and flourish, there must be mutual benefits for both partners
in the relationship. Even where such potential benefits exist there may be constraints on
their realisation. The Lambert Review found evidence of several barriers to effective
engagement 20. These included:
•
17
18
19
20
difficulty in identifying ‘who does what’ within the HEI sector and within individual
institutions. Where links were established they often depended on interpersonal
relationships that were vulnerable to staff turnover so that it was difficult to
maintain links even where they had been established;
Hawkins P and J Winter (1997), Mastering change: learning lessons from the Enterprise in
Higher Education Initiative, Sheffield, Department for Education and Employment
Duckenfield, M. and Stirner, P., 1992, Higher Education Developments: Learning through
work. Employment Department, Sheffield.
Boud D. and Soloman N. (2003), Work-based learning, a new education, SRHE/Open
University Press, 2003.
The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, HM Treasury, London, July 2003.
11
•
•
•
•
•
poor customer services. Many employers feel that HEI are deficient in terms of
customer service, project management and delivery to agreed timetables, a view
supported by 50 per cent of the 200 largest companies surveyed by the CBI;
disagreement over Intellectual Property (IP) with HEI accused of over-valuing IP
and under-estimating the cost to business of investing in new ideas or
technology;
distortions caused by the Research Assessment Exercise which meant that
academic staff had a greater incentive to publish in academic journals than to
undertake joint research with business;21
the discipline-based nature of much of HEI activity, funding and staffing which
cuts across the need for multi-disciplinary research;22 and
outdated and cumbersome university management practices that tended to be
slow and risk averse.
Some of these constraints are mirrored in the views of HEI as to the factors limiting
employer-HEI collaboration. Evidence presented to the Lambert Review included:
•
•
•
•
protracted negotiations about IP ownership and value. It was felt that some
businesses had unrealistic expectations and even expected to benefit from
intellectual property for free;
many businesses were not prepared to bear the full economic costs of research
and other activities, seeing higher education as a public good;
developing course and meeting business needs took time but business too often
changed its requirement;
HEI funding tended to be short-term and uncertain with the result that HEI were
often unwilling to make long-term strategic commitments to business.
One thing that both sides of the employer-HEI relationship were agreed upon was that the
constraints identified above are much greater, relatively, for small and medium size
enterprises (SMEs) than for larger organisations.
2.6
The levers for promoting engagement
The extent of employer engagement with HEI will be a reflection of the potential benefits
from such engagement balanced against the perceived costs. Clearly, employers who do
not employ a workforce with graduate level skills are unlikely to consider engagement with
HEI worthwhile. Even where the business recruits and employs graduates, the gains from
engagement must be measured against the costs of engagement. Similarly, a business that
is competing through product innovation is more likely to seek access to research and
innovation through engagement with an HEI than is a business that produces a low value
product that competes on price and cost. It is likely that the nature and extent of
engagement with HEI will vary across employers, reflecting their product market position,
their competitive position, their need for specific skills, and the extent to which there is
quality variation amongst people with those specific skills.
Employer engagement with HEI, whatever the potential benefit, is not costless. There is
likely to be an investment aspect to such engagement, with the initial costs of establishing a
relationship with an HEI being greater than the continuing costs of maintaining such
engagement. Several factors will affect these costs and these include the cost of identifying
21
22
See also Campbell M, Devins D, Foy S, Hutchinson J and F Watson, Higher Education and
Regional and Local Development, Leeds Metropolitan University, Policy Research Institute,
mimeo, May1999.
Campbell et al., op cit.
12
potential points of engagement (such as specific universities or courses), the staff time
involved in liaising and working with HEI, any financial costs involved in work placements
and scholarships, the funding of research etc. Some of these are likely to vary depending
upon the location of the HEI involved. Engagement with a local HEI may be cheaper in
terms of staff time and easier in terms of information collection (especially if the latter is
through social networks rather than more formal information channels) than engagement
with HEI located elsewhere in the country. The lower cost of such engagement has to be
contrasted with the relevance and appropriateness of such a local employer-HEI
engagement. In some instances the gains from engagement with specific institutions or
courses will more than offset the convenience of engagement with a local HEI.
This discussion suggests that the principal driver of engagement is likely to be the potential
gains to the business from engagement (reflecting factors such as skill need and product
strategy) while the constraints are likely to be those relating to the cost of engagement.
Where HEI (or others) can reduce costs, engagement becomes more likely.
2.7
The institutions responsible for promoting engagement
A number of institutions have some form of responsibility for promoting or delivering
employer-HEI engagement. The Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) has a leading role
in promoting such engagement in relation to innovation and competitiveness as well as from
a regional perspective, while the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and its
predecessors also have a direct role in encouraging links between HEI and employers, partly
in relation to the emerging skills agenda and partly because of its responsibility for higher
education. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), as the agency
directly responsible for funding HEI is centrally placed to promote employer-HEI links and
has initiated a number of programmes to that end. Also operating at a national level, the
Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has taken a leading role in promoting employer
engagement with learning but the focus of LSC strategy has largely been upon workforce
development and the further education sector (rather than higher education). At a regional
and local level, a number of agencies and organisations have been working to deliver
engagement policy. The principal institutions at the regional level are the English Regional
Development Agencies (RDAs) while at the local level there are a multitude of organisations
and partnerships (local LSCs, local government, etc.) working to similar ends.
Other organisations and institutions have been working from either side of the employer-HEI
relationship. Foremost here have been the HEI themselves with many of them having
explicit statements in their Mission Statements acknowledging the importance of promoting
employer-HEI links or partnerships.
Similarly, many employer organisations, either
representing the business community at large (such as the CBI or Institute of Directors) or
other employer organisations (often representing industry or sectoral interests) have taken it
upon themselves to promote employer-HEI links.
While there are many organisations with a potential interest in promoting employer-HEI links
they operate in a variety of ways and represent different constituencies. There is a risk,
therefore, that their efforts will be uncoordinated and fragmented. Goddard and Chatterton
point to the attempt to link business, higher education, and economic development at the
regional level as being one of the more important aspects of the ‘joined up thinking’
espoused by the New Labour Government when it was elected in 1997. 23
23
Goddard, J.B. and Chatterton, P. (1999), ‘Regional Development Agencies and the
knowledge economy: Harnessing the potential of Universities’. Environment and Planning C.
17, pp.685-699
13
2.8
National policy to promote employer-HEI engagement
The role of HEI as a driver of economic development has a long history. A recent
manifestation was the 1991 White Paper Higher Education: A New Framework which
identified the key contribution that HEI could make to economic development. Similarly, the
Competitiveness White Paper ‘Building on the Knowledge–Driven Economy’ (DTI, 1998)
identified the importance of science and technology (and, by implication, HEI) in an
increasingly competitive world economy. Together with the Science and Innovation White
Paper (DTI, 2000) and the Enterprise, Skills and Innovation White Paper (DTI/DfEE, 2001),
these policy statements pointed to the important role of HEI as drivers of innovation and
change. In regard to regional and local economic development, the Dearing Report (the
National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education) in 1997 and the White Paper on the
Future of Higher Education (DfES, 2003) both concluded that universities and colleges had a
critical role to play in regional, social and economic development and urged stronger
partnerships between HEI and RDAs and other agencies promoting economic development
at the regional level.
Alongside the recognition of the critical role of HEI in economic development, there has also
been a long-standing call for increasing partnerships between employers and HEI as a
means of realising the potential economic gains from HEI activities. 24 A number of initiatives
have sought to promote greater links between employers and HEI. Enterprise in Higher
Education (EHI) ran from 1987 to 1996. Under this DfEE programme, a variety of projects in
56 HEI were funded (with £1 million each over five years). The primary aim of EHI was to
promote the culture of ‘enterprise’ within universities that would lead to the production of
graduates that would more closely meet the needs of business. 25 Hawkins and Winter argue
that the involvement of employers as stakeholders was central to the EHI initiative. 26
Reflecting this approach, the National Centre for Work-based Learning Partnerships was
formed in the mid-1990, based at Middlesex University. This Centre advocated partnerships
between the university, the employer and the individual, although some caution is necessary
here since the common interest of such partners in work-based learning is more obvious
than it is in the case of other activities. In 1999, HEFCE initiated funding designed to
encourage HEI to enhance their engagement with business, industry and the public services
in order to contribute to economic growth and competitiveness (especially in the universities’
home region). The original Higher Education Reach Out to Business and the Community
Fund (HEROBC) was later augmented by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).
The 2003 White Paper announced the expansion of HEIF with the intention of building on
earlier success and of broadening the reach of HEIF into less research-oriented university
departments. The views underpinning these policy initiatives were finally consolidated in the
2003 Lambert Review of the links between higher education and industry 27. The Lambert
Review sees employer-HEI links primarily in terms of research, knowledge transfer,
intellectual property and technology transfer. The Review concluded that employers, acting
through the Sector Skills Councils, needed more direct influence over university courses and
curricula.
24
25
26
27
Brennan J and B Little (1996), A review of work-based learning in higher education, Open
University Press.
Burniston S, Roger J and J Brass (1999), Enterprise in Higher Education – changing the
mindset, DfEE Research Brief 117, Sheffield, Department for Education and Employment.
Hawkins P and J Winter (1997), Mastering change: learning lessons from the Enterprise in
Higher Education Initiative, Sheffield, Department for Education and Employment.
The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, HM Treasury, London, July 2003.
14
3. GRADUATE RECRUITMENT
3.1
Introduction
Much of the engagement between employers and HEI is concerned with graduate
recruitment. For many employers, universities are defined solely as a source of supply of
highly qualified and skilled labour. This chapter, based on available statistical evidence and
case studies conducted for this research, looks at the nature of employer demand for
graduates, and the recruitment processes they put in place to acquire the labour they need.
The following chapters look in more detail, respectively, at: (a) what employers look for in
their graduate recruits and how they develop the potential of those they recruit; and (b) the
local / regional dimension to employers’ recruitment patterns.
3.2
The demand for graduates
Recent years have seen a number of initiatives that have addressed the supply side of the
market for graduates but less is known about the demand side: the number of employers
recruiting graduates and the uses to which they put their graduate recruits. Recent evidence
from the National Employers Skills Survey 2005 (NESS 2005) reveals that 9 per cent of
employers in England recruited a recent graduate, aged 24 years or under, straight from
university in the previous 12 months. This provides a baseline against which to measure
change in the future. For now, the recruitment of graduates is more common in larger
organisations, especially so in the public sector. Figure 3.1 shows the incidence of graduate
recruitment by size of workplace, and Figure 3.2 shows the incidence by industry.
Figure 3.1
Percentage of employers recruiting a recent graduate, by size of employer
2 to 4
4.1
Number of employees
5 to 24
11.
25 to 99
24.9
100 to 199
39.8
200 to 499
48
58.2
500 or more
All
9.4
0
10
20
30
40
% establishments
Source: National Employers Skills Survey 2005
15
50
60
70
Figure 3.2
Percentage of employers recruiting a recent graduate by industry of employer
Primary
3.7
Industry
Manufacturing
5.5
Services
(Wholesale/retail/etc.)
8.3
Business and Financial
Services
11.
Public services
16.7
All
9.4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
% establishments
Source: National Employers Skills Survey 2005
With each successive expansion of higher education a wider range of occupations has fallen
under the rubric of a “graduate job”. In many respects a graduate job is any job that is filled
by a graduate. But there have been concerns about over-qualification; that the technical or
generic competencies acquired in the attainment of a qualification are not put to use in a job,
though this can be seen to be less about over-qualification and more about underemployment. If improvements in the supply side are to manifest themselves in improved
economic performance then the expectation is that graduates will confer upon any
occupation they enter some qualities lacking in non-graduates. As the case study evidence
will illustrate, employers often reported that graduates, compared to non-graduates, are
more enthusiastic, innovative, and motivated. But it is also up to the employer to utilise the
qualities graduates bring – graduates in some instances can be carrying out mundane work
simply because they are in an organisational context where their full potential cannot be
captured.
At an aggregate level the evidence on the uses to which employers put their graduates is
favourable. Despite the financial cost of studying at university, most evidence indicates that
there is still a positive private rate of return to attending university, although there may be
some uncertainty about the level of return and whether it is still increasing or has
stabilised. 28,29 The relatively high wages that employers pay their graduate recruits
28
K. Purcell et al., Class of ’99, Department for Education and Skills, Nottingham, 2005; B.
Sianesi, Returns to Education: A Non-Technical Summary of CEE Work and Policy
Discussion, Institute for Fiscal Studies / Centre for Economics of Education, June 2003
16
suggests, other things being equal, that graduates are being effectively, if not necessarily
optimally, deployed in the workplace.
But much of the debate relating to the utility of expanding participation in higher education
has been concerned with how many or what proportion of recent graduates enter “graduate
jobs”– those jobs that make use of the skills, either technical or generic, students acquire
whilst in higher education, and which provide an entry point for further, upward career
progression.
The Standard Occupational Classification (Higher Education) or SOC(HE) – in reality a
measure of graduate density in any given occupation - gives an indication of the common
types of job graduates now fill30. SOC(HE) provides the following typology: 31
•
traditional graduate occupations: established professions (such as solicitors or
medical practitioners) for which, historically, the normal route has been via an
undergraduate degree programme;
•
modern graduate occupations: the newer professions, particularly management,
IT, and creative vocational areas where graduates have been entering since
educational expansion in the 1960s;
•
new graduate occupations: areas of employment, many in new or expanding
occupations, where the route into the professional area has recently changed such
that it is now via an undergraduate degree programme (for instance, marketing
managers, occupational therapists or probation officers);
•
niche graduate occupations: occupations where the majority of incumbents are not
graduates, but within which there are stable or growing specialist niches which
require higher education skills and knowledge (such as nurses and midwives or retail
managers).
How these types of job are distributed across England, based on the Labour Force Survey
2005, is presented in Figure 3.3. Overall, the data reveal that graduates are more likely to
enter graduate employment than not do so. The data reveals that most graduates will end
up in graduate type jobs especially niche graduate occupations – possibly the least graduate
like of all the occupations in SOC(HE). Interestingly there is not a great deal of difference by
age with both the younger and older graduates revealing a similar occupational profile. In
other words, the occupational profile of those who entered university before the most recent
expansion is no different from those who entered afterwards (i.e. those currently aged under
34 years).
It is apparent that with the expansion of HE, graduates go on to fill a diverse range of
occupations. What is not captured in the statistical data – or even that data which asks
graduates if they needed a degree to obtain their current job – is the extent to which
graduates bring something different to a job. Hence discussion about over-qualification in
the context of graduates, based on data sets that fail to capture this feature, is a largely
sterile one. The Class of ’99 is able to demonstrate this more directly showing that even in
non-graduate jobs or niche graduate occupations, people will, over time, begin to use their
29
It is worth noting that most rate of return analyses address the return from obtaining an
additional qualification. In many respects the comparison that analysts would like to make is
that between two people with otherwise identical characteristics but where one has a degree
and the other a lower level qualification. But with participation in HE so high nowadays it is
questionable whether such comparisons can even be approximated.
30
P. Elias and K. Purcell, SOCHE: A classification for studying the graduate labour market,
ESRU Research Paper No.6, University of the West of England, 2004
This typology refers only to jobs taken by graduates.
31
17
graduate skills. For instance, around 60 per cent of graduates in “non-graduate” jobs were
using their graduate skills in those jobs nearly four years after graduating (see Figure 3.4).
Figure 3.3: Distribution of graduate type jobs
Non-graduate
occupations
Type of job
All graduate occupations
Gradudates 35-60/65 yrs .
Niche graduate
occupations
Graduates under 34 yrs .
All graduates
All in em ploym ent
New graduate
occupations
Modern graduate
occupations
Traditional graduate
occupations
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
% employed
Source: Labour Force Survey 2005
Base: all in employment (workplace based statistics), England
Figure 3.4: 1999 graduates use of graduate skills in current job by SOC(HE) category
Source: Reproduced by permission from Class of ’99 (Figure 3.6), K. Purcell et al., 2005
18
3.3
Why employers recruit graduates
In attempting to identify what a graduate brings to a job, and eventually address why
employers should engage with HEI to obtain graduates, it is important to understand why
employers recruit graduates in the first instance. In other words: what made the employer
recruit someone who was a graduate, or to make a degree an entry requirement? Based on
a study undertaken by CIHE32 the following classification of graduate recruitment was
derived:
•
•
•
•
•
fast-track management schemes – designed to fill the most senior positions in the
organisation;
sub-fast track management schemes – designed to fill jobs at a relatively less senior
position in the organisation;
specialist positions – requiring a specific degree;
localised management schemes – typically serving a defined region;
ad hoc recruitment to fill a particular position, often within an SME. 33
Table 3.1 provides evidence based on the employer case studies conducted for this
research using this classification. There is a commonality of experience and approaches
across the different types of recruitment: a need to acquire high levels of competence in both
social and technical skills (i.e. the added value of attending university), a preference for
targeting universities in some instances (notably fast-track schemes), a structured
recruitment process, and a high value placed on previous work experience or placements. It
is clear amongst the ad hoc or irregular graduate recruiters, many of which are relatively new
to graduate recruitment, that a less structured approach to recruitment was taken, and
sometimes amongst this group a degree was not specified for the job but most applicants
were graduates.
In the instances of fast-track and sub-fast track graduate recruitment when employers were
asked why they recruited graduates the answer tended to be because “we have always
done so”. Graduate recruitment was well established and entry to certain management
positions had for many years been dependent upon possession of a degree. Amongst the
specialist and local management recruitment types there was a division between those
employers that had taken always taken on graduates and those that had recently moved in
this direction because existing supply (e.g. A-level students) had all but dried up.
32
33
K. Purcell and T. Hogarth, Graduate Opportunities, Social Class and Age: Employers’
Recruitment Strategies in the new graduate labour market, Council for Industry and Higher
Education, London, 1999
Graduates also fill non-graduate jobs – general supervisory or administrative posts but this is
not considered here.
19
Table 3.1
Models of general graduate recruitment
Type I
Type II
Type III
Type IV
Type V
Type of recruitment
Recruitment to fasttrack management
training.
Sub-fast track
management training.
Specialist positions
requiring a specific
degree
Localised management
schemes, typically
serving a defined
region.
Ad hoc recruitment to
fill a particular post
often in SMEs.
Universities Targeted
Selected (mostly old)
universities
Target universities
providing a suitable
course
All local universities
None or limited contact
with particular university
departments for
specialist posts.
Main Approach to
Recruitment
Close contact with
selected universities’
careers advisers; highly
selective; progressively
rigorous 3-4 stage
process.
Large organisations tend
to use “milk – round” but
also some evidence that
certain universities
favoured
Contact with wider range
of universities careers
advisory services; highly
selective; 3 stage
process
Develop links with
university departments
with good courses.
Some employers offer
work placements
Close contact with local
universities
Contact known or
advertise nationally and
locally; occasional use of
agencies.
Skills sought
High intellectual ability,
leadership potential,
social skills important.
Minimum entry
requirement: 2/i. Work
experience – especially
in host company – highly
valued. Recruits have to
be geographically mobile
in many instances
Academic and social
skills important. Interest
in specific business of
company. 2/ii required
but normally 2/i
expected. Work
experience highly
valued. Recruits have to
be geographically mobile
in many instances
Technical competence
and business
awareness
Good social skills,
interest in and
commitment to sector
and region, class of
degree not always
important.
Social skills; relevant
employment experience
or skills particularly
valued; sometimes
particular degrees
required. Sometimes do
not even mention that a
degree is required but
find applications
primarily from recent
graduates
Source: Based on K. Purcell and T. Hogarth (1999); DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
20
For example, there were specialist recruiters that required people to possess a degree in a
relevant subject because that level of knowledge was required in the day-to-day job.
Sometimes this knowledge was required at a post-graduate level. For instance, a chemical
laboratory in the North-East required analytical chemists and research chemists to carry out
complex tests and solve complicated problems. But there were also examples of specialist
recruiters who had shifted towards becoming graduate recruiters because applicants tended
to be graduates even though a degree was not stipulated in the job specification. An
example of a chemical laboratory can be used again. A laboratory in the South West, for
instance, required its laboratory assistants to carry out relatively simple, repetitive tests on
micro-biological samples and had not recruited graduates in the past but now found around
half of all applicants were graduates. It recognised the additional skills graduates potentially
brought the laboratory but also recognised that they might leave quickly because their career
expectations were not satisfied.
The next chapter considers in greater detail how employers develop their graduate talent
whilst the remainder of this chapter looks at the qualities required of recruits and how
employers find and select them. A closer look at localised management schemes identified
in Table 3.1 is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 5 that looks at local HEI- employer
links. For now the discussion is concerned with graduate recruitment in general.
3.4
How employers recruit graduates
At a generic level graduate recruitment was structured along the following lines:
Stage I:
Stage II:
Stage III:
Stage IV:
Stage V:
Stage VI:
Stage VII:
communication to universities and/or students of the company’s needs
(at careers fairs, milk-round, etc.);
submission of applications (nearly always on-line)
first sift of applications (usually according to some rule based
process);
first interview;
assessment centre (e.g. competency testing, psychometric testing,
role-play);
second interview;
offer of appointment.
Experience varied between employers according to their size, the level to which they were
recruiting (e.g. fast-track schemes), and occupation. Large employers, looking to take on
many graduates to their graduate training programmes would typically go through all the
stages highlighted above, whereas smaller organisations would typically progress applicants
through fewer stages (for example advertising graduate positions in the press bypasses
Stage 1).
Generally, the larger the company and the greater the number of people being sought, the
more highly structured the recruitment process. Structured recruitment begins with
companies contacting universities, often in a number of ways, to make students aware that
the company plans to recruit, the rewards available, and what the company looks for. Online applications are sometimes automatically screened, especially where there are a large
number of applicants and sometimes sub-contracted to a recruitment agency. That said
there was a least one case study organisation that manually sifted over 10,000 applications
every year lest good applicants slipped through the net because they did not have the
requisite number of UCAS points.
Where there were a large number of applicants they would be mechanically sifted according
to various criteria. Two important considerations were:
i.
ii.
A-level results – as an indication of the capacity to study over a long period and
because the final degree result was usually not known at the point of application; and
work experience - this was valued highly by employers because it indicated that the
21
individual would have reasonable expectations of what the world of work would have in
store for them.
Once the initial screening of applications had been completed the next stage was to
interview candidates. Smaller companies would often recruit at this point, the larger ones
tended to use assessment centres, sometimes involving psychometric testing and role-play,
to measure their capabilities in order to select those who will go onto second interview, often
with a senior member of the organisation. As is apparent this is a drawn out process and,
for the larger companies was, more or less, a year-round activity.
In contrast, just-in-time recruitment was often limited to an application in response to an
advert, or even just selecting from speculative applications received, followed by an
interview.
3.5
Recruitment practices
As mentioned above recruitment processes are determined by the size of the company, the
scale of its graduate recruitment, and the level at which it is recruiting (fast track, sub-fast
track, etc.). In order to provide some structure to the discussion graduate recruiters can be
grouped according to whether they are recruiting to:
•
traditional / modern graduate recruiters – including fast-track management
schemes leading to senior professional / managerial positions within a specified
number of years;
•
specialist recruitment – where a specific degree was required. Essentially this is a
sub-set of the traditional / modern graduate recruiter;
•
new graduate recruiters: where employers are increasingly recruiting graduates
into positions previously filled by non-graduates, sometimes on an ad hoc basis.
This is a conflation of the classification of graduate recruiters used in Table 3.1 and an
employer classification derived from SOC(HE) according to the type of jobs employers were
recruiting to (see Table 3.2).
Table 3.2
Classification of graduate recruiters
CIHE classification in Table 3.1
Classification of recruiters for in-depth
case study analysis
Recruitment to fast-track management training.
Traditional / modern graduate recruiters
Recruitment to sub fast-track management training.
Specialist positions requiring a specific degree
Specialist recruiters
Localised management schemes, typically serving a
defined region.
Mainly traditional / modern but sometimes new
graduate recruiters
Ad hoc recruitment to fill a particular post often in SMEs
Mainly new graduate recruiters
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
The example of a large financial services company, with around 25,000 employees
worldwide, that takes on 250 graduates each year to its fast-track management programme
exemplifies the recruitment practices of a large employer recruiting people to traditional /
modern graduate employment (see panel). It had a drawn out recruitment programme, it
22
invested in developing relationships with selected universities, it developed relationships with
potential graduate recruits in the second year of their studies and through the introduction of
bursaries it was developing relationships with students even before they entered university.
Case study: Financial Services
City-region: London
Each year the company recruits around 250 graduates into a range of banking roles. Similar
skills are required for most roles: analytical ability, communication skills, and a desire to work in
finance. The company recruits on an international basis.
Each year the graduate campaign plan is devised, rolled out, continuously tweaked and
changed over the course of the year, and it is always reviewed at the end of each year. There
is a campus relationship management model. At every University they recruit from there will be
relationship manager and a campaign designed specifically for that University. The company
markets the opportunities it has to offer through university societies, the careers service, and
there are ‘school teams’ in every division of the company which have contacts with alumni at
the universities.
The company targets selected universities in Europe and North America that it considers to be
the “best” and concentrates its resources upon those institutions – including offering student
bursaries.
The total number of applicants has come down over the past couple of years: “this has been
intentional, we don’t want 50,000 applications as we’re so selective. Now we have between 1015,000 applications a year for 250 roles”. The recruitment process is based on an initial sift,
first interviews, competency based tests, and then second interviews. The company has a
placement scheme over summer – if students are able to gain a place on this scheme there is a
75 per cent chance they will be eventually appointed to the company.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
The recruitment practices given in the example above is typical of the processes of large
organisations recruiting to fast-track management programmes. But a similar type of
process was also in place in smaller organisations that also had a history of recruiting
graduates (see panel).
Case study: Law Firm
City-region: Newcastle
The company employed 120 people at its offices in Newcastle. Each year the company
recruited around two to three trainee solicitors who would be offered training contracts and then
permanent employment if they completed their professional examinations. Students with law
degrees were preferred but this was not a necessity.
Traditionally the company had advertised for trainees using the Milk Round as the means to
recruit graduates. But over recent years it had found this approach to be too passive if it was to
obtain the applicants of the quality it desired.
In an effort to improve the quality of applicants it had focussed its resources on the local
universities in order that it may impress upon students there that the company was able to offer
a career in law.
The process of recruitment was an initial sift of applicants – around 100 received each year – a
2/i in Law was preferred plus some evidence of work experience possibly a summer placement
with a law firm, and knowledge of the organisation. This was followed by an interview with a
panel of partners before a job offer was made.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
23
Over a number of years, a substantial body of experience had been developed amongst the
traditional / modern graduate recruiters relating to the process that would: (a) obtain a
suitable number of applicants from which to an offer of employment; and (b) a selection
process that would ensure that organisation recruited people with the necessary skills to
develop a career within the organisation. As the evidence above reveals – all typical
examples of traditional / modern graduate recruiters – this revolved around a structured
process for persuading graduates to apply for employment in the first instance, and tried and
tested methods for recruiting the “right people”. This necessarily implied a relatively high
degree of engagement with HEI’ careers staff and students themselves. 34
Within the group of traditional / modern graduate recruiters there was also a specific subgroup that required graduates with a particular degree – often science, technology,
engineering or maths (STEM) degrees – referred to here as specialist recruiters. The
particular problem employers face in recruiting graduates with a STEM degree is there is a
more limited supply and the nature of these degrees allows their holders to pursue a range
of careers, not just where a STEM degree is required. 35 Recurrent recruiters of graduates
with specialist or STEM degrees found that it was necessary to target their resources in
order to find suitable recruits (see panel).
Case study: Engineering Company
City-region: Bristol
In many ways this is a model case of its type. The company was a successful independent
company of medium size (260 employees; turnover £50m a year) which had been growing
steadily and looked set to continue to grow at a similar rate. It was faced with difficulty
recruiting professional and managerial staff. It operated in a narrow, specialist market and
external people with the relevant skills and experience were not readily available.
In addition, the new graduates recruited on an ad hoc basis tended to leave quickly. It decided
therefore that it needed to create its own senior and specialist staff through a systematic
graduate development programme. The programme has been running for two years and
involves the recruitment of two or three specialist structural engineering graduates each year.
An essential component to the programme is felt to be links with the structural engineering
departments of Sheffield, particularly, and Leeds universities. The links are forged through
student visits; research collaboration; and lectures to students by the company staff. As a
result the company is known to graduates and there has been no difficulty in recruiting the
required number of good graduates. The links with specialist staff have been found to be far
more effective than any other contacts with universities such as Open Days and the University
Careers Service.
The recruitment process is based around getting to know students whilst at university, followed
by first and second interviews with the employer.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
34
35
This concurs with the good practice of recruitment prescribed in H. Connor, W. Hirsh, and L.
Barber, Your Graduates and You: Effective Strategies for Graduate Recruitment and
Development, Institute for Employment Studies, Brighton, 2003
Angela Canny, Colin Davis, Peter Elias and Terence Hogarth, Early Career Experiences of
Engineering and Technology Graduates, report prepared for the Engineering and Technology
Board, February 2002.
24
A further example of the specialist recruiter establishing HEI relationships in order to recruit
the specialists it required is provided below - this time where the company had to develop
links with European universities to obtain the staff it needed (see panel).
Case study: Newsprint manufacturer
City-region: Kent
The company’s primary business is in the manufacture of newsprint from recycled material.
This is a price sensitive / market driven sector. As well as being affected by newspaper
advertising activity, like all manufacturers the company is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in
energy costs. As energy costs have risen in the past two years, revenues for the company
have fallen and the company has shifted from a position of investment to one of stabilisation.
The company’s Research and Development department proactively contacts HEI specialising
in paper science in order to take on work placement students. Although the company would
prefer to take on UK students, because the number of HEI offering courses in this discipline
have dwindled in the UK in recent years, such students are almost always recruited from
elsewhere in Europe.
Project work conducted by a recent placement student was considered of such high quality that
it could eventually result in the company saving 2 per cent on its yield. For a company
operating under acute financial pressures such work offers significant benefits for only a limited
outlay.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
Where larger employers were recruiting for roles that required specialist degrees, graduates
are often expected to have a high class degree (i.e. First or Upper Second) from an ‘elite’
university and/or department in order to demonstrate their technical prowess. These
employers tend to target what they regard as the best universities / departments, typically
selected using a mixture of past experience, reputation, and publications such as the Times
University Guide to direct their recruitment. Technical and psychometric tests are frequently
used, designed by each organisation to select the ‘crème de la crème’ of graduates - often
assimilating academic excellence and demonstrable interpersonal skills. In some instances,
particularly where the skills required are in short-supply, softer skills are less of a
consideration and employers prioritise academically exceptional graduates and are willing to
overlook gaps in areas such as interpersonal skills. For example, a HR manager within a
large organisation in Cambridge specialising in cutting edge computer technology, explained
that her job role in recruitment was minimal compared with her previous one because she
was not required to assess ‘soft skills’; candidates were recruited purely on academic merit.
Where SMEs require recruits with a degree in a specific subject, there is often a willingness
to look beyond the university candidates attended and their class of degree in favour of
selecting graduates who were likely to fit in to, and offer commitment to, the organisation.
Graduates were typically recruited in small numbers but in some cases were seen as the
future managers of the organisation. The likelihood of retention was thus a key factor for
such businesses when recruiting. There were some examples where the retention factor
was so important that SMEs had shied away from students with First Class degrees from
first tier universities because such graduates were thought unlikely to stay with the
organisation.
There is a commonality of experience between the larger and smaller organisations within
the traditional / modern group of graduate employers:
•
a degree of targeting on particular universities, or at least more resources directed at
some universities than others;
25
•
a recognition amongst some employers that with the expansion of higher education
that there was an increased number of employers looking to recruit, albeit, a larger
pool of graduates. But there was also recognition that the pool of (quality) graduates
from which they sought to recruit had not necessarily increased;
•
a highly structured recruitment process that builds upon the links established at each
HEI reflecting the importance of the recruitment decision for the organisation; and
•
in many instances amongst the larger financial services and engineering employers
that placements provide the most effective means of observing the candidate before
recruitment.
The position of the traditional / modern recruiters can be compared to those who were new
to graduate recruitment following the expansion in HE participation over the past fifteen
years. Here the structured approach to recruitment was less in evidence and sometimes
there was some ambiguity as to whether a degree was necessary.
Some employers new to the graduate labour market were still in a transition phase.
Typically in the past they had relied upon a supply of students qualified to A-level or
equivalent standard but this pool no longer possessed the quantity of potential recruits they
needed. Organisations fell into two groups:
•
•
those which had actively switched their recruitment process to graduates; and
those that had passively recruited graduates insofar as they had increasingly taken
on graduates even though they had not specified as degree as a prerequisite
because graduates had applied for the job.
An example of the former – new, active graduate recruiter – is provided by a sign making
company in the North East (see panel).
Case study: Sign making company
City-region: Newcastle
The company has offices in Newcastle and London. In total the company employs 90 people
split evenly between the two offices. Newcastle is the HQ. The company produces signs –
primarily for blue chip companies: BA, Royal Opera House, and the Sage Concert Hall,
amongst others. The London site concentrates more on more specialist manufacturing
activities, whereas the Newcastle site is the main manufacturing site.
The company had recently begun to recruit graduates: there were six in total at the two sites.
In London there were three graduates (all in sales) and in Newcastle there were three
graduates (in commercial and in design). Graduates were a relatively recent development.
They were persuaded to take on graduates by an intermediary organisation delivering the
“Graduates for Business” scheme run by the local RDA.
The employer gave the intermediary organisation a person specification and they then provided
a short-list of 10 to 15 candidates for one position in sales. The company did not require a
specific degree or discipline, they needed people with drive and enthusiasm, but found that the
graduate applicants had these qualities and, consequently, they were able recruit exactly the
people they wanted. In practice they found that graduates had provided benefits to the
business because they brought enthusiasm and drive not found elsewhere.
The company said it would not know where to begin developing relationships with universities –
moreover the rapid expansion of the university sector meant that it found it difficult to keep up
with what is, or is not, a “good” university or the services they provided, hence the usefulness of
an intermediary organisation.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
26
An example of where an organisation had passively recruited graduates is exemplified below
(see panel). This form of recruitment can have unintended consequences, especially where
employers have not adapted to changes in skills supply. This is exemplified by a medical
laboratory where ad hoc recruitment for laboratory assistants – typically qualified to A/AS
level – resulted in many applications from graduates. The result was a mismatch between
graduate expectations and aspirations and what the company was able to provide (see
panel).
Case study: Medical Laboratory
City-region: Bristol
The case is a twin-sited medical laboratory engaged in testing samples and specimens from
GPs, health centres and hospitals. Scientific staff are evenly divided between career scientists
and laboratory assistants. There is no graduate programme or periodic recruitment of
graduates, as such. But the bulk of applicants for the most junior posts tend to be graduates
and, in consequence about six new graduates are taken on each year.
The career scientists all have specialist degrees but there is little recruitment into career
grades. Turnover is low; financial constraints restrict recruitment at these levels; and it is
difficult to attract people from outside at the salaries offered. In consequence, the strategy is to
recruit at the most junior level and to train people up.
An advertisement on the internet for a Laboratory Assistant which specifies that no
qualifications are required as full training will be given, tends to produce an “amazing result” –
about 150 applications, about half of them from graduates who tend to be looking for an entry
point into the workforce and a foothold on a career ladder.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
On the basis of the case study evidence a number of observations can be made about the
new graduate recruiters:
•
the recruitment process was not as structured as the more traditional graduate
recruiters which sometimes resulted in a mismatch between the expectations of
recruiters and the aspirations of graduates;
•
related to the above point, recruitment could be unfocussed insofar as the person
specification paid insufficient heed to the nature of skills supply in the external labour
market;
•
their recruitment tends to be concerned with filling a current vacancy rather than a
future role which graduates would be prepared via a structured training programme –
an issue explored more fully in the next chapter which addresses how organisations
develop their graduate recruits.
Amongst employers that actively sought graduate recruits there was, amongst those that
were better able to recruit the graduates they wanted, a recognition that resources needed to
be targeted on specific HEI.
3.6
Targeting universities
It is apparent from Table 3.1 above, and the subsequent commentary, that many employers
find it advantageous to target universities. Chapter 5 considers the local / regional
dimension to employer–HEI engagement in some detail but for now it is worthwhile to note
that employers targeted universities in different ways:
•
No targeting:
27
•
o using the “milk round” to include all HEI;
o limited or negligible engagement;
Targeting:
o local universities because it was easier to engage with local universities;
o those universities that previous experience suggested that there was a good
potential to recruit high quality employees;
o those universities that provide the specialist courses from which the employer
wanted to recruit;
o those universities where there were personal links (e.g. it was the CEO’s
alma mater);
o those universities considered to be the “best”.
Where no targeting was used this tended to relate to large employers with well established
graduate recruitment programmes - e.g. fast-track and sub-fast track management schemes
(Types I and II) mentioned in Table 3.1 - which liaised with career services at all or most
universities and a group of employers, often SMEs, that simply advertised generally for
graduates.
Amongst the larger employers with graduate schemes there was sometimes recognition that
contacting all universities was not a good use of a limited resource and some targeting was
required. In these cases there were two distinct forms of targeting.
First, focusing attention on those universities considered to be the “best” which related in the
case of fast track management schemes to a pecking order with Oxbridge at the top followed
by the University of London (particularly the LSE and Imperial). In other instances, “best”
meant that a particular course offered something of relative benefit.
Secondly, limiting engagement to local universities because it was easier to maintain
contacts with these organisations - e.g. where recruiting to local management training
schemes – Type IV in Table 3.1. Several employers – including independent establishments
and those belonging to larger organisations – wanted their graduate recruits to settle and
develop a career locally (at least over the medium-term). If someone studies at, say, the
University of Newcastle and then applied for a job in the city, then this was a signal to the
company that the individual wanted to settle in the region. In this way labour turnover could
be minimised.
There were other forms of targeting that overlapped to some extent with the two principal
forms described above such as where there were personal links with a university (e.g. the
managing director studied there), or where employers had, over a period time, tended to
recruit their graduates and found this to be beneficial to the business such that there was
now a preference for that university’s graduates.
It needs to borne in mind that for some universities their choice of HEI was becoming more
constrained – especially so in relation to recruiting graduates in STEM subjects. Where a
local university offered the specialist courses this was beneficial to local employers with a
demand for graduates in those subjects. But the extent to which regions now have distinct
industrial structures following the demise of so much manufacturing employment is a moot
point. For many HEI the benefits of providing specialist courses because there is strong
local demand from local employers has somewhat diminished over recent decades in many
city-regions.
3.7
The value of placements
The evidence collected from the case studies demonstrates that employers found work
placements to be an ideal means of recruitment: recruits had become familiar with the
organisation’s working practices and what was expected of them, and employers had had a
chance to observe the potential recruit in work.
28
Research into placements, and the relative benefits of sandwich courses, has a long history
and tends to reveal that where students had been on placement their expectations of work
were more realistic 36. A PEP study, based on a survey of graduates conducted in 1966 and
followed up in 1968, demonstrated that not only were the expectations of sandwich students
more attuned to the world of work, but they were able to turn this to their advantage in that
they were more likely to find work and obtain higher earnings than their non-sandwich
degree graduate counterparts.37 This has resonance with the case study evidence where
employers cited their preference for graduates who were vocationally attuned to the
demands of the modern workplace through work experience.
From the case study evidence there was a mix of reasons for companies offering
placements: many felt it was a valuable recruitment tool allowing them to assess the
potential of future recruits, while others were influenced by wanting to put something back
into the industry and giving young people a chance (occasionally the son / daughter of a
client). There were two approaches to placements displayed by employers:
•
some were passive and would be prepared to take suitable applicants for work
placements if universities or students approached the company;
•
others actively approached universities and placed advertisements and application
forms their web pages.
Evidence suggests that the former method can result in mismatches, such as business
students applying for placements in organisations requiring science graduates. The second
approach provided a much better match but required organisations to establish relationships
with universities.
It was common for employers interviewed to prefer to recruit a recent graduate who had
completed a relevant work placement. It was felt that such an applicant had a number of
advantages, particularly their better understanding about what the job and working in the
sector would entail. This meant they were more likely to ‘hit the ground running’ and less
likely to leave in the first few months of employment because the job turned out to be
different to their expectations. Being able to take on someone who had completed an earlier
work placement with the company was an additional bonus to the extent that both the
graduate and the employer would be familiar with each other’s ways of working. In other
words there was a close match between the employer’s and the graduate’s expectations.
Employers that regularly took students for their ‘year in industry’ or sandwich placement
showed a greater propensity to target local universities. Taking placement students was
seen by many as a valuable recruitment tool. As well as acting as a ‘one year rather than
one hour’ interview for the employer, it also allowed the student to gain practical skills that
would allow them to ‘hit the ground running’ in their first position after graduating. Further to
the practical skills picked up, most employers felt that recruits that had worked for a year in
industry were more likely to possess many of the generic, softer skills they required, and
were also likely to be accustomed to the realities of working life and have a superior ‘work
ethic’ to graduates that had little or no work experience. In instances where employers
preferred to recruit via work placements, local universities were targeted as it would be
significantly more convenient for the students/graduates to find a placement in an area they
were already living in (which in turn would make them more reliable).
Yet sandwich courses are now much less common than they once were, not least because
of the difficulties in securing work placements with employers. Despite the evident value that
employers placed on graduates that had relevant work experience or who had undertaken
36
37
C. Mabey, Graduates in Industry, Gower, Aldershot, 1986
W.W. Daniel and N. Pugh, Sandwich Courses in Higher Education, Political and Economic
Planning, Broadsheet No. 557, London, 1975
29
work placements, the proportion of undergraduates undertaking sandwich placements has
declined in recent years (with the decline greatest in the post-1992 universities where such
courses were more common than in the pre-1992 universities). This decline appears to
have resulted partly from student choice (fewer students opting for sandwich work
placements) and partly from difficulty in securing sufficient employers willing to offer
placements. 38 On the other hand, many students now gain work experience whilst working
during holidays or during term-time in part to fund their studies. The 2004/2005 Student
Income and Expenditure Survey 2004/2005 revealed that many students engage in some
form of term-time work (around 56 per cent of students), and around 40 per cent of this
group hold down regular work (on average around 14 hours a week). 39
3.8
Recruitment: what works?
It is possible to illustrate two different types of efficient processes to graduate recruitment
and a number of pitfalls that employers face.
For larger employers the need was to recruit a relatively large number of graduates each
year to both fast-track and sub fast-track schemes. Their aim was to recruit what they
considered to be the “best” according to their criteria and ensure that they did not fall behind
their competitors in this endeavour. In several instances their recruitment was taking place
on a European-wide basis and they had sufficient resources to establish links with the career
services at all major universities. Selecting the right candidates was a long-drawn out
process – as described above – but one that was worthwhile given the level of investment
that would be made in the successful applicant.
Not all employers had the resource or the demand for a large number of graduates.
Amongst this group many had found it efficient to develop links with specific universities – as
described above – and for them this worked because it required relatively little investment to
maintain good links with the careers service in a few locations.
For both groups of employers the aim was, if at all possible, to get on board prospective
recruits early by engaging with various university departments, and persuading graduates to
take placements over summer or during their a “sandwich” year. If at all possible, the
student could be signed up at the end of their second year conditional upon them obtaining
their degree. In many respects the placement was a probation or trial period during which
time each party could ascertain whether they were suited to one another.
If these are the success stories there were also many employers reporting that their
recruitment process failed to effectively connect them with potential recruits. Where there
was no graduate training programme in place – essentially graduates were expected to hit
the ground running after an initial induction period – there were examples of high labour
turnover as the individual graduates became concerned that the job failed to meet their
expectations (explored more fully in the next chapter). Employer good practice of graduate
recruitment highlights the provision of post-recruitment training as an essential ingredient. 40
One employer reported that they had instituted a formal graduate training programme in an
effort to limit labour turnover. This problem became even more acute in those instances
where the job was a non-graduate one. Graduates took these jobs, employers reported,
because they needed to obtain experience and left quickly thereafter for alternative
38
39
40
B. Little and L. Harvey, Learning Through Work Placements and Beyond, CHERI/Open
University, 2006
Finch S, Jones A, Parfrement J, Cebulla A, Connor H, Hillage J, Pollard E, Tyers C, Hunt W,
Loukas G., Student Income and Expenditure Survey 2004/05, DfES Research Report, 725,
March 2006
H. Connor, W. Hirsh, and L. Barber, Your Graduates and You: Effective Strategies for
Graduate Recruitment and Development, Institute for Employment Studies, Brighton, 2003
30
employment. But if the graduate stayed, their higher level of theoretical knowledge was
beneficial to the employer.
Other employers complained of too many applicants, sometimes poorly matched to the job
on offer – e.g. graduates’ salary expectations were too high, or they simply lacked the skills
needed - and because many of these companies were SMEs without a graduate recruitment
department, they found it difficult to deal with the applications. Studies stretching back to the
1960s point to the problem of employer and graduate recruit expectations of one another
being poorly matched and it seems these problems are still evident today for some
employees.41 The relatively poor matching of recruit and employer often resulted from a
scattershot approach to recruitment: generally advertising and contacting all career services.
On the other hand, some employers who had a more passive approach to recruitment – e.g.
advertising on their own website – found that they received an insufficient number of
applicants.
The evidence suggests that with the expansion in the numbers entering HE that many new
employers were being drawn into the graduate labour market and that they required people
to fill new types of graduate job – “niche graduate jobs”. It is apparent that many of the
traditional / modern graduate recruiters – which in reality are a varied group of employers
taking on graduates to a wide range of different roles and occupations – have well
established routines to attract and select the graduates they need. Moreover, their
recruitment activities are just part of a wider process that develops people to meet the future
skill needs of the company. In other words, recruitment is part of a wider human resource
development process. It is questionable whether more recent employer entrants to the
graduate labour market have adopted this view of graduate recruitment and see it more of a
one-off process to meet current skill needs. This is an issue explored in greater detail in the
next chapter.
41
PEP, Graduates in Industry, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1957. R.H. Kelsall, A. Poole, and
A. Kuhn, Six Years After, Sheffield Higher Education Research Unit, Sheffield University; C.P.
Hill, A Survey of University Graduates in Shell, Shell Petroleum Company Ltd, London, 1969;
P. Williamson, Early Careers of 1970 Graduates, Unit for Manpower Studies, Research Paper
No. 20, Department for Employment, London.
31
32
4. GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT, UTILISATION
AND DEVELOPMENT
4.1
Introduction
Successive reforms of higher education in the UK designed to increase the number of
graduates have resulted in vigorous debate about the extent to which this has produced a
mismatch between graduate supply and demand.
Following the Robbins Report in the early 1960s, there commenced a series of longitudinal
studies following the fortunes of graduates in their early years after leaving university. These
initial studies were focussed on the entry of graduates into industry and commerce, echoing
concerns about a shortfall of graduates in these sectors. Later studies sought to understand
the values of graduates once they had entered the labour market, their motivations and
rationales. These found that graduates tended to like a challenge, to have an opportunity to
learn, to use their initiative, and to have good working conditions in the widest sense. 42 They
also found that graduates became disillusioned with work when their career expectations
were either unreasonably high or the job had been over-sold by the employer. 43
Expectations were more realistic and, consequently, there was less psychological
dissonance, where graduates had studied on sandwich courses which required a period in
full-time employment. 44
During much of the 1960s and early 1970s the demand for graduates outstripped supply. By
the early 1980s, rapidly rising unemployment and major restructuring taking place in the UK
economy – coupled with a greater extant stock of graduates and an increased flow of
graduates into the labour market – meant the position of graduates was less strong. Against
this backdrop, surveys of graduates during the 1980s shifted in emphasis from a desire to
understand graduate motivation and expectations to a cost-benefit perspective. In other
words, given that job outcomes might not have been as good as they would have hoped, did
the benefits of being at university outweigh the costs? For most students the answer
continued to be “yes”. They would study the same course at the same university again if
they had their time over, but they would have liked more vocational preparation in order to
improve their labour market prospects. 45 Research conducted at around the same time also
pointed to a desire from many graduates to have an occupational identity 46.
During the 1990s the higher education system went through further waves of reform with the
abolition of the polytechnics in 1992 and the creation of a single tier of universities; and the
move to increase the participation level of young people in higher education towards 50 per
cent. Increased participation has been achieved, in part, through the encouraging ‘nontraditional’ students to enter university 47, although the population of graduates is still very
much middle class in origin. With the massive expansion in numbers entering higher
42
43
44
45
C.P. Hill, A Survey of University Graduates in Shell, Shell Petroleum Company Ltd, London,
1969
P. Williamson, Early Careers of 1970 Graduates, Unit for Manpower Studies, Research Paper
No. 20, Department for Employment, London.
C. Mabey, Graduates in Industry, Gower, Aldershot, 1986
C.J. Boys and J. Kirkland, Degrees of Success: Career Aspirations and Destinations of
College, University, and Polytechnic Graduates, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 1988
46
P. Herriot, Down from the Ivory Tower: Graduates and their jobs, John Wiley, London, 1984
47
T. Hogarth et al., The Participation of Non-traditional students in Higher Education, Higher
Education Funding Council for England, Bristol, 1997.
33
education, the Class of ’99 has been instructive in providing an indication of student
motivations and the value graduates place upon their time at university against the backdrop
of having to take on jobs very different to their counterparts who left university twenty or
more years before them.
Whilst much is known about the expectations and motivations of students and graduates in
the labour market, much less is known about employers’ expectations of graduates when in
employment. Given the amount of change on the supply side there is a need to know much
more about the demand side: what do employers want from graduates, how do they retain
and develop their graduate workforce, and what are the returns to the organisation? This
chapter begins to shed some light on these issues.
4.2
Employer satisfaction with graduate recruits
The National Employers Skills Survey 2005 (NESS2005) provides information about the
preparedness of recent graduates recruited by employers over the previous 12 months (see
Figure 4.1). Around 80 per cent of employers reported that their graduate recruits were
either “very well” or “well prepared”. This might not be surprising given the structured and
rigorous approach to recruitment described in the previous chapter but this finding needs to
be considered in the context of the changing supply of graduates and the fact that there
were likely to be very many employers who were in the relatively early stages of developing
graduate recruitment programmes and processes.
NESS2005 also provides representative data against which to consider the detailed views
obtained from the employer case studies. The case study responses need to be considered
in the light of the majority of employers reporting that graduates were well prepared for the
jobs to which they were recruited.
Figure 4.1
Preparedness of graduate recruits
All poorly prepared
11.
All well prepared
81.3
Prepartion varies
6.8
Recruited very poorly prepared graduates
2.2
Recruited poorly prepared graduates
9.8
Recruited well prepared graduates
55.4
Recruited very well prepared graduates
25.9
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
% establishments
Base:
Source:
All employers recruiting recent graduates in the last 12 months
NESS2005
On the whole, the experience of the case study employers when recruiting graduates had
been favourable but a number of concerns were flagged up by some respondents which are
described in detail below. These included:
34
•
•
•
the work readiness of graduates;
concerns about commercial awareness;
a lack of practical skills.
During the case study interviews there were plenty of employers quick to criticise the general
‘work readiness’ of graduates and to voice concerns over the decreasing quality of degrees.
Nonetheless, most conceded that on the whole the graduates that they ended up recruiting
were adequately prepared or better. Where criticism was voiced, it was overwhelmingly
directed towards a lack of commercial or practical skills that new graduate recruits were
equipped with. 48 Employers tended to blame universities for this rather than graduates,
criticising some degrees as being too theoretical and in some cases out of touch with
changes in the industry (a similar criticism is given by employers when explaining why HEI
are not used for training).
Lack of commercial awareness was a concern voiced by many different types of employer.
When made by those who did not recruit from a specific degree subject, academic ability
was praised but the ability and competency with which graduates could apply that
knowledge in the context of a profit-driven organisation was sometimes criticised. Law firms
for example, which were commonly in a position to pick and choose the graduates to whom
they offered training contracts, reported disappointment in graduates’ ability to contextualise
theoretical knowledge in the commercial world.
There were other employers who found the problem lay not in graduates’ apparent inability
to apply their knowledge to the real world, but instead were manifest in the problems they
appeared to experience operating in a client-centred, profit-driven environment. Graduates
were sometimes described as being ill-equipped to operate to time schedules, within
budgets, and within the constraints of other professional demands. A construction employer
described a situation where graduate civil engineers were sometimes unable to work
effectively with architects because of conflicting priorities; demonstrating a lack of flexibility,
realism, and interpersonal skills.
A lack of practical skills was the overriding criticism amongst employers in specialised
industries such as construction, engineering, and surveying. Employers tended to blame
universities for failing to include a sufficiently practical component in the degrees offered,
and many employers ended up targeting the same graduates from a small pool of
universities known to have a larger practical component. Not only were these students
described as having better skills, they were also seen as more likely to have a good grasp of
what the job involved and less likely to be afraid of ‘getting their hands dirty’. Some
employers, particularly SMEs, reported being wary of recruiting from courses known to be
predominantly theoretical due to past experiences of such graduates who were unwilling to
‘work on the ground’ and or conduct tasks they felt were beneath a graduate. The
employers who cited this criticism were the most likely to mention a preference for students
with work experience, gap years, and those from ‘sandwich’ degrees.
The above gives a slightly biased view by concentrating on the negative aspects of
graduates’ capabilities when in general employers appeared satisfied with the graduates
they hired. These views should be regarded as an indication of how the capabilities of
graduates might be improved either by the graduates themselves or HEI. Of course, one of
the key issues here is how readily employers feel they can communicate these concerns to
HEI.
48
Brown P and R Scase, ‘Universities and employers’, in A Smith and Fwebster (Eds) The Postmodern University: Contested Visions of Higher Education in Society, Milton Keynes,
SRHE/OUP, 1997.
35
4.3
What do graduates bring to the organisation?
Employers in the best position to answer this question were those who employed graduates
and non-graduates in similar roles. Where graduates were employed alongside technicians /
skilled trades workers, employers often described a situation in which the two will
complement each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Where graduates were seen as more
innovative, problem oriented, ‘ideas people’, technicians were seen as more likely to
interpret the ideas of graduates and realise theoretical proposals.
Where employers were able to isolate the impact graduates had on the business, they
commonly mentioned that graduate recruits were more likely to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
challenge how things are done / ‘questioning’;
assimilate things quicker;
be flexible;
come at things from a different perspective (often theoretical);
are problem solvers;
bring new ideas and energy;
use their initiative and act without waiting for instruction.
In many respects graduates represented the future of the company. In other words, they
were an investment to provide the senior personnel of the future. Of course to achieve this
end, well-rounded graduates not only needed to be recruited they needed to be retained.
The case study below provides an example of how a company recruited graduates,
developed them to meet future demand, and in so doing was able to retain them in the
business (see panel).
Case Study: Engineering consultancy
City-region: Bristol
This SME was engaged in the fabrication of structural steelwork for the commercial and civil
construction industry. The business had a graduate recruitment programme, the aim of which
was to generate the managers of the future who will bring a high level of specialist expertise
together with an all round business perspective and personal characteristics that fit well into the
company’s culture.
The qualities sought from recruits were those appropriate to that aim. In addition, graduates
were expected to have a commitment to learning, training and development, and to bring
enthusiasm, energy, new ideas and new perspectives into the organisation. The key to the
programme was felt to be a structured series of learning experiences each of which included
targets, continuous feedback on performance, and rewards for performance. In addition, there
was a clear career structure from Graduate Engineer to Senior Engineer; regular appraisal and
guidance on how to progress up the structure.
Overall, the graduate programme was felt to be a powerful symbol of investment in the future
that was intended to convey important messages to both existing staff and the outside world,
especially customers. The programme was regarded as highly successful. Graduate recruits
have fulfilled expectations and retention has been good.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
There were occasions where employers, whilst identifying the practical skills gaps in
graduates, could appreciate the ability of graduates to formulate arguments and support
assertions. It was graduate skills in these areas that ultimately allowed them to progress,
whereas non-graduates were often perceived as hitting a wall in their career path. For
36
example, in archaeology, where historically a degree has not been necessary for new
recruits, one employer reported that graduates were accommodated despite their initial lack
of technical proficiency because progression to management positions without a degree was
becoming increasingly difficult.
In general, the generic skills employers sought and were able to acquire related to looking
for graduates who were:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“good communicators”;
“self- confident”;
“motivated”;
“committed”;
“dynamic”;
“independent”;
“personable”;
“analytical”;
“problem-solvers”; and
“team players”.
Most employers described looking for signs to suggest that candidates had “potential” and
will enrich the organisation; citing graduates as the ones who will bring new ideas,
enthusiasm, and freshness.
4.4
Career development and training
Most employers viewed training as imperative to career development, whether this was
providing formal training through professional qualifying exams necessary to ‘kick-start’
graduates career progression (such as in ‘traditional’ business services areas such as law,
accountancy and other professions) through to extensive on-the-job training designed to
mould the practical experience valued so highly by some employers (most typically in
construction and manufacturing organisations).
Across most industries, it was larger employers who were in the position to offer the most
attractive training packages to graduates. The offer of high quality training and development
was beneficial for both recruitment and retention for these organisations. Organisations
across all sizes and sectors reported that in the last five years there had been a definite shift
towards graduates wanting to know “what are you going to do for me?” with respect to
training and career development.
Smaller organisations, perhaps not as able to compete with the training programmes offered
by larger firms, were often quick to point out that less formal training programmes being
available did not necessarily limit the progression graduates could make. As smaller
employers, and without the luxury of lengthy training programmes, they often offered
responsibility much sooner than some of the larger organisations. Thus career progression
within that particular organisation could be at a more rapid rate than it would be in a larger
organisation. But many smaller organisations were unable to offer much in the way of
structured career development, and they saw graduate recruitment as a one-off exercise
rather than as part of a broader process of human resource development. Hence it was left
to the graduates to develop their own career progression, without guidance from their
employer. This could often result in them leaving their initial employer to develop their
career with other firms. Again this relates to the point made earlier, and emphasised in
research dating back to the 1960s, of ensuring that graduate and employer expectations are
matched at the point of recruitment.
4.5
Retention of graduates
Many employers reported no significant, persistent problem with graduate retention for the
following reasons:
37
•
•
•
“We’re a good organisation to work for”;
Training/career development;
High competition for jobs.
Some employers put good retention down to the fact that new recruits enjoyed working for
the organisation and were treated well in terms of such things as a good pension scheme,
work-life balance options, good salary, being a friendly employer, and good career
opportunities. This reason was reported across all sizes of organisation.
Some establishments attributed good graduate retention to a structured training and career
development programme. In this way, employers seemed to describe a two-way process
whereby investing in graduates through training and career support resulted in high graduate
commitment to the organisation. Within large organisations this could be exploited fully by
offering graduates opportunities to map their own career paths through training and
sideways movement within the organisation.
Within some industries, law and media for example, competition for jobs was fierce and
employers reported that it was unlikely new graduates would leave once they had been
fortunate enough to secure a position. This was particularly so when there was a formal
training period (e.g. three years for an auditor, a two-year training contract for law, etc.). For
these employers, although reputation may have played a part in finding good graduates, little
else was actively done (or needed to be done) to ensure retention. Instead, there was often
the opposite problem that once formal training periods were over, a proportion of the recruits
would not have their contracts renewed and it was the organisation which decided retention
levels rather than the graduates.
Some employers did indicate a number of issues relating to graduate retention.
issues tend to be:
•
•
•
•
These
poaching;
inability to compete with the competition;
lack of career development opportunities; and
recruiting the wrong people.
Employers who were already paying high wages and benefits could fall victim to their top
employees being offered even better packages at other firms. Being surpassed by the
competition was a problem mainly mentioned by the smaller employers. Particularly in
industries where there were skill shortages and decreasing numbers of graduates available
(such as reported in quantity surveying and civil engineering), small employers were at risk
of investing in their graduates and supporting them through their professional exams, only to
see them being enticed away by the salaries and opportunities larger employers were able
to offer. Some SMEs had tried to address this by recruiting from local universities in the hope
that recruits will have links to the local area and will therefore be more likely to remain with
the organisation rather than be lured to bigger firms in London and beyond. A law company
in Newcastle sought recruits from local universities who wanted to stay and settle in
Newcastle.
There were also employers who recognised that a limited career development programme
and/or opportunities forced ambitious graduate recruits to think about moving on after a few
years. For some organisations this was not voiced as a concern because a degree of labour
turnover was beneficial to the business. An FE college for example described having a
marketing department of just three staff, and as a result there were limited career
opportunities. They expected to lose new graduate recruits after two to three years, but felt
that during this time the graduates had made useful contributions to the department.
Some employers experienced graduate recruits leaving because they, the graduates,
realised that the career was not for them, or the employer recognised that the graduate did
not fit into the organisation. This was more likely to be the case in certain industries; usually
those were the degree course had not adequately prepared graduates for the amount or
38
type of practical work involved in the day-to-day job they would be required to do. For
example, a medical research organisation in Middlesex commented that some graduate
recruits left because they found that they did not like laboratory work; as a result they
preferred recruiting graduates that had completed a work placement as these recruits ‘know
what to expect’ and are consequently less likely to leave early. A PR organisation had
recruited three graduates two years ago and reported that all three had now left – looking
back the employer felt that too much importance had been placed on academic qualities
(two of the three were Oxbridge graduates) rather than suitability to the organisation.
4.6
How do different employers utilise and develop their graduate
workforce?
The previous chapter looked at graduate recruitment according to the following types of
employer:
•
traditional / modern graduate recruiters – including fast-track management
schemes leading to senior professional / managerial positions within a specified
number of years;
•
specialist recruitment – where a specific degree was required. Essentially this a
sub-set of the traditional / modern graduate recruiter;
•
new graduate recruiters: where employers are increasingly recruiting graduates
into positions previously filled by non-graduates, sometimes on an ad hoc basis.
Given the discussion above it is useful to consider how the different types of employer
retained and developed their graduate workforce.
Fast-track and sub-fast track
management schemes associated with traditional / modern graduate recruiters are
designed to develop and retain the graduates they hire with the structured recruitment
process they establish designed to ensure that their recruits are able to meet the demands
made of them whilst in training.
The example of a financial services company in Bristol is a typical example of a large
graduate recruiter taking people on to its sub fast-track management training scheme (see
panel).
Case study: Financial Services
City-region: Bristol
The corporation employs 13,000 people in the UK. It takes on 30 recent graduates each year
on to its Graduate Recruitment Programme.
39
The main programme is for Leadership Trainees who are destined to be the senior managers
of the future.
The company is satisfied that, in an increasingly complex and competitive
business environment, it needs to recruit a group of the brightest, most able and most highly
motivated young people in the country and to train them and instil into them the organisation’s
culture in order to ensure effective future business leadership.
A distinctive feature of the Graduate Programme is the clarity of objectives and the systems for
fulfilling them in the two year initial training programme. Placement roles are clearly defined;
and have specific objectives which are made explicit. Support is provided by Line Managers;
Programme Managers; Buddies; and Mentors. Assessment and feedback on performance and
progress are provided continuously. Rewards are directly linked to performance. Trainees
make a presentation to the Management Team at the end of each placement which constitutes
a major rite de passage.
The programme started with a one week induction the main purpose of which was to produce a
Personal Development Programme for each recruit. That included feedback on development
needs identified in the recruitment assessment and also the recruits own needs and ambitions.
There followed three separate eight-month placements each of which included the following:
a clear development role with a clear purpose (A Project Role; a Team Leading Role; or work
with an executive on a piece of strategy development – each roles is well defined with a
specific function and purpose);
continuous coaching and development from Line Managers; Programme Managers; Buddy;
and Mentor;
at the end of each placement the recruit has to make a presentation to the Management
Team on the quality of the process and outcomes.
Performance is continuously assessed for purposes of salary review and bonuses.
Generally people were happy with the Programme. It was an improvement that people now
came in on a single contract with the company whereas previously it had been with different
divisions; and placements had been increased in length from six months.
The company reported that it attached a high priority to the continuous development of all staff
and particularly to diversity among staff. That included people studying for degrees at any
stage in their careers.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
Many of the traditional / modern recruiters of graduates were large organisations. This
conferred on them a number of advantages when recruiting: they are likely to be well known,
and usually had a large ratio of applications to vacancies. The result of this was that
employers were afforded the luxury of being able to be demanding in what they looked for in
graduates. These employers usually had a regular, annual graduate recruitment programme
where a significant amount of time and effort was invested in finding the right people (e.g.
involvement with second year undergraduates, attending careers fairs at a variety of
universities, etc.).
The application process was structured and rigorous, and assessed
candidates across a variety of measures (see previous chapter).
To illustrate the example of a specialist recruiter, an example of the chemical laboratory in
the North East is provided (see panel). Here the emphasis is upon recruiting people with
both technical ability and work-related skills for the post of analytical chemists, but at the
higher level of specialism, the research chemists, it was technical ability that counted. The
other, softer skills were a bonus if the applicant possessed them, but the main recruitment
requirement as a high level knowledge of a specific aspect of organic chemistry.
40
Case study: Chemical laboratory
City-region: Newcastle
The company required two types of chemists: (a) analytical chemists qualified to first degree
level in chemistry; and (b) research chemists typically at PhD level. In relation to the latter the
company simply need people with the expertise required to carry out R&D in organic chemistry.
All important was the technical knowledge and all else was, more or less, unimportant. There
tended not to be competition for jobs as the supply of research chemists was very limited.
In relation to the analytical chemists they too required technical knowledge in relation to
chemistry. But because they were younger than their post-graduate research counterparts the
company was looking for additional skills in addition to knowledge of chemistry. These related
to being methodical (the capacity to keep log books), assiduous in testing, being tidy, safety
conscious, motivated, and work-aware. In relation to the latter it was the capacity of young
people to make the transition from being a student to an employee.
The company gave opportunities to its staff to develop their interests, especially so amongst
the research chemists who were expected to be connected to relevant professional networks.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
Employers who recruited graduates from practical, specialist degrees such as ‘engineering’,
‘surveying’ and ‘archaeology’ often favoured graduates from ‘sandwich’ degrees (‘year out in
industry’) or those who have been on work placements. The added benefits these graduates
brought ranged from the fact that they had a better understanding of the job they were
entering, to having had exposure to commercial/practical elements of their career subject as
well as just the theoretical aspects. This was particularly important for SMEs, where long
trainee periods are often not feasible and graduates were required to ‘hit the ground running’
and rapidly take on responsibility. In contrast, where SMEs recruited graduates for whom
the subject of the degree was not important, fewer overall patterns were observed and these
employers were much less likely to have a concrete idea of what they looked for in
graduates. Some described looking for “a spark”, with others giving the impression that
when recruiting graduates ‘they know it when they see it’.
Many of the new graduate recruiters were smaller organisations – often SMEs. In general,
these were more likely to be critical of the ‘preparedness’ of graduate recruits than larger
employers. Some SMEs attributed this to larger employers taking the best graduates and
leaving them with the ‘remains’. This was especially so in SMEs in industries with skillshortages and/or where graduates were in short supply. In other instances it seems to be
more to do with the fact that SMEs are less able to accommodate lengthy training to prepare
graduates vocationally and are thus more affected by taking on a graduate who is ill
equipped to take on the role planned for them.
Many of the new graduate recruiters reported difficulties recruiting and retaining suitable
graduates. In terms of recruitment, applications for graduate positions are either in short
supply and / or there was a poor match between candidates and the job on offer. In essence,
this has much to do with the ad hoc nature of recruitment amongst the smaller, new
graduate recruiters and the limited structure applied to either the recruitment process or
subsequent employment.
In general, these employers do not have the resources to compete with larger graduate
recruiters and hence select candidates who are likely to stay with the company. There is an
implicit recognition here that candidates are sought with more limited aspirations.
But the situation was not all pessimistic with respect to new graduate recruiters – even if
employers in this group experienced problems recruiting and retaining staff, there was also a
recognition that graduates could bring benefits to the organisation. An example is provided
41
of a construction company that very much saw graduates as the future of the company even
if it had yet to take any on (see panel). The example signals the potential of graduates to
develop business and employer expectations of them.
Case study: Construction company
City-region: Plymouth
The business is a construction company employing 610 people in 11 local divisions across the
South West. Local divisions enjoy a high level of local autonomy in relation to recruitment and
employment.
Recently business has been booming and the Group has enjoyed rapid growth. Over the
previous six years the number employed has increased from 120 to 610 and annual turnover
has increased from £24m a year to £220m a year. It is not envisaged that this rate of growth
can continue indefinitely but it is hoped that it will settle down and level off into steady growth.
It is felt that the strength of the business is its good reputation and the volume of repeat
business that this generates.
In the company training receives a high priority and a high level of Board support. A high
priority is attached to management training. An Institute of Learning and Management (ILM)
course is provided which includes modules in different aspects of construction management
such as budgeting, project management and marketing plus training in soft skills and a
workplace assignment.
There is as yet no graduate programme and no graduates are recruited as such although some
management and professional staff may, incidentally, have degrees. It is recognised that this is
a weakness of the business and plans are being developed to launch a graduate programme.
It is proposed that each division should take on two new graduates a year which would mean
that the Group would be recruiting about 22 graduates a year. It is expected that they would go
into such activities as Quantity Surveying and Site Management. It is felt that it is important to
get the details of the proposed programme right before it is launched. The worst outcomes
would be if recruits were disappointed because it was inadequate and the whole idea of
graduate recruitment fell into disrepute in the Group.
The principal reason for the proposed programme is that it would publicly signal a commitment
to bridging the huge skills gap in construction. The “old school” had little education and learned
all they know on the job. The Group needs to bring a new young generation into construction,
who have fresh, new ideas and have a belief in education and qualifications. The programme
would represent a commitment to a new culture and would encourage and contribute to that
culture.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
4.7
Graduates versus non-graduates
For many graduate recruiters, there were no non-graduates filling the same roles as
graduates, but in a selected few it was possible to make a comparison.
For some employers the difference in performance observed between graduates and nongraduates was relatively minimal. Examples included the legal profession where the bulk of
junior solicitors’ (graduates) and paralegals’ (non-graduates) day-to-day work was described
as almost identical and carried out to similar quality, and marketing or human resource
departments where graduate and non-graduate administrators were described as carrying
out work of comparable quality. Similarly, other employers reported recruiting graduates into
particular positions just because ‘they had always done so’, or it was the industry norm, and
were unable to answer what a graduate specifically brings to that position over and above an
individual without a degree. One London PR consultancy, for example, indicated that 22 of
the 24 staff were graduates, yet the director did not feel working in PR intrinsically needed a
degree. In part the continued recruitment of graduates was based around it being the
42
industry norm and clients expecting it, but also it not being a career many without degrees
would consider, hence few if any applications arrived from those without degrees.
But as the evidence above indicates (see section 4.3) graduates bring a distinct set of skills
to a business. In most organisations graduates and non-graduates filled different positions.
There were some examples of where organisations had recently shifted to the recruitment of
graduates where they had previously not done so. The example of a construction company
that had historically trained its management from its in-take of apprentices is instructive here
(see panel). It provides an example of an organisation that recognised graduates could bring
something new to the organisation given how markets were expected to change over the
near future – hence its desire to hire people with high levels of skill in design and
management.
Case study: Construction company
City-region: Coventry
The company’s traditional market was military construction (over 130 years of business) but
this has fallen away over the past 20 years and it was now looking to grow new business areas
such as crematoria, crèches, and medical centres. It had also become involved in large school
building projects. Traditionally the company had recruited from the local area and had low
turnover of staff – “almost a job for life”. The business has been able to keep staff during down
times. This was because the business is ‘cash rich’ and the Board likes to keep people in work.
The company had identified a looming problem: many staff about to retire and their skills base
had become somewhat out-dated. There was a need to take on new people to fulfil the need
for new projects. To assist the company move into new markets it had decided to hire
graduates in construction management and design to assist with this shift in focus.
Historically managers would have been apprentices and then studied ONC/HND qualifications
if they had potential. But this pool of recruits was drying-up, hence the decision to recruit
graduates. The company is convinced that this will make a significant contribution to the
business by bringing in new construction skills at the highest level. Its current graduate in-take
is of people recruited at sub-degree level who have been sponsored to go on to university. In
this way the company feels that it can protect its investment in graduates. But it was the
added-value that individuals obtain from studying to degree level in construction management
that would allow the company to realise its product market aspirations.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
4.8
Recruitment at sub-degree level
Employers rarely reported recruiting at sub-degree level for what were generally considered
degree positions, but there were several examples of recruits with high level skills but subdegree level qualifications being taken on to more junior positions with the possibility of them
being trained up to degree level if they showed potential and commitment.
The employers interviewed divided into a number of layers with respect to the willingness to
recruit at sub-degree level for graduate positions.
Layer 1: ‘graduates only’
Establishments falling into this category strictly required a degree for graduate positions. The
employers most likely to fall into this category are those where the business is particularly
academic and/or highly technical; e.g. law or computer technology. In general, all fast-track
and sub-fast track management training schemes fell into this category.
43
Layer 2a: ‘sub-degree level recruited as junior technical staff first’
Industries such as construction, engineering and manufacturing were likely to have recruited
people with HNDs/ HNCs etc. to work as technicians and junior engineers. These staff were
often said to complement the skills of graduates. Perhaps for this reason, these employers
were sometimes willing to train these staff up to degree level or in some cases enable staff
to potentially progress to a ‘graduate job’ based on experience rather than a degree. A
similar practice existed in some professional areas such as auditing where the ‘normal’ route
involved taking on graduates, but where there were instances of good A-level students
becoming auditors through the technician (AAT) route. The employer pointed out that key
here was that in the unusual case of A-level students being taken on in this role they would
be individuals who were university calibre but who had opted to earn a living on leaving
school or college.
Layer 2b: ‘sub-degree level recruited as junior office staff’
There were some industries, such as PR, media, law and accountancy where employers
were willing to take on non-graduates in junior positions. Paralegals for example do not
traditionally hold a degree but will do much the same work as junior solicitors and often have
the opportunity to be sponsored to degree level. Similarly, non-graduates could be recruited
to accountancy to work in junior positions and in time be supported through professional
exams in much the same way as a graduate would be.
Layer 3: ‘Majority of staff recruited at high level skills but sub-degree level’
One employer interviewed recruited the vast majority of their employees at sub-degree level.
In the past this had involved recruiting from A-levels and training recruits to HND/HNC level
at an on-site training college. A recent approach by a university had formalised this process
and recruits now applied through UCAS to the university and the employer provided the
teaching and base for successful applicants. At the end of the two-year Foundation Degree,
the employer made job offers to some applicants.
There is also the issue of Foundation Degrees to consider, but in most cases this related to
continuing training of the existing workforce and hence this qualification is considered in
greater detail in Chapter 6.
Several employers in manufacturing and engineering sectors had heard of Foundation
Degrees, and expressed an interest in working with HEI to develop relevant Foundation
Degrees in response to a lack of graduates with the required skills or degrees. This was the
case for a large manufacturing employer in Sheffield which was encountering recruitment
problems because of declining interest among students in taking a material sciences degree
(which the employer required). The employer was keen to pursue the possibility of a local
HEI running a Foundation Degree in material sciences for the company.
Employers that had experience of sub-degree level recruits working in positions alongside
graduates (typically in ‘layer 2’ organisations) identified some advantages of recruiting at this
level, with sub-degree level recruits seen as:
•
•
•
•
•
less likely to be poached than graduates;
more willing to do routine work;
less ambitious, so less likely to leave because of ‘itchy feet’ or to seek a pay increase
or promotion elsewhere;
more enthusiastic and ‘eager to please’;
more practical and willing to get their hands dirty.
But the above findings need to be viewed in the context of many employers limiting entry to
the training programmes that lead eventually to employees filling senior management
positions to graduates only. For many employers there is recognition that a degree indicates
higher levels of capability and capacity to learn.
44
4.9
Conclusion
Overall, employers’ expectations of their graduate recruits were more or less met with most
employers reporting that the graduates taken on were well prepared to fill the jobs to which
they were recruited. This is in line with results from the National Employers Skill Survey
(NESS) 2005 that demonstrated the vast majority of employers were satisfied with the
graduates they recruited. 49 The case studies revealed that this was especially so amongst
the traditional / modern graduate recruiters taking on graduates into fast-track and sub-fast
track management training schemes. Here highly structured recruitment process allied to
highly structured training and development programmes immediately post-recruitment
ensured that the employer was able to select the candidates they wanted, and then develop
them to meet the needs of the business.
The situation was a little less clear with respect to specialist recruiters – often requiring
people with a STEM degree – in that this particular group of recruiters often required people
to apply their technical knowledge immediately without much further training and
development, especially so amongst smaller employers.
Among the new graduate recruiters, there tended to be more criticism of graduates’
vocational preparedness. The situation here was of less structured programmes of
recruitment followed up by little systematic training and development. Hence there was a
greater tendency for a mismatch between recruit and the needs of the job, and much less
opportunity to correct the mismatch through training and development. But the situation was
not wholly pessimistic. Some employers at least saw great potential in moving into the
graduate recruitment market – namely, the ability to acquire higher level skills required to
capture new markets.
There are relatively high expectations set by the new graduate recruiters. Where people
with sub-degree level qualifications had been recruited in the past, these qualifications
tended to be highly regarded by employers, largely because they were vocationally based
and, in part, were dependent upon work-based learning. Indeed some employers appeared
to prefer a mix of degree holders and those with sub-degree level qualifications because it
mixed the theoretical with the practical. But with the supply of graduates increasing and set
to increase further, some employer saw the inevitability of their recruitment being developed
in this direction.
The key to successful recruitment and retention appears to be systematic processes to
ensure that the applicant and the job are well matched and that there is sufficient structure in
place post-recruitment to ensure that the graduate’s expectations are met too. There is
prima facie evidence at least amongst smaller employers in the new graduate recruiter group
that this is not taking place in many instances.
But given the huge changes in the supply of graduates, with some uncertainty about the
career expectations of those graduates, the data from employers, both from NESS and the
case studies, suggests that employers are relatively content with their graduate recruits for
the most part, though they cite several areas where matters could be improved. Most
pressing of all is to get the new graduate recruiters to adapt more readily to the graduate
labour market.
49
J. Shury et al., The National Employers Skill Survey 2005, Learning and Skills Council,
Coventry, 2006
45
5. THE SPATIAL DIMENSION TO
RECRUITMENT
5.1
Introduction
One of the study’s objectives was to identify the spatial element to employers’ recruitment of
graduates. That was why the selection of employer case studies was done on the basis of
city-regions – to show how relationships developed within city-regions between HEI and
employers.50 With the increase in the percentage of school leavers entering higher
education institutions, there is potentially greater scope for employers in a given locality to
enter the graduate job market. As illustrated in Chapter 3 some employers find it effective to
target particular HEI, sometimes their local ones, in order to maximise the returns they
obtain from their investment in developing relationships with universities. In addition, there is
evidence to suggest that many more students than hitherto choose (often, but not
exclusively, for financial reasons) to study in their area of origin often remaining in the family
home whilst studying. They may also choose to stay on in this area after graduating.
Since the mid 1980s UK governments have argued that universities should make a greater
contribution to raising the global competitiveness of the UK economy. In the 1990s, HEI
were encouraged to engage more fully in the regional development agenda and government
decided to play a more active role in encouraging greater collaboration between business
and higher education. The Dearing Report recognises that higher education had a
potentially critical role to play as one of the key drivers of productivity growth through
knowledge transfer between universities and businesses. Following the Lambert Review
report in 2003 the government made it clear that stronger partnerships would be encouraged
between HEI in each region and the RDAs and other agencies charged with promoting
economic development. 51 These so-called ‘third mission’ activities have added a new
dimension to the way in which HEI operate and are funded. 52
In the UK, different types of university have played different regional roles according to their
strengths. ‘New universities’ have tended to be at the forefront of local / regional
engagement, placing emphasis on access to local students, supporting SMEs and meeting
regional skills requirements, while ‘old universities’ have seen their main roles as attracting
the best students regardless of their area of origin and engaging in research collaboration
with industry and technology transfer (involving small high-technology firms [sometimes with
a regional focus] and/ or multi-national enterprise).53 Even HEI of the same type, may have
different positions in local and regional economies.54 Some HEI in some regions find it easier
than others elsewhere to identify with and orientate activities to administrative regions.
Evidence from a 2001 survey of HE-business interaction found that HEI in the south of
England and the Midlands were less inclined than those in northern England to identify with
50
51
52
53
54
Annex B provides background information on city-regions.
Cox S. and Taylor J. ‘The impact of a business school on regional economic development: a
case study’, Local Economy 21 (2), 117-35, 2006
Kitagawa F. ‘Universities and innovation in the knowledge economy: cases from English
regions’, Higher Education Management and Policy 16 (3), 53-75, 2004.
Waters R. and Lawton-Smith H. ‘Regional Development Agencies and local economic
development: scale and competitiveness in high-technology Oxfordshire and
Cambridgeshire’, European Planning Studies 10 (5), 633-49, 2002.
Glasson J. ‘The widening local and regional development impacts of the modern universities
– a tale of two cities (and North-South perspectives)’, Local Economy 18 (1), 21-37, 2003.
46
government-defined regions and more inclined to define their own boundaries.55 While this
may be in the spirit of the ‘fuzzy’ nature of city-region boundaries, it is not necessarily the
case that self-defined boundaries accord with city-region definitions or with ‘local’ and
‘regional’ economic spaces within which businesses operate.
Economic development at the local and regional level - especially that related to the
development of the knowledge economy - is dependent upon a supply of high level skills
and knowledge of a kind typically produced by universities. Many universities, especially the
civic institutions of the mid 20th century and later the former polytechnics, had close local and
regional ties often to the main local employers (such as Armstrong and the University of
Newcastle Upon Tyne). Industrial re-structuring over the latter decades of the 20th century
has meant that previous links between HEI and employers rooted in the traditional industrial
structure have become somewhat redundant. An important study from the 1990s suggested
that local and regional economic development in a globalised economy is dependent upon
communities being able to find ways of retaining otherwise footloose capital56. In other
words, can local areas distinguish themselves from other localities? Universities, and their
capacity to provide a range of services, have a vital role to play in allowing localities to
distinguish themselves in an increasingly homogeneous economy. This is very much related
to the concept of a learning region, where the equilibrium achieved in relation to the supply
and demand of learning opportunities, and the uses to which that learning are put within the
regional economy, is a key to its success.57
With the decline of traditional industrial structures the make-up of many local economies is
such that they are no longer reliant upon a small number of large employers or specific
industries. This poses a challenge to HEI insofar as developing the local dimension means
being able to reach across a wide range of activities: the emphasis is upon the generic
rather than the specific. It also results in HEI needing to feed into new kinds of economic
activity and related employment. This chapter looks specifically at the local relationships
that develop between employers and HEI in relation to graduate recruitment. In order to
provide context for the case study material a number of data sources are used to reveal
differences in graduate employment between selected city-regions. Accordingly, this
chapter draws upon the Labour Force Survey, Origins and Destinations data collected by the
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and the National Employers Skills Survey 2005
(NESS2005), to reveal different features of graduate employment by city-region.
The aim is to provide a comprehensive description of the spatial dimension to graduate
recruitment and employment using available statistical evidence for the selected city-regions,
and then to illustrate certain features using the employer case study evidence.
5.2
The spatial pattern to graduate employment
Chapter 3 set out a classification of graduate jobs – the SOC(HE) classification. This
classification is used again here to reveal differences in the type of graduate employment
between city-regions. As previous chapters have illustrated, there has been much concern
about the changing nature of graduate employment and what now constitutes a “graduate
job”. Using the LFS and SOC(HE), an opportunity is provided to assess whether there is a
city-region dimension to different types of graduate employment.
55
56
57
Charles D. and Benneworth P. The regional mission: the regional contribution of higher
education: the national report, Universities UK, Higher Education Funding Council for
England, 2001
Kantor, R.M. World Class: Thriving Locally in the Globalised Economy, Simon and Schuster,
New York, 1995
Lundvall, B.A. and B. Johnson, “The Learning Economy”, Journal of Industry Studies, Vol, 2,
pp. 23-42, 1994
47
Using the SOC(HE) occupational classification, Tables 5.1 and 5.2 show, respectively, the
distribution by city-region of (a) all graduates of working age in employment; and (b) all
graduates aged under 34 years of age. The latter group is included in order to capture the
occupational destinations of those leaving university following the latest reforms carried out
in the early 1990s.
Overall the data reveal that, with the exception of Central London, there was little difference
between the city-regions in the proportion of employment in different types of graduate job.
In the case of Central London there was a comparatively large percentage of employment
overall in graduate type jobs, especially traditional graduate occupations. Clearly, as in so
many other respects, Central London represents an atypical example of graduate
employment. Not only were there more graduates in London, both absolutely and
proportionately, but they were much more likely to have entered new graduate jobs than was
the case in other city-regions.
48
Table 5.1
Distribution of graduate type jobs for all graduates
row percentages
Traditional
graduate
occupations
Modern
graduate
occupations
Classification of job
Niche
New
graduate
graduate
occupations occupations
Nongraduate
occupations
Total
Base
Tyne and Wear
%
19
17
14
27
24
100%
136,023
Rest of North East
%
17
15
12
27
29
100%
150,138
Greater Manchester
%
16
17
15
24
27
100%
323,536
Merseyside
%
18
16
12
30
24
100%
140,559
Rest of North West
%
17
18
14
25
26
100%
386,572
South Yorkshire
%
22
17
13
29
20
100%
138,924
West Yorkshire
%
19
19
14
27
22
100%
276,854
Rest of Yorkshire
and the Humber
%
18
19
12
21
29.4
100%
194,175
East Midlands
%
16
19
15
25
26
100%
507,740
West Midlands and
Met. County
%
20
17
14
25
24
100%
348,135
Rest of West
Midlands
%
15
20
14
25
26
100%
309,433
East of England
%
18
20
16
23
23
100%
680,966
Central London
%
17
20
24
23
16
100%
592,425
Inner London
%
17
23
15
24
20
100%
430,577
Outer London
%
17
22
17
22
22
100%
507,321
South East
%
18
20
16
24
23
100%
1,224,570
South West
%
16
19
15
24
26
100%
694,145
Total
%
17
19
16
24
24
100%
7,078,554
Source: Labour Force Survey 2005
Base: all graduates in employment (workplace based statistics)
Note: Countries outside England have been excluded but included in the total row
49
Table 5.2
Distribution of graduate type jobs for all graduates aged under 34 years
row percentages
All graduates
aged 34 and
under
Traditional
graduate
occupations
Modern
graduate
occupations
Classification of job
New
Niche
graduate
graduate
occupations occupations
Nongraduate
occupations
Total
Base
Tyne and Wear
%
16
13
15
26
30
100%
Rest of North
East
%
15
11
15
20
40
100%
Greater
Manchester
%
12
15
15
25
34
100%
Merseyside
%
14
15
12
27
33
100%
Rest of North
West
%
15
17
14
21
34
100%
South Yorkshire
%
24
15
17
21
24
100%
49,690
West Yorkshire
%
18
16
14
25
28
100%
103,647
Rest of
Yorkshire and
Humberside
%
12
15
13
20
40
100%
East Midlands
%
12
16
16
22
34
100%
West Midlands
and Met.
County
%
16
13
15
25
31
100%
Rest of West
Midlands
%
12
21
14
20
33
100%
East of England
%
14
19
17
23
27
100%
221,000
Central London
%
15
17
25
24
19
100%
284,357
Inner London
%
13
21
16
26
23
100%
169,964
Outer London
%
13
22
17
22
26
100%
183,054
South East
%
16
18
15
24
27
100%
416,652
South West
%
13
17
15
23
32
100%
219,251
Total
%
15
17
16
23
29
100%
2,518,912
47,381
124,098
51,507
130,713
57,583
166,241
121,541
Source: Labour Force Survey 2005
Base: all graduates in employment aged 34 years or younger (workplace based statistics)
Note: Countries outside England have been excluded but included in the total row
5.3
54,369
The origins and destinations of graduates
If HEI are to play a role in meeting the economic development of local areas one of the
principal means of achieving this end is through graduates from local universities becoming
gainfully employed in that area. Evidence on this can be derived from HESA data which
reports the location of employment six months after graduation. This evidence should be
viewed cautiously as it may not fully capture the locational preferences of those graduates
who have yet to decide upon their career path. That said the HESA data provide an
indication of the willingness of students to remain in their local area after graduation.
50
103,094
Before providing that information it is worth considering the attachment that students have to
the region in which they study. Table 5.3 shows the region of domicile when the student
entered university. This gives an indication of the extent to which people study at their local
university. Overall the data reveal a strong preference for people to study in their region of
domicile. In general, around a third to two thirds of students attending an HEI in a given cityregion were domiciled in that region before going to university. In the case of an HEI in the
more peripheral regions such as the North East or South West (for instance, Plymouth)
around two thirds to three quarters of students were from these regions.
There will be a variety of explanations for the locational preferences of students when they
select a university but a degree of proximity to the area of domicile is likely to be one for at
least some students (e.g. mature students). In addition, some universities are likely to
concentrate their recruitment activities more locally than others. For example, the post-1992
universities often had close links with local education institutions, especially so when they
were funded by local authorities.
Given that many students reveal a local or regional preference when deciding upon where to
study how does this translate into where they choose to work? Using HESA data it is
possible to identify the extent to which those who studied in a city-region also found
employment in that city-region. Table 5.4 shows the city-region of study by the city-region of
employment. Again some caution is required when interpreting the data because some cityregions are close to one another and the boundaries of city-regions are ‘fuzzy’ and may
overlap. But there is an unmistakable pattern in the data revealing a preference among
students to find employment close to their place of study.
There will be a number of reasons driving this preference relating to family and friendship
ties, knowledge of job opportunities further a field, modest career aspirations, and so forth.
On the basis of the data provided in Table 5.4 it is possible to conclude that universities
within a given city-region are significantly contributing to the stock of human capital within
that city-region. Despite the perception in at least some universities that their remit is more
national or international than local, it is clear from the data that they are, whether
purposefully or not, contributing to the quality of sub-regional labour supply.
A further issue relates to the costs and benefits of choosing to find employment locally.
Some of the city-regions have experienced mixed economic fortunes over recent years. The
North East, for example, has struggled in a relative sense to generate high-value, high-skill
employment.58 Occupation provides a proxy measure of skills and educational attainment.
Although the profile of what constitutes a graduate job changes with each successive reform
of the HE system there is still a sense in which a university education is a preparation to
enter a higher level occupation. By comparing the extent to which graduates enter a socalled higher level occupation (managerial and professional jobs) 59, depending upon whether
they obtained employment in the city-region where they studied or moved on elsewhere an
indication can be obtained of whether or not choosing to remain in the local area results in
entry to higher or lower level work (see Figure 5.1).
58
59
Cambridge Econometrics/R.A. Wilson and T. Hogarth (eds) , Skills in England 2005: Volume
3 - Regional and Local Report, Learning and Skills Council, Coventry, 2006
These are Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Major Groups 1 and 2.
51
Table 5.3
University at which studied by region of origin
%
%
%
GOR of
Domicile:
Eastern
%
%
1
3
3
2
5
East Midlands
2
4
5
3
7
London
2
2
4
3
6
North East
70
55
2
2
North West
6
6
60
61
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
England
Other
Middlesex
Central
London
Canterbury
Portsmouth/
Southampton
Plymouth
Bristol
Cambridge
Norwich
.Coventry
Birmingham
Northampton
Nottingham
Sheffield
Leeds
Liverpool
Manchester
Teesside
Newcastle
column percentages
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
6
9
13
5
6
69
52
5
2
7
7
7
17
39
50
7
7
5
4
3
1
2
1
2
8
6
89
2
2
4
7
5
6
7
6
10
7
2
9
14
62
63
6
54
23
5
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
*
1
*
*
*
*
5
14
12
6
2
4
4
1
4
3
1
2
1
1
1
1
12
13
South East
2
3
4
3
6
6
10
14
7
9
9
9
14
8
53
64
11
11
22
South West
1
2
2
2
3
3
4
3
5
4
2
3
50
75
14
3
3
3
4
8
West Midlands
1
2
6
5
5
7
10
7
57
37
2
3
5
2
3
1
2
2
2
8
Yorkshire &
Humberside
England
8
12
6
4
44
38
7
2
3
2
2
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
*
1
14
1
2
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
2
Wales
*
1
2
4
2
2
2
1
2
2
1
1
6
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
Scotland
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
*
1
*
1
*
*
1
Northern Ireland
2
1
1
3
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
1
1
United Kingdom
unknown (inc the
CI and IoM)
Geographic
Region European Union
Grand Total
*
*
*
3
1
*
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
1
1
*
1
*
*
1
3
3
3
4
3
3
3
2
4
6
3
6
3
2
6
5
8
6
5
5
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100.0
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Source: HESA Origins and Destinations Data 2004
Note: * denotes a percentage less than 0.5 per cent
52
Table 5.4
University of study and destination of employment
column percentages
Grand Total
Other
Middlesex
Central
London
Canterbury
Portsmouth/
Southampton
Plymouth
Bristol
Cambridge
Norwich
Coventry
Birmingham
Northampton
Nottingham
Sheffield
Leeds
Liverpool
Manchester
Teesside
Newcastle
City-Region of Education
City-Region of
Employment:
Newcastle
71
34
1
1
2
1
1
Teesside
5
33
*
*
1
*
*
Manchester
2
2
56
13
5
6
2
Liverpool
*
1
3
45
1
1
1
*
*
*
*
Leeds
4
4
3
2
43
7
2
1
Sheffield
1
1
1
1
4
40
2
Nottingham
*
*
1
1
1
5
26
*
*
*
*
*
1
1
1
2
3
2
3
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
1
1
2
*
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Northampton
West
Midlands
Norwich
Cambridge
Bristol
Plymouth
Portsmouth/
Southampton
Canterbury
London
Other
Grand Total
1
*
*
1
1
2
*
1
*
*
*
*
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
43
1
5
6
56
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
3
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
1
1
1
1
1
1
6
*
*
*
5
2
2
32
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
2
40
*
*
*
*
*
1
2
3
46
1
1
2
2
4
*
*
*
*
1
1
*
1
*
*
1
*
1
1
1
2
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
39
1
1
2
*
1
51
8
*
1
1
3
18
1
1
1
*
*
*
*
1
1
*
*
*
1
*
*
*
1
1
1
7
3
4
3
2
1
1
3
2
*
*
*
*
*
1
1
1
*
1
1
1
1
1
1
49
3
2
3
2
6
8
8
6
12
7
15
9
12
17
20
44
18
7
19
30
80
82
84
34
11
15
24
27
26
26
41
34
24
31
20
24
32
51
28
18
14
13
10
23
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Source: HESA Origins and Destinations Data 2004
Note: * denotes a percentage less than 0.5 per cent
53
Figure 5.1
Origins and destinations by occupation and city-region of study
Newcastle
Leeds
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Other
1. New castle
Teesside
Other
5. Leeds
Other
6. Shef f ield
Sheffield
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
0%
10%
0%
Other
2. Teesside
Nottingham
Manchester
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Other
Other
3. Manchester
7. Nottingham
Northampton
Liverpool
100%
90%
100%
80%
90%
70%
80%
60%
70%
50%
60%
40%
50%
30%
40%
20%
30%
10%
20%
0%
10%
Other
0%
Other
4. Liverpool
54
8. Northampton
Figure 5.1 (continued)
Origins and destinations by occupation and city-region of study
Birmingham - Coventry
Plymouth
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Other
9. West Midlands
Other
Norwich
13. Plymouth
Portsmouth - Southampton
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
Other
14. Portsmouth/Southampton
Other
15. Canterbury
Other
16. London
0%
Other
10. Norw ich
Cambridge
Canterbury
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Other
11. Cambridge
Bristol
London
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Other
12. Bristol
55
Figure 5.1 (continued)
Origins and destinations by occupation and city-region of study
KEY
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
City-regions
17. Other
Other Occupations
Sales and Personal Occupations
Administrative and Secretarial Occupations
Associate Professional Occupations
Managerial and Professional Occupations
Source: HESA Origins and Destinations 2004
Overall the findings from the HESA data are somewhat mixed. In general it would appear
that those who moved out of their city-region of study were slightly more likely to find work in
higher level occupations, but the differences are not large. What is particularly interesting is
the finding that even students who went to university in central London – an area which is
typically seen as a magnet for those seeking employment in the knowledge economy – were
more likely to enter a higher level occupation if they moved out of that city-region upon
graduation. It is difficult to explain the patterns in the data but a number of hypotheses can
be suggested. These are that:
•
•
•
students who do not move immediately upon graduation are simply considering their
options and in the meantime take on relatively low skilled employment60;
those who move on immediately after graduation are more motivated hence their
willingness to quickly move on;
there may be an association between taking employment immediately upon
graduation and a desire to move back to the city-region of origin.
In conclusion, the findings indicate that those who moved out of their city-region of study do
better, at least in the immediate period after completion of studies, than those who remain.
But the differences are small and should not be exaggerated. Many of those who choose to
remain in the area in which they studied were able to find professional/managerial
employment, in other words, work typically associated with graduates.
5.4
Recruitment of recent graduates
Thus far data have been provided based on the destinations of graduates, but there is also a
need to look graduate employment from the employer perspective. NESS2005 – a
representative survey of approximately 75,000 employers in England – is a vital source of
data on graduate recruitment. Not only does it provide robust information about the type of
employers who, over the previous 12 months,61 recruited graduates into (more of less) their
first job on leaving university, it also provides information on employers’ perceptions of
graduates’ preparedness for the work for which they had been taken on.
Overall, just under a quarter of all employers who had recruited young people aged 16-24
years to their first job on leaving education over the past twelve months had recruited a
60
61
This may be to pay off debts.
J. Shury et al., Employers Skill Survey 2005: Main Report, Learning and Skills Council,
Coventry, 2006
graduate (24 per cent). How this varied by city-region is presented in Table 5.5. Within the
city-regions of interest, Norwich had the lowest incidence of graduate recruitment (7 per cent
of all employers) and Plymouth the highest (12 per cent). Since the number of employers in
each city-region varies substantially the data need to be interpreted carefully. In fact,
London is the city-region where, in absolute terms, most employers had recruited graduates:
an estimated 41,50062 compared to 1,000 in Norwich and 1,500 in Sheffield. Because
London with its high share of corporate headquarters tends to dominate graduate
recruitment it is instructive to compare the recruitment of graduates in relation to this cityregion. Only Plymouth and Sheffield have a higher percentage of employers taking on
graduates compared to London.
Table 5.5: Graduate recruitment by city-region
City-region
Birmingham
Bristol
Cambridge
Canterbury
Coventry
Leeds
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Northampton
Norwich
Nottingham
Plymouth
Portsmouth/Southampton
Sheffield
Teesside
Non-case study city-regions
Other local authorities
All
Total
Whether recruited (row percentages)
16-24s
Yes, graduates
No
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
24
26
20
22
23
24
28
23
26
24
21
20
28
26
23
28
26
24
22
24
327,445
9
11
11
8
8
10
11
11
10
9
9
7
10
12
8
12
9
9
7
9
327,445
75
73
79
78
76
75
70
76
72
75
78
78
71
74
76
71
73
75
77
75
1,046,890
Graduate density
Base
61,425
25,384
9,815
19,474
15,763
62,604
22,785
365,390
73,592
32,960
13,359
14,107
17,514
11,747
29,348
18,236
16,047
263,344
317,260
37
43
53
39
33
40
40
50
39
37
42
32
35
47
36
41
34
38
33
37
1,390,155
Base: All employers
Source: NESS2005
Patterns of graduate recruitment will be driven by the propensity of employers to recruit in
the first instance – and whether or not they have adapted their recruitment to the changing
characteristics of labour supply – which in turn will be driven by, amongst other factors, the
size and industry characteristics of employers. In order to capture the extent to which
employers are inclined to recruit recent graduates more than other types of labour, a density
measure of graduate recruitment has been calculated as follows:
(% employers recruiting graduates / % recruiting 16-24s straight from education) *100
On average, just over a third of employers who had recruited anyone had taken on a recent
graduate. Cambridge had the highest density score with just over half of all employers (53
62
Reflecting the larger number of employers in the London city-region in comparison with other
city-regions.
per cent) who had recruited staff taking on recent graduates while the density score was
lowest in Coventry and Norwich where around a third (33 per cent and 32 per cent,
respectively) of recruiters of 16-24 year olds had taken on recent graduates.
NESS2005 also asks about employers’ satisfaction with the recruits they have recently taken
on (see Table 5.6). Overall around 80 per cent of employers felt that their graduate recruits
were either “very well” or “well” prepared for their job. But again the data reveal substantial
differences between city-regions. Canterbury ranks lowest with proportionately fewest
employers saying that their recruits were either very well or well prepared (76 per cent), and
Nottingham ranks highest (90 per cent).
5.5
The regional aspect of graduate employment
The evidence presented above indicates that:
•
•
•
•
with few exceptions across the city-regions, graduates are just as likely to find
different types of graduate job;
within each city-region, a large percentage of graduates from local universities go on
to obtain graduate jobs in that city-region;
there is a limited amount of city-region variation with respect to employers’ propensity
to recruit graduates;
employers across the city-regions find their graduate recruits to be well prepared.
One interpretation of the data is that employers in any given city-region have a substantial
number of graduates, willing to stay in the city-region of their HEI, from which to select for
employment. In looking at employers’ graduate recruitment practices within their city-region
the analysis looks at a number of different features:
•
•
•
•
5.6
employers’ perception of what defines their city-region;
the types of employer that seek local engagement with their HEI;
the beneficial aspects of local HEI – employer engagement;
the barriers to effective local HEI – employer engagement.
The employers view of “local”
When asked to name their local universities, most employers interpreted ‘local’ to be much
wider than their city-region. For example, of those interviewed in the case studies, most
Portsmouth / Southampton employers counted Bournemouth University as local, and a
Sheffield employer named Leeds and Manchester HEI alongside the University of Sheffield
and Sheffield Hallam. Some employers interpreted ‘local’ to mean their broad region when
discussing universities; employers in Canterbury, London, Middlesex and Cambridge named
HEI across the South East as ‘local’, as did employers in Manchester and Liverpool for
universities in the North West.
In Birmingham, employers would sometimes classify all Midlands universities of a certain
type as being local, such as all the pre-1992 universities: Birmingham, Aston, Warwick,
Nottingham, Loughborough, and Leicester. It was only in the more remote areas, such as
Newcastle and Plymouth that employers’ regarded “local university” in terms consistent with
a city-region.
Table 5.6: Employer satisfaction with graduate recruits by city-region (all employers)
row percentages
Recruited very well
prepared graduates
Birmingham
22
Bristol
29
Cambridge
19
Canterbury
27
Coventry
23
Leeds
26
Liverpool
23
London
25
Manchester
28
Newcastle
28
Northampton
29
Norwich
35
Nottingham
23
Plymouth
34
Portsmouth/Southampton
31
Sheffield
30
Teesside
30
Non-case study city26
regions
Other local authorities
27
All
26
Total
34070
Base:
All employers recruiting graduates
Source: NESS2005
Total
Recruited well
prepared
graduates
All well
prepared
Recruited
poorly
prepared
graduates
Recruited
very
poorly
prepared
graduates
All
poorly
prepared
Recruited
graduates
whose
preparation
varies
56
51
63
50
66
52
56
58
54
51
58
48
66
54
52
54
49
55
78
80
82
76
88
78
78
83
82
78
87
83
90
88
83
84
80
81
16
9
8
16
8
9
11
10
8
12
7
13
7
4
7
4
12
10
2
4
1
1
1
4
1
2
3
3
1
*
2
3
1
3
3
17
13
9
17
8
13
12
11
11
15
7
15
8
6
10
5
15
13
4
7
9
7
4
10
10
6
7
7
7
3
3
6
7
11
5
6
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
54
55
72711
81
81
106781
9
10
12817
2
2
2839
11
12
15656
9
7
8914
100%
100%
131352
59
How employers defined local appeared to depend upon three inter-related factors:
5.7
•
the distinctiveness of the city-region area. City-regions such as Plymouth and
Newcastle were not contiguous with other major city-region areas. Newcastle, for
instance, is 30 miles away from the Teesside city-region, and around 100 miles away
from the nearest comparable major cities of Leeds and Edinburgh. In contrast, cityregions such as Birmingham – Coventry are contiguous with other major city-region
areas and the nearest comparable cities, such as Leicester, Wolverhampton, or
Nottingham, are relatively nearby;
•
the functional area covered by an organisation. Employers too have their “trading
areas”, such that an employer in Birmingham regarded the “Midlands” as stretching
from Bristol to Nottingham. In the more isolated city-regions, such as Newcastle,
there was a degree of overlap between trading area and city-region, although even in
Newcastle the city-region could sometimes be interpreted as the North East and
thereby included Teesside;
•
the local focus of employers. Not all employers had a local focus with many
employers having a national or even international focus to their businesses and
recruitment activities. The fact that they were based in a given city-region –
especially in London, but not just here – was immaterial because their location was
not designed to be at the centre of their trading area. In this sense, the employer had
little or no affinity with their local area as they were national or international players.
What types of employer target local HEI?
For many employers the local link was an irrelevance. For many large employers that
required graduates to have a specific degree, the credentials / suitability of the degree
course was almost always paramount for employers, irrespective of locality. Some
employers sought a degree that was only offered by a handful of universities, others required
applicants to have a degree from an accredited course, and many were attracted to specific
courses which had a high practical component. For the majority of these employers the cityregion concept had little relevance when recruiting graduates. For larger employers not
requiring a specific degree, their recruitment often had a national perspective. Multi-site
organisations where centralised recruitment was the norm were the least likely have any
recruitment links with the universities local to each of their offices or branches.
The widespread use of web-based recruitment processes (either advertising the post on the
employer’s own website or using sites such as Milkround.com) among large employers
meant that the majority received applications from all over the country (and few took
geography into account as part of the selection process). This is not to say that large
employers did not report recruiting from local HEI but in many cases, where local universities
appear to be targeted this is not because of proximity but instead a coincidence that the local
university is of a suitably high calibre or runs a relevant course.
Many SMEs felt that they did not do enough (regular) graduate recruitment to forge links with
HEI (local or otherwise), but when they do recruit the tendency is to think local because they
have not got the time or resources to visit lots of universities around the country, nor the
‘name’ to attract graduates from further afield. These employers often did not have links in
the sense of having dealings with careers departments of local HEI, but tend to advertise in
the local press and as a result almost all applicants are from local HEI.
Although local HEI were usually not targeted because of their “localness” there were several
instances where they were targeted because of their proximity to the employer. In Chapter 3
– in Table 3.1 – a classification of employer recruitment behaviour was presented that
included “local management training schemes” as a distinct type: where recruitment was to a
management training scheme which did not require the recruit to be geographically mobile
60
(at least not an national or international scale) because career progression would be within a
given region or “trading area”. This arises where:
i.
ii.
the employer’s business was structured to serve a given region, such as the Midlands
division of a large multi-national; or
the business is a local one with most or all of its activities contained within a region.
Conditional upon being classified to this type of recruiter was the provision of a structured
learning programme following recruitment – so in practice these types of organisation were
recruiting to fast-track or sub-fast track management / professional training programmes.
In the context of targeting local HEI there are three further situations to consider:
iii.
iv.
v.
5.8
where local universities reflected the geographical concentration of certain industries,
such that they provided courses in subjects that will support local industry;
ad hoc recruitment by independent companies that tends to focus upon local HEI;
the coincidence of targeting local HEI even though the intention was not to do so.
Some employers in London, for instance, target the University of London not because
it is “local” but because, in their opinion, it provides the “best” nationally;
Recruitment to local fast-track training programmes
The example of a financial services company in Birmingham illustrates how, in this instance,
a large multi-national structured its recruitment on a regional basis. It targeted the “local”
universities because it wanted to recruit people to careers in the Midlands area. Here local
universities included Aston, Birmingham, Warwick, Nottingham, and Leicester. Recruitment
to the Birmingham office did not preclude employment at a later date to one of the
company’s other offices around the world, but the primary aim was to recruit people to
support the future of the business in the Midlands (see panel).
Case study: Financial Services
City-region: Birmingham
This large international company took on around 700 graduates in the UK every year to work in
a network of offices across the country. Graduate recruitment was regionally organised with a
Midlands based office recruiting for the Birmingham office and other smaller offices in the
region. Recruitment via the Midlands office could lead to a job anywhere in the network
depending upon the applicant’s preference. But in practice the company found that there were
a large number of graduates studying locally who wanted to stay in the region, and in particular
work in Birmingham.
By targeting five local universities they were able to attract a large number of high calibre
applicants for the jobs it had available (around eight times the number of applicants to jobs
available). Moreover, the advantage to the company was people recruited from local
universities were familiar with Birmingham and the region so there were no problems of people
finding it difficult to settle.
Because the company needed so many graduate recruits it also found it efficient to devote
much of its recruitment to specific universities and sell to graduates in those institutions the
possibility of developing a career in financial services in the region.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
Targeting local HEI also has the potential to aid retention. For example, some business
services professions based outside London (and either single-site or with all sites located in
one region) had encountered retention problems in the past, with recruits getting their
training then leaving the organisation for a London firm. To counter this, one medium sized
61
business services employer in Nottingham began to prioritise applications from people that
had a link to the local area (and therefore formed recruitment links with local universities as a
means of accessing local people). Not only has this approach been successful in retaining
graduates recruits, but a deeper link has developed with Nottingham Trent as a result; the
employer now provides CDs, presentations and information to the University. Similarly, a
law firm in Newcastle targeted the city’s two universities because it was more likely to recruit
people who wanted to stay in the region to develop their careers.
Targeting local universities was a retention tool – employers saw local universities as a
means of accessing people that were more likely to stay in the local area long-term. This
quote from a small business services employer was typical of the employers in this position:
“We don’t want them travelling long distances to get to our offices to work. We want people
within a reasonable driving distance of our office in the city centre - so if you go to Manchester
University they already have roots in the Manchester area. We don’t want people from out of
town – they may only stay a year because their roots aren’t here. We like to keep staff in the
long to medium term; once we’ve trained them up we don’t want to lose them”.
(Single-site SME, Business Services, Manchester)
An example is also provided of a company whose office was in Birmingham and found it
easier to target the local universities because the transaction costs in doing so were lower
than trying to contact all universities nationally, and because over many years both formal
and informal links had been forged with local institutions (see panel).
Case study: Building services
City-region: Birmingham
The company employs 75 people at its office in Birmingham. Each year the company recruits
around two to three trainee architects and engineers.
The company found it difficult to recruit people with degrees in architecture because of a
shortage of supply. Because the partnership had had strong links with one local university –
with several staff gaining their degree there – it had maintained the link through regular
attendance at student’s final year exhibitions, and engaged in lecturing.
But links with the main local university was not the only form of local link. The partnership had
also sought links with other universities in the Midlands offering degree subjects in which it was
interested. The local link was easier to maintain because it meant face-to-face contact could
be made, exhibitions could be attended, and so on without substantial time and travel costs.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
There are other cases where a relatively strong business-local HEI link had arisen because
of a historical link between an individual and an HEI rather than a concerted effort on the
part of the employer to resolve a recruitment or retention problem. In one such example in
Portsmouth, a medium sized manufacturing organisation had developed a link with
Bournemouth University as a result of the Managing Director having developed contacts in a
previous job; the relationship now involved taking on graduates in work placements,
lecturing, and the employer judging competitions at the University and partly as a result,
three out of four recent graduate recruits had come from Bournemouth University.
The examples above reveal two distinct features of targeting local universities:
•
first the desire to target local universities to attract people who want to settle in a
region and develop their careers there.
•
smaller companies who find the transaction costs of developing a link with local
universities to be lower than developing national links.
62
There was also an example in the North East of a local intermediary organisation helping
local companies recruit from local universities and the company found this to be beneficial.
The company itself had no particular interest in which university the graduates were
recruited from – they wanted people with the qualities that would contribute to the growth of
the business – but found that the process worked well for them.
5.9
Specialist recruitment
Historically, some local universities developed specialist courses to support local industry –
such as shipbuilding related courses in Newcastle and Portsmouth. Industrial change over
recent years has to some extent removed the distinctive regional industrial structures evident
when the red brick and pre-1992 universities were being established. For example, a
mechanical engineering company in Teesside had forged links with universities in Yorkshire
because the local universities no longer offered courses relevant to the organisation. But
there were vestiges of local specialisation in HEI that benefited local companies, such as
Portsmouth University offering a Naval Architecture course (see panel), or Sheffield Hallam
offering a material sciences degree to supply the local steel industry. In these cases
employer-HEI links tended to be relatively strong, even where other HEI across the country
offered a similar course.
Case study: Marine engineering
City-region: Portsmouth
The company designs and manufactures military and commercial ships, with a sales turnover
of c.£120m. It is part of a larger organisation with sales of £800m a year. Portsmouth is the
main site of the subsidiary and employs 800 people (three years ago it employed 1,500). Of the
800, 450 are employed in skilled trades, 250 in management, and 100 in clerical/administration.
Over the next four years the company is looking to expand its operations with the workforce
possibly doubling in size. Currently around 25 per cent of the workforce are graduates and
future growth will create a sizeable demand for graduates.
Recruiting graduates is difficult both with respect to quality (finding people able to work in
groups, develop and argue their point of view, and come to a consensus) and quantity. Every
year the company targets design graduates but finds in the areas of electrical design and naval
design that there are relatively few to recruit once other local employers – e.g. BAE – have
obtained their graduates from the few universities now offering naval design / architecture
courses.
In order to improve the supply of graduates the company has developed links with Portsmouth
and Bournemouth universities which both offer electrical design and naval design courses. The
benefit for the company is that the universities are local so the relationship can be readily
deepened through multiple contacts. This has already reaped rewards for the company: at a
recent graduate recruitment session, 10 of the 12 applicants were from Portsmouth University.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
5.10
Ad hoc recruitment at the local level
Many smaller employers did not have a recurrent demand for graduates and were more
likely to recruit on an ad hoc basis. The evidence suggests that when they did recruit they
tended not to target local universities. Because they were ad hoc recruiters they had not
developed relationships with any universities and tended to advertise generally for their
recruits, for example via advertisements in the trade press, newspaper adverts, websites,
etc. The process for them was relatively inefficient insofar as they were unsure at the outset
of the likely results which, in practice, tended to be either:
•
too many applications (difficult for smaller companies to sift);
63
•
•
5.11
too many applications from inappropriately qualified people;
too few applications.
How do employers benefit from recruitment links with local HEI?
For the majority of employers proximity is not necessarily the driving force for establishing a
recruitment link with a local university, other conditions need to be satisfied first. But once a
link has been established (due to a local university offering a specific course or being of the
required calibre) proximity can sometimes be responsible for this link deepening.
For
example, a Sheffield law firm’s recruitment was driven by the calibre of university which has
meant recruitment links being formed with the University of Sheffield but not Sheffield
Hallam, as well as some other universities at a distance. But the proximity of the University
of Sheffield meant that deeper links were fostered with this university than elsewhere. For
example, a member of staff from the HR department sits on the board of Sheffield University
Law School and advises on employers’ recruitment needs.
Where active links with local HEI exist they have sometimes developed coincidentally in that
the local HEI in question is one of a number targeted around the country, but then deeper
links have developed with the local HEI because it is more convenient for the employer to
visit a local university for any links such as sitting on a department board, judging
competitions, or giving presentations to undergraduates. It is also the case that some
employers have found university careers departments more likely to be receptive to
employer engagement if the employer is based locally.
But where local links have been developed the evidence suggests they are beneficial to the
employer. Those that are able to establish them are, other things being equal, better able to
acquire the graduates they want to recruit because they obtain the following benefits:
•
•
•
awareness amongst the graduate population that there are graduate vacancies in the
organisation;
clear signalling of the requirements needed to be considered for employment;
informal contacts through departments can also provide companies with links to
“good graduates”.
In turn this generates:
•
a better match between applicants’ aspirations and the needs of the company which
leads to:
o
o
o
a manageable number of applicants;
improved supply of graduates in subjects where demand outstrips supply;
improved retention of graduates.
For some employers links with local universities were seen as a way of giving something
back to the area or region, though understandably this motivation converged with the
employers’ recruitment needs:
‘We go to career days [of local Universities], go to student film shows, help with lectures, offer
practical advice to students if tutors ask, deal with ad hoc requests (e.g. to use
facilities)…with all these things, they’re basically more important to the colleges than us, but
it’s our way of putting something back, and as we grow, and recruitment demands increase, it
will grow in importance for us’
(Single-site SME, Media, Leeds)
64
5.12
Barriers to the development of local HEI links
Where employers tried to forge links with a local HEI they occasionally reported difficulties.
For example, a construction company in Coventry that was keen to train existing employees
up to degree level (and had not done so previously) found it hard to establish a link with a
local HEI, reporting encountering difficulties when trying to access the appropriate member
of staff. Similarly, a law firm in Sheffield was keen to establish links with local HEI to ensure
that the organisation ‘had a significant presence’ among undergraduates. This employer
found that they had work hard to form these links.
The evidence from the case studies indicates that developing systematic links with local HEI
is an investment by the employer. Moreover the evidence suggests that, in the absence of
intermediary organisations such as the one cited in the North East, these links are time
consuming, built up over a number of years, and consequently expensive to establish.
Establishing a link with a local, or any, university requires a long-term investment, but where
that investment has been made the evidence points to it reaping rewards for the employer.
5.13
Conclusion
With the increase in the HE participation rate many more students than hitherto are choosing
to study at a university close to the parental home, possibly living at home whilst studying.
Whilst it is not possible to make the link between people choosing to study locally also
choosing to work locally after graduation, prima facie evidence suggests that many are doing
so. For local employers there is a rich pool of talent on their doorstep from which they can
recruit their future workforce. Moreover, the data overall reveal that there are relatively few
differences between city-regions in their ability to retain and attract graduates. More or less
equal proportions of graduates entered different types of graduate job in each city-region.
The capacity of city-regions to attract graduates appears to be one of scale rather than any
other factor.
Why should employers recruit from their local HEI? There are a number of reasons revealed
by the case study evidence:
•
because some local businesses want to recruit individuals who want to develop their
careers locally and not be attracted to the “bright lights” of London and beyond;
•
local links are easier to maintain than ones at a distance, insofar as the transaction
costs are lower and the opportunities for frequent contact are greater;
•
because some local universities provide courses relevant to the local industrial
structure that are not provided elsewhere.
From the student’s perspective the evidence suggests that there is no penalty – or at least
not a large one - attached to staying in the area of study after graduation. Many graduates
who remain in their city-region of their university end up in higher level occupations – in other
words, in graduate jobs.
There is overall evidence that targeting at the local level pays dividends for employers in that
it focuses resources efficiently. But a degree of effort is required by local employers to
establish links. It is also the case that those employers who benefit from local targeting do
so because others are not targeting local HEI. Should all local potential employers who
might benefit from developing local HEI links do so, then the benefits individual companies
currently obtain might weaken unless the quality of all graduates is even.
65
6. OTHER LINKS
6.1
Introduction
Thus far the assessment of university–employer engagement has concentrated upon labour
supply. But there are a range of other services that universities are well placed to provide
their local economy some of which are supported by programmes funded through, amongst
others, Regional Development Authorities and EU research programmes. Of issue is the
extent to which university–employer engagement has a deliberate local or regional focus or
whether, if local/regional links exist, these occur through chance.
For university-employer engagement to take place there needs to be a degree of
accordance between supply and demand. Employer demand for a particular service needs
to be matched by university supply. Over time there is evidence that local education
institutions have developed expertise that complements the local economic infrastructure.
For example, the University of Newcastle ran a course in Marine Architecture reflecting the
concentration of the North-east’s economic activity in shipbuilding. But the economic
structures of most regions over recent years have changed substantially with the decline of
traditional industries and the heterogeneous character of the industries that have replaced
them. Today, the characteristics of local or regional economies are much less unique than
they once were with implications for the extent to which local HEI can provide industry
specific support.
On the whole the incidence of engagement between universities and employers other than
for recruitment was relatively common and related to three areas of activity:
•
•
•
technical assistance/R&D;
continuing professional development of existing staff;
lecturing.
Each of these forms of engagement is discussed in turn. Overall the study generally found
that these relationships were informal, and somewhat ad hoc.
6.2
Technical assistance
Universities are often well placed to provide expert scientific assistance to companies, but
the evidence from the research suggests that such relationships are (a) informal and (b)
uncoordinated within companies. By way of context it needs to be borne in mind that there a
number of programmes that aim to formalise relationships between universities and
employers – such as the DTI’s Knowledge Transfer umbrella of support – and that the case
studies reported here are not necessarily representative of the population of workplaces.
In the case of the former, the scientific laboratory in Newcastle described below is an
exemplar. The company was founded by a group of chemists with a particular interest in
organic chemistry. Initially links were developed with a local university because a research
scientist there had an invention that the company could exploit. But the relationship followed
the research scientist. When he moved to another university the link followed him there (see
panel).
66
Case study: Chemical laboratory
City-region: Newcastle
The company manufactures small volume, complex compounds. In summary, a client would
request the company to produce a chemical with certain properties and the company would
then devise a process to do so. Employment at the site was divided into two groups: (a)
analytical chemists and (b) research chemists.
Analytical chemists were typically qualified to first degree level, but research chemists were
nearly all PhDs. The company had links with a variety of universities often developed because
existing chemists had studied there, or because a researcher in a university had an innovation
which the laboratory could turn into a commercial asset.
There had been a link to Durham University because a chemist there was working in an area
the company was engaged in but when he moved to another university the link transferred to
that university.
The company also sponsored PhD students where they were working in a related area and
where their research could be turned into a commercial property. The company retained the
intellectual property rights of PhD research it funded. Students tended not to be studying at
local universities.
Although a local link was preferable because of proximity and the scope this gave for contact,
what was most important was the particular specialism a university could provide.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
This example is instructive in two respects. First, although the initial link was developed
through a common expertise and the nature of the link was local but it need not have been.
In this sense the local link was accidental. Second, the nature of the link meant that it would
go wherever the scientist went.
Scientific research programmes such as those developed by the European Commission also
provide one route for companies to participate with universities. A few companies
mentioned that they had participated in this type of activity in the past, but it tended to be a
discrete involvement rather than on-going.
There is sometimes a limited degree of connectivity within organisations. One example from
the case studies was a large industrial conglomerate that sought to recruit around 40
graduates every year and which had strong links with science departments in several
universities for purposes of R&D. It found it exceedingly difficult to find the recruits it wanted:
graduates with some experience of business (such as having done a relevant job placement)
and with the capability to reach senior management positions with the company. At the
same time, several of its scientific personnel were actively engaged with local university
science departments. But there was little co-ordination of these activities whereby contacts
with the university science departments might be capitalised upon to meet the recruitment
needs of the company.
One company that took on a graduate from a local university as part of a knowledge transfer
programme complained that the graduate’s divided obligations between the work he was
doing for them and his work at the university. These dual commitments resulted in the
company delaying a new product offering that the graduate had personally developed.
Knowledge transfers therefore appear to have a lot to offer businesses, particularly those
involved in scientific research, however, HEI need to consider the needs of employers
engaged in such programmes and plan from the offset how and when transferred personnel
will work for each organisation, in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest (see panel).
67
Case study: Industrial valve manufacturer
City-region: Manchester
The company designs, manufactures and distributes hydraulic and pneumatic valves for use in
industry. A growing business, currently investing in new machines in order to increase
production as well as investing in new techniques in data capture (measuring the efficiency of
products) for use by their clients.
The company recently took on a research student from a local university following an approach
from the latter. The graduate successfully developed new techniques in data capture which the
company were satisfied with and wanted to offer as a new service to their clients. However,
roll-out of this new service was delayed due to the split commitments of the transferred
graduate between the company and the university (that still paid his wages).
As a result should a similar opportunity occur in the future, the company is most likely to
employ someone full-time rather than participate in another knowledge transfer scheme in
order to retain full control over their employees’ time.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
In general, large manufacturing and engineering employers often had formal links with
universities established at an institutional level through research grants and joint ventures.
For the most part, however, the links were often at an individual level and not formalised –
an individual in a company had developed a link with a person in a university somewhere,
either because of a joint interest or because they had studied at that university (especially if
they had been a postgraduate student in a scientific subject).
From an industrial
development perspective, is this a good arrangement? Evidence from around the world
suggests that knowledge transfer is too difficult to effect for a number of reasons and the
examples of a university developing something that then becomes a highly successful
commercial entity are, whilst newsworthy, rare. The Lambert Review has highlighted
problems that arise in relation to IP and how this sometimes strangles any effective
university–industry linkage. What is perhaps most important is that there are links between
universities and industry, be they formal or institutionalised. Evidence collected in this study
indicates that there is a considerable amount of knowledge transfer taking place but that it is
sometimes informal, at the level of individual relationships, that is unlikely to be captured in
knowledge transfer statistics (patents applied for, joint ventures formed, etc.). Nonetheless
the knowledge transfer is taking place. By attempting to institutionalise these links the
danger is that the problems identified in the Lambert Review prevent the relationship
developing.
6.3
Continuing professional development
There are two kinds of CPD:
(a) high level, long duration, qualification related qualifications (e.g. MBA); and
(b) more targeted, lower level CPD (e.g. general management development).
HEI are generally well regarded with respect to (a) but less so for (b) where sometimes their
courses are not sufficiently flexible or are too focused on providing a qualification or CAT
points.
In relation to CPD the relationship is predominantly a local one because people need to be
in close proximity to where they work to avoid disruption to their day-to-day work.
Universities possess an advantage over the private CPD market in this area because their
68
courses lead to the award of a high status qualification - such as an MBA, but also other
lower qualifications that nonetheless carried a university’s trade mark of quality.
How universities fulfil a CPD role – and a wider lifelong learning one - in relation to
employers is exemplified by the following example (see panel).
Case study: Pharmaceutical manufacturer
City-region: Kent
A foreign-owned pharmaceutical firm that has grown to become one of the biggest healthcare
firms in the world. The company researches and develops its own drugs in-house. The
particular site featured in this study is primarily a manufacturing site.
Providing CPD performs two functions for the company, it engenders scientific knowledge
amongst the site’s scientists – which is necessary for an efficient and consistent manufacturing
process – and it acts as a means of retaining recruits who, more often than not, expect their
employers to fund their development and training.
The company uses HEI to train non-graduate staff up to first degree level, as well as for postgraduate qualifications such as PhDs and MBAs. Such courses are fully funded by the
company. Employees most often study through distance learning or through day-release
schemes.
A specific local university is most often used as it is viewed by the employer as being strong in
its required fields (science and engineering) as well as offering local convenience. However,
the HEI was criticised for being inflexible to the needs of employees who may work irregular
hours or shifts that conflict with the HEI’s course schedules.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
It was usually companies or often employees within companies that initiated the link in these
cases and universities often appeared to have been passive in this area.
HEI were criticised by some employers for being too inflexible in their scheduling of their
courses and the availability of tutors. Employees who have to fit their studying around shift
work or irregular hours often find it difficult to study within HEI schedules, which employers
viewed as being arranged primarily for the convenience of full-time students based on
campus. Employers suggested that HEI arrange additional or more flexible hours for
teaching, as well as arranging more childcare facilities for working mothers who want to
study. Some employers also viewed the level of communication they receive from HEI as
being poor. In particular, employers funding part or all of an employees’ studies feel that they
are entitled to regular updates on their employees’ performance and attendance which some
do not currently receive.
6.4
Foundation Degrees
Foundation Degrees (FDs) were seen as a means of providing the basis of a degree level of
education within the workplace comparable to that of a first degree. Albeit from a limited
number of case studies, FDs are seen as a valuable means of providing continuing
development to the workforce – and it tends to be people in their late 20s and early 30s who
entered FDs. And whilst HEI accredit FDs it is the local FE sector that delivers them in many
cases.
For employers, FDs were beneficial because they provided theoretical training that related
directly to the company’s needs: so FD students solved problems that were applicable to
their day-to-day jobs. It also provided a pool of workers to fill a range of higher level jobs in
69
the organisation. But FD graduates were considered in some organisations that also had
graduate recruitment programmes to be on a different career track to those of the graduate
recruitment programme. In part, because they had entered the organisation at a lower level
and so have to demonstrate their capability to be promoted to that higher career track
possibly by volunteering to study for an honours degree.
FDs were recognised by employers as an important source of training to assist with their
employees’ career development. But it had not developed the relationship between
employers and HEI, rather it reinforced relationships with the FE sector. The example below
shows how FDs worked in practice at a large employer that was able to have a bespoke FD
designed for it (see panel).
Case study: Engineering plant
City-region: Midlands
The company is a large engineering company based in the Midlands. There is a strong ethos
of learning at the company: they recruit on attitude and then train people. They will invest in
training in any person provided that they can demonstrate some form of business benefit.
There are two graduate programmes: (i) students who are sponsored - £1,000 a year – to study
engineering at university full-time, including summer placements and a one-year placement at
the company.; (ii) a Foundation Degree (FD) programme. The company decided to invest in
these because it provided a means to further develop people in the business – many of whom
may not have had much experience of post-compulsory education – in a way that was of
benefit to the business.
FDs are good for the business because the company has had a strong hand in developing the
degree. They are now in their third year of having students studying for FDs. They study the
following modules: electrics; hydraulics; CAD; gears; and stress and forces. All are taught with
a company application to demonstrate general engineering principles. The course is delivered
at a local FE – with whom the company has a long-standing relationship – and is accredited by
a local university. It takes five years to complete the FD, but students can leave at any point
and be accredited to that stage – so “no one fails” – this is important in terms of people being
confident to study. The company recognises that people’s circumstances change – e.g. starting
a family – that prevents them completing the five year course, but there is a need for them to
obtain something from the stage they reach.
The big attraction for the company is that it is a partnership with the college – people are being
taught subjects relevant to the company and their day-to-day jobs. This is considered much
better than the BTech route which insisted upon modules being taught even though they were
of no interest or application to the company. The company thinks FDs will replace the
HNC/HND route to qualification that the company had used in the past.
The company can point to people who have benefited from FDs and have obtained promotion
as a consequence of studying towards an FD. The company is not concerned that people may
leave once they are accredited – there is low labour turnover and plenty of development
opportunities for progression if the individual wants to push themselves.
The FD is also a partnership between company and employee: the company allows one
afternoon a week for study at the college and the individual gives up one evening. In this way
both are making a commitment.
The FD and graduate schemes lead to different career tracks. Their respective purposes are
different. The latter is for academically oriented people who will go onto management and
senior technical roles within the establishment. The former is an opportunity for more
vocationally oriented progression and does not go to the same level as an ordinary degree.
The FD provides a basis upon which people can develop if they so wish, including going on to
study for an ordinary or honours degree.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
70
6.5
Lecturing and provision of other advice to HEI
The third type of link relates to company employees being engaged by universities to deliver
lecturers or offer advice about a range of subjects, such as the vocational preparedness of
students. Links here tend to develop through two routes: first, where a company employee
had studied at a university and had maintained links with them; and second where the link
had developed through other forms of contact such as recruiting staff.
The architectural practice described below exemplifies the first type of link. It had been
founded by a group of lecturers in the 1960s who had maintained contact with the university
which they had left. This relationship had been developed through successive generations
of employees and they were invited to give lecturers on various aspects of design (see
panel).
Case study: Architectural practice
City-region: Birmingham
The practice had been established in the 1960s by a group of lecturers at a local university.
The organisation had grown substantially over a number of years so that it was now one of the
larger practices in the region. It carried out work nationwide.
Recruiting architects was reported as difficult with demand outstripping supply nationwide. To
aid recruitment the practice worked hard to develop good links at all the regional universities
with an architecture course. The company would, for example, get involved in the final year
presentations of the students’ designs so that it could identify local talent.
Because the practice had developed out of a university, links had been maintained with that
institution through architects providing occasional lectures which, again, helped raise the profile
of the practice. But it was pointed out that the links were far from formal and often at an
individual level rather than at an institutional level. It was the graduate who attended the
university that tended to go back and lecture there.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
The second type of link developed out a local company initially developing links with a
university or department for recruitment purposes. This relationship had blossomed such
that members of the company now advise the department on various aspects of vocational
preparedness required of graduates from its course.
Case study: Law Firm
City-region: Newcastle
The company recruited graduates predominantly from local universities. As a local company it
was easier to develop links with the local universities rather than those further a field. Supply of
law graduates in the region was in excess of demand so the company felt that it could recruit
easily from local institutions for people who wanted to stay in the region.
The company targeted its activities principally at two departments at which many of its senior
staff and partners had studied and this had resulted in the relationship developing beyond
recruitment. Because law is mainly a vocational preparation the company had become
involved in providing advice on the vocational standards required to work in a law firm.
The advice was not aimed at altering the curriculum but at assisting with the career advice the
departments gave to their students who wanted to become lawyers.
Source: DfES Employer Engagement Case Studies (IER/IFF)
71
6.6
How systematic are employer-HEI links?
What can be learnt from the links beyond the mere recruitment of graduates that had
developed between employers and universities? Where employers had engaged with
universities in this way they had found this a rewarding exercise.
Does one kind of link lead to another? The evidence is a little ambiguous. One of the
principal reasons companies have for establishing a relationship with a university is
recruitment 63. This is, in some cases, the glue that keeps people attached to a university
that then leads on to other types of relationship such as involvement in lectures or advising
on various features of, say, professional education. This then reinforces the link for
recruitment purposes. In areas of shortage it allows the company to promote its name within
the HEI.
It seems that businesses that have a high need for technical or scientific knowledge are
more likely to have a link that goes beyond just recruitment. Such businesses have a
greater need for the types of training that only HEI can provide (degrees, PhDs, etc.).
Reflecting this, students studying scientific and engineering subjects have a greater need for
work placements or sandwich years in industry. Such opportunities to see theoretical
concepts being put to practical use deepens their understanding. Such courses tend to
confer more ‘specialist’ knowledge in a particular field or subject, which often becomes more
sought after by those employers who rely on such knowledge (who have to compete with
other such businesses in order to obtain it).
In contrast, arts and social science subjects develop skills in problem solving, constructing
an argument and communication as well as the ability to work independently. Whilst these
skills are seen as being highly desirable by employers, there is a much wider pool of
graduates in the job market with such skills. Many employers therefore believe they have
little incentive to engage with HEI in order to recruit and develop the graduates they need (a
possible exception to this being economics students, the best of whom are highly prized by
businesses in the banking / investment sector. As a result such firms tend to have a high
level of engagement with universities, though it is also the case that the finance sector is
dominated by large employers that typically have an annual graduate recruitment
programme and this also influences the high degree of engagement with HEI).
6.7
The spatial element
Employer engagement with HEI in relation to CPD or R&D was limited. In the case of CPD
it tended to be a case of employees “voting with their feet” and choosing to study locally
because of the convenience this afforded. It should be noted that CPD was, for the most
part, organised on an individual basis with individual employees studying towards
qualifications such as an MBA.
Where R&D links were established locally this tended to be coincidental in that companies
were looking for a particular expertise – that this could be found locally was an advantage,
but the link was always going to be established with the department or individual academic
who could provide particular expertise. This related to formal links, where companies had
long-standing relationships with university departments, and on a more informal basis where
it related to an individual academic.
63
The findings here need to be carefully interpreted because the study only interviewed those
employers that had recruited recent graduates. That said, the principal link employers have
with universities is recruitment since this the main output of universities.
72
6.8
Conclusion
Links other than for recruitment purposes, though limited, were highly valued by employers,
especially so in relation to R&D. Where they were less valued, in some respects, was
where the links were trying to be artificially forged, especially so where universities were
trying to engage employers in a particular programme. Here, at least one employer
complained about the artificial nature of the link that was being attempted.
For the larger employers R&D links were formalised with long-standing relationships
between universities and companies. For many of the other companies the relationships
were much less systematic and more informal, related to a particular academic having a
common interest. Although links in many instances were of an informal type they were
nonetheless of benefit to both parties. The informality of linkages was also carried over into
other areas such as lecturing.
73
7. CONCLUSION
7.1
Introduction
A number of important findings have emerged from this study. While these findings mainly
relate to graduate recruitment, such recruitment was often the basis for other forms of
employer–HEI engagement, such as research and development (R&D), continuing
professional development (CPD) and other, more ad hoc, arrangements (e.g. guest
lectures). The different forms of engagement are considered in turn, below.
7.2
Graduate recruitment
Businesses stand to gain from recruiting graduates but only if they recruit the right ones (see
Chapter 2 above). Overall employers appear satisfied with the preparedness of their
graduate recruits – an important finding in the context of the substantial increase in HE
participation rates. Structured recruitment methods, allied to post-recruitment training and
professional development, result in a high degree of employer satisfaction and, judging from
the failure to report retention problems, high levels of satisfaction from their graduate recruits
too. Related to this is the finding that graduates provide added value to the employer – they
bring qualities that are less prevalent amongst non-graduates – and from this one may infer
that the benefits from recruiting graduates are considerable.
Obtaining the ‘right’ graduate – i.e. one who has the skills necessary to fulfil the
requirements of the job to which they have been recruited and whose career expectations
are closely matched to those the employer can reasonably provide – is dependent upon the
employer investing in a relationship with the HEI.
Traditional graduate recruiters were, by and large, able to acquire the type of graduate they
wanted but the effort they expended was considerable – making contact with universities in
order to raise their profile and to make second year students aware of what the company
looks for in recruits, and the rewards available. This tended to be carried out on a
nationwide scale and for some companies, across Europe as well. These employers also
reported that they felt students were becoming more instrumental with respect to their
careers by acquiring the attributes that would gain them access to a traditional graduate
employer. Students may not be wholly certain about their career direction but they are
aware of the generic attributes needed to obtain employment with this type of company.
In relation to employers recruiting into what has been referred to as modern graduate jobs,
the experience of recruitment was more mixed. Whilst some case study employers were
able to acquire the type of graduate they wanted, others had much more difficulty. Where
employers were less satisfied with their graduate recruits it stemmed from a lack of
engagement with HEI. They had little knowledge of the graduate labour market and had
unrealistic expectations of what a graduate might provide for a given wage. These
employers may have been in a minority, but the case study evidence suggests that they
were often what might be referred to as the “new graduate recruiters” - those employers
which had entered the graduate recruitment market given the recent expansion in HE
participation rates.
Observing a gap between what employers want (or think they want) and what is supplied by
HEI is not new finding. Others, such as the 1997 Dearing Report and the 2005 Skills
Strategy, have drawn attention to such a gap (see section 2.4 above). A key question here
is the extent to which an immature recruitment market is being observed. These employers
have only recently engaged in the process of graduate recruitment and are finding their feet
with respect to how they might obtain the personnel they require. Related to this is the
extent to which there is a mismatch between the expectations of the employer and the
graduate recruit. It was also amongst modern graduate jobs that there was less likelihood of
structured, formal career development after recruitment.
74
As immature graduate recruiters there was, possibly, a degree of naiveté with respect to how
easy it would be for them to engage with universities. In reality many found it more difficult
than they had expected and amongst this group responses ranged from:
•
the futility of trying to engage with universities, especially so when you are a small
employer; to
•
we have tried to make contact with the university but it is difficult to find someone
who is responsive.
These are companies that are committed to recruiting graduates: they have a recent history
of graduate recruitment and they expect to continue to do so. As immature graduate
recruiters one might take a sanguine line and suggest that over time, as universities adapt to
the need to help many more students find jobs, that there will be a better degree of match
between employer and university. Engagement will occur, it will just take time. The key
question of course is whether this will happen quickly enough. The danger in this situation is
that employers with a demand for graduate recruits will drift away from universities and
become just-in-time recruiters because that is the only option available to them.
That said, overall, at a national level, the results reveal a positive picture with respect to
employer – HEI engagement for those businesses that have a tradition of recruiting
graduates. In this respect, the recommendations of Leitch in building a higher level of
employer engagement in skills provision, insofar as they affect higher education, look to
build on a solid foundation.
7.3
Technical assistance/R&D
Amongst some employers there were long established links with universities in relation to
R&D. The relationships appear to have been established where there was an overlap in the
interests between departments, or individual scientists, with those of particular companies. It
is recognised that many universities have arrangements in place to exploit their IP, and
assist companies with the product and process developments. Warwick Manufacturing
Group is a well known example of this type of arrangement. But the evidence collected in
this study reveals that away from the very largest companies the links between companies
and universities are often informal, and not systematic. Through networks of contacts, or
simply because an individual studied at a particular university, links are developed, but it is
not clear that these links are institutionalised or long-lived. Often the linkage will follow a
scientist as they move between universities.
There is clearly much less of a market in place in relation to this form of link. Companies do
not appear to be in active search of R&D support, from the selection of case studies in this
report, and similarly, where universities have engaged with companies they do not appear to
have been in competition to supply the R&D service.
7.4
Continuing professional development
Much of the CPD link was at an individual level with employees developing links with
universities to study, for the most part, for MBA or related type business qualifications. Here
employees had a degree of choice as to where they wanted to study but often chose a local
HEI because of the benefits of being close to the university for purposes of study. MBA
courses also provided the opportunity for alumni to network on a regular basis which was
readily attended if local. Other types of CPD linkage were not commonly reported by
employers.
Overall, the evidence presented in this study with respect to other forms of employer – HEI
engagement, such as involvement in networks, R&D / knowledge transfer, lifelong learning /
CPD – is broadly consistent with the Lambert Review in that links appear, on the basis of
the case study evidence, to be neither systematic nor formalised.
75
7.5
Geographical considerations
A unique feature of the study was its focus upon the city-region dimension. The study has
much to say here and the following can be highlighted:
•
•
•
•
•
•
proportionately, employers in the city-regions obtain their fair share of graduates.
Whilst London may have a numerically large share of graduates this stems from the
simple fact that more businesses are located there. Overall, the share of graduates
that a city-region is able to retain from its local universities is proportionate to the
number of graduates it produces from those universities;
from this, if city-region x wants to retain a numerically greater number of graduates
from its local universities then, other things being equal, it needs to produce more
local graduates;
employers in city-regions, especially in city-regions that produce a large number of
graduates relative to the size of their population (such as the North East), find
themselves in a relatively beneficial position should they wish to recruit graduates;
some employers, notably those that have operations limited to a city-region, find it
beneficial to develop relationships with a local university. Proximity makes it easier
to maintain regular face-to-face contact between HEI and employer. This allows
them to communicate the existence of job opportunities for graduates and raise the
possibility of other forms of collaboration;
the case study evidence demonstrates that some employers in city-regions have
effective strategies to obtain the graduates and other services they need from local
universities. To achieve this requires employers to make a substantial investment in
maintaining relationships with HEIs but, other things being equal, it is less costly to
develop this relationship locally than nationally.
overall, where employers fail to obtain want they require from HEI it is because they
have a passive approach to the relationship. This might suggest a market failure in
that these employers are systematically failing to engage with a range of institutions
that seek to connect employers with graduates. These are often SMEs operating in
a limited geographical area.
Where employers are based wholly locally and where the supply of graduates (of the type
required) is in excess of demand, then there is a benefit to targeting local universities. In the
more outlying city-regions there was a preference for recruits who were looking to settle
locally rather than using their current employment as a stepping stone to a promotion that
may lie outside the current locality. Other employers looked to recruit nationally because
they were looking for relatively mobile graduates.
But there were a number of employers who were wholly or mainly located in one region that
recruited on a national basis. Where these were relatively small organisations this resulted
in a limited resource for recruitment being spread thinly sometimes with disappointing
results: too many applications from graduates with the wrong attributes. In many respects
advertising and websites made it easy to recruit nationally, but at the same time these
employers had negligible contact with their local HEI.
With local and regional economies being much less reliant upon particular industries than
they once were the ability of HEI to specialise in a given subject area of local importance –
such as marine engineering in Portsmouth/Southampton, or Newcastle – is consequently
limited. There is evidence where such an arrangement is in place that it serves the
employer well (as the example of the Portsmouth/Southampton city-region reveals). But the
scope for this type of arrangement is much less than it was, say, 50 years ago. The
evidence in relation to technical assistance/R&D links is that it tends to go to where the
expertise is located; where this is local it tends to be coincidence rather than a preference to
obtain this type of service locally. That said, where the service can be provided locally it
confers all the advantages close proximity provides: more regular contact, ability to meet
face-to-face, etc.
76
CPD links tend to be local because of a preference of individuals to consume this service
locally rather than having to travel afar.
7.6
Formal, systematised engagement
Section 2.4 (above) highlighted the evidence of benefits from formal systematised links with
HEI. Such links were not solely the preserve of large employers. Whilst all of the large case
study employers had formal linkages with HEI, mainly for purposes of recruitment, other,
smaller, employers had also been able to achieve this. These employers had made a
substantial effort and investment to achieve the links with employers and they found that the
investment worked for them. Put simply they knew what they were looking for, developed the
relationships to acquire it, and were generally successful in doing so. The links they had
been able to establish were sometimes with specific departments, such as the architectural
practice in Birmingham or the law firm in Newcastle. The returns they obtained, in their view,
were applications from better candidates than they would otherwise receive.
The Leitch Review recommends the creation of a demand led skills system. In relation to
higher education, on the basis of the evidence presented here, it is difficult to gauge the
extent to which this is true at present. Successful graduate recruiters engage fully with HEIs
to obtain the graduates they required but they appear to have little influence, if any at all,
over the course content or the vocational readiness of graduates. If it is taking place then it
is in more indirect manner, possibly via representative business organisations. But, given the
high overall satisfaction with their graduate recruits, is the lack of influence a problem? This
may well represent a success story, in the sense that in many cases, universities are able to
supply employers with graduates of the required standard with minimal employer influence.
The evidence indicates that employers know little about Foundation Degrees (FDs), which
might be considered the sine qua non of employer engagement with HE, but where they
have participated in FDs their responses are very favourable indeed because FDs deliver
the exact skills the employer requires in the workplace. However, employers that participate
in FDs typically see these employees as being on a different career path to that of first
degree graduates.
Graduate recruitment is very often the catalyst for other forms of HEI – employer
engagement. Alumnus will often approach their university to find a particular service. This is
often supported by HEI’s attempts to retain contact with their alumni.
Gaining a more complete understanding of how employers may interact with HEI requires
some conceptualisation of the role universities potentially might play. One approach is to
regard HEI as a ‘hub’ operating within different geographical dimensions (see section 1.4
above). The role played by a particular HEI within a particular dimension will depend on the
nature of economic activity and the presence and number of competitors within that
geographic space; as well as the nature of the local/ regional role that the HEI wishes to
play. HEI, from an employer perspective, can be seen to have the following types of
engagement:
•
•
•
•
•
as a supplier of labour (principally graduates);
a source of labour demand (many HEI are now amongst the largest employers in
their city-regions);
a source of lifelong learning / continuous professional development and training
(CPD);
a supplier of research and development (R&D); and
a player in a variety of economic development related networks and partnerships,
typically publicly funded (by UK Government, EU, etc.).
Economic development at the local and regional level - especially that related to the
development of the knowledge economy - is dependent upon a supply of high level skills
77
and knowledge of a kind typically produced by universities. Many universities, especially the
civic institutions of the mid 20th century, and later the former polytechnics, had close local
and regional ties, often to the main local employer. With the decline of traditional industrial
structures the make-up of many local economies is such that they are no longer reliant upon
a small number of large employers or specific industries. This poses a challenge to HEI
insofar as developing the local dimension means being able to reach across a wide range of
activities: the emphasis is upon the generic rather than the specific. It also results in HEI
needing to feed into new kinds of economic activity and related employment and identify
new types of employer that might benefit from links with HEI.
The above discussion suggests that a typology of employer-HEI engagement needs to be
based around four factors. These are:
•
•
•
•
geographical: are the links local, regional, national, and/or international;
employer (located in mature and/or new/growing industries, SMEs);
scope of links; and
the extent to which links are systematic.
To date, much of the discussion, and evidence, relating to employer-HEI engagement has
been rather one-dimensional (see section 2.3 above). There is now a wealth of information
on the progression of individual graduates in the labour market, but much less is known
about employers’ graduate recruitment behaviour. The only systematic, statistically
representative data available is that from the National Employers Skill Survey, and that
asked very few questions about graduates.
The case studies have provided a substantial amount of material from employers covering a
wide range of areas (recruitment, training of graduates, HEIs as a source of lifelong learning
and R&D). Utilising this evidence, a more multi-dimensional picture of employer-HEI
engagement can be created in the form of the typology of engagement presented in Table
7.1.
Table 7.1 is intended to show where employer engagement with local HEI is likely to
develop. A minority of employers appeared to have no specific or structured link with local
HEI. These tended to be large employers with well established graduate recruitment
programmes who liaised with career services across most HEI and a second group of
employers (often SME) that simply advertised for graduates. Nevertheless, most employers
were engaged in some form of targeting in their graduate recruitment and this sometimes
included a local dimension. Targeted graduate recruitment often took the form of a focus on
universities considered to be the “best” or which offered a specific course. Even here, there
could an important local dimension. The benefits of a link to a local HEI (ease of
establishment of the link, convenience, ability to recruit local students who wanted to
develop a career locally) meant that many employers put additional effort into their
relationship with their local HEI (although where there were several HEI the employer might
still perceive a ranking amongst local HEI). Others, especially new graduate recruiters and
SME often seem to prefer the concentrate their recruitment on local HEI for similar reasons.
78
Table 7.1:
Typology of employer-HEI linkages
Type of link
Industrial
type
Large,
old,
mature –
traditional
graduate
recruiters
Formal, systematic
CPD/lifelong learning
For professional
accreditation will source
supply nationally, but for
other types of activity tend
to prefer local supply
because of benefits of
proximity.
New,
growing –
more
modern /
niche
graduate
recruiters
Tend to prefer local supply –
if available – because of
benefits of proximity – lower
travel costs, easier to
contact teaching staff, etc.
SMEs
Prefer local because often
do not have the resources
to develop links outside of
the region or have funds to
send staff long distances to
study. But sometimes
poorly informed about local
supply.
Ad hoc
R&D
Labour supply
CPD/lifelong learning
R&D
A link will develop only if local
HEI has a particular specialism
and is sympathetic to an
employers specific needs –
otherwise will tend to seek
supply nationally and
internationally (depending
upon scale of operation)
Tend to recruit nationally –
unless a local university has
a particular specialism or
because the employer is
looking for people to work in
a local area.
Individual employees studying
for formal qualifications –
MBAs etc will tend to favour
local supply if available
because of benefits of
proximity (e.g. less travelling
time, closer to tutors, etc.).
Can have a rolling effect.
Where one person studies
locally and has a favourable
experience then this is passed
on within organisation.
There is a tendency to use
existing links, of various
types, to meet ad hoc
requests for R&D. Within
larger organisations their
networks tend to be spread
nationally and internationally
For just-in-time
recruitment tend to use
national networks for
recruitment
Depends upon origins of
organisation – i.e. a university
spin off, developed by
graduates from a local
university, have been given
previous assistance by HEI.
Will tend towards local if
local HEI can supply
graduates and there is a
ready access to the HEI.
Also depends upon the scale
of recruitment – the more
people required the more
likely the links will be
developed with a significant
number of HEI not just local
ones
Individual employees studying
for MBAs etc will tend to
favour local supply if available
because of benefits of
proximity (e.g. less travelling
time, closer to tutors, etc.).
Depending upon size this can
be a one-off arrangement for
formal courses.
As above, but if a relatively
small organisation there is
recognition that a local link is
easier to maintain because
of proximity
Will go local – if good
local links – otherwise will
recruit nationally. Less
well placed – depending
upon size – to recruit
nationally since
transaction costs high.
But where targeting takes
place this does not
necessarily have a local
dimension – i.e. will
target HEI with which
there is an existing link or
has a reputation for
supplying graduates of
the type required.
Tend towards the local
where supply strong and the
HEI is receptive towards
needs – recognised as being
efficient recruitment process
Individual employees studying
for MBAs etc will tend to
favour local supply if available
because of the benefits of
proximity. Tends to be a oneoff arrangement for formal
courses such as MBAs.
Local links recognised as
bringing certain benefits.
But will tend to associate
with HEI where there is
some existing link – in order
to minimise transaction costs
– such as where particular
members of staff studied.
Hence targeting is not
necessarily local.
Will go local – if good
local links – but often
SMEs do not have these
links resulting in high
transaction costs to
recruit a small number of
recruits on a national
basis.
Local links thought to be most
effective but can be difficult to
find local people within HEI to
work with.
If links outside the region they
tend to be developed by
seeking willing partners with a
shared interest – discovered
through scientific networks,
conferences, journals,
websites, or because of
alumini links
Local links recognised to be
more effective –but depends
upon local HEI being willing
partners and SME being aware
of local supply being available.
Recruitment in the largest
organisations will also be
internationally targeted.
79
Labour supply
7.7
Improving engagement
The Lambert Review noted a number of barriers to effective employer-HEI engagement
(such as a difficulty in identifying ‘who does what’ within HEI and the unrealistic expectations
of IP by business). The case studies also found evidence of difficulties and barriers to such
engagement. In relation to recruitment, the problem was most evident in relation to the “new
graduate employers” who, because of increased participation in higher education, had lost
their traditional supply of labour (A-level and other students with intermediate level
qualifications) and who had been pushed into recruiting graduates on an ad hoc basis or had
been forced into developing a graduate recruitment programme. From the evidence
collected in the case studies a significant minority encountered problems of one kind or
another: too many applicants, mismatched expectations between graduate and employer,
high labour turnover, etc. Amongst this group of employers there was relatively little
engagement with HEI and the process used to recruit graduates was relatively passive. A
key question in relation to this group of employers is, how might their recruitment procedures
be improved for the benefit of both business and the individual graduate?
Mismatched expectations best describes the situation amongst these groups of employers.
Over the long-term FDs might provide a means of meeting the needs of these employers,
but for the time being FDs appear to be used by employers to meet the development needs
of relatively experienced employees. Even with FDs, there is still a need to communicate
their utility to new graduate employers. The more pressing issue is how to improve the
match between students graduating from three and four year degree courses and the
requirements of employers.
To some extent the issue is one of effective brokerage. Intermediaries are required, on the
one hand, to assist employers to articulate their needs to universities and, on the other, to
communicate to employers how they need to deploy and develop graduates if they are to
retain and obtain the best from their graduates. Such brokerage would help reduce the
costs of employer-HEI engagement, one of the underlying constraints on engagement (see
section 2.6 above). A brokerage service needs to provide the following assistance:
vi.
pre-recruitment: establishing engagement, even in an embryonic form – if companies
are not planning recruitment or knowledge transfer imminently there may be latent
demand;
vii. assisting with recruitment: establishing procedures;
viii. post-recruitment: ensuring that graduates are deployed effectively and their
development needs are being addressed.
It is outside the scope of the current research to design the brokerage system other than to
say that there are many existing institutions able to take on such a role – Chambers of
Commerce, SSCs, RDAs, etc. Indeed, as pointed out in section 2.7 (above), there are
almost too many institutions with a role in promoting engagement. While there is evidence
to suggest that greater ‘joined up thinking’ has occurred in recent years, it is note clear which
institution has the lead role in the promotion of engagement. Development of a broking
service will depend on the clarification of the respective roles of a range of organisations and
agencies and will very much depend on whether the relationship is best developed on a
regional, local or industrial basis or a mixture of all three.
80
81
ANNEX A:
1.
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW
SCHEDULE
INTRODUCTION
This document outlines the questions to be used in the semi-structured interview. It is
designed to provide a structure and an aide-memoir to the subjects to be discussed in the
interview. There may also be subjects that the respondent raises in relation to the aims and
objectives of the study. These are to be pursued, but it is important that information about
new topics are communicated quickly to the other members of the research team so that
these can be incorporated into the other interviews.
Note:
•
•
the study is a workplace based one but for multi-site companies it will need to collect
information about the practices and policies of the company as a whole;
the focus of the study is on the role of the workplace in its region.
To respondent: remind them that the purpose of the study is to inform the Department for
Education and Skills of the extent to which employers engage with higher education
institutions in their locality. All information collected will be treated confidentially and the
anonymity of respondents and their companies is guaranteed. A summary of the research
findings will be sent in due course.
Ask for permission to tape interview.
If asked: tell them name supplied from the National Employers Skill Survey 2005 where they
had indicated that they were willing to be followed up. If not NESS2005, explain how
obtained name and address.
REMEMBER: THE PROJECT IS ABOUT LINKS WITH UNIVERSITIES IN THE LOCALITY
AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THESE ARE USED/NOT USED AND WHY THIS IS THE
CASE.
ALSO: THE SURVEY IS ABOUT HE INSTITUTIONS WHICH COVERS UNIVERSITIES
BUT
ALSO
ANY
ORGANISATION
DELIVERING
HIGHER
EDUCATION
QUALIFICATIONS (this can include FE colleges).
82
2.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON WORKPLACE
Information required (some may be collectable from company website / records prior
to the interview):
The company:
o
o
o
o
Independent company or part of a larger organisation
Level of sales turnover over last twelve months in UK company, and trends
over last 5 years
Number of sites in (a) UK and (b) worldwide (if applicable)
Location of head office for UK business and global business(if applicable)
Products and performance:
o
o
o
What goods or services does the company produce? (prompt for: detailed
description of the product/service and how it is produced)
Expected future performance / growth over next five years?
Levels of investment in new products and processes (prompts around: extent
to which the company leads, keeps abreast, or lags behind its competitors in
investing in products and services, and the means to produce them).
Markets
o
o
o
o
What is the location of the company’s main markets:
local/regional/national/international.
If international: in what areas of the world (Europe/North America/Japan/Far
East/elsewhere). If regional: what regions in the UK.
Is the company subject to import competition (and from where)?
How sensitive is demand for the product/service dependent on price (i.e. to
what extent does the company trade on price)? What does the company trade
on?
83
3.
EMPLOYMENT
Information required:
Before asking about graduate recruitment information is sought on employment generally in
the organisation.
o
o
Number currently employed in the workplace and company in the UK
% who are women; who are part-time
Information is required about the occupational structure of the company. FOR EACH
MAIN TYPE OF JOB NEED: the types of task carried out and, if they were recruiting, what
qualifications, experience, or skills would they require. Check in particular which a degree is
needed for.
Main jobs / occupations
Tasks
If recruiting quals &
experience require
Employment change over the past five years, in particular:
a)
b)
c)
d)
o
o
What has happened to overall numbers of employees?
The mix of full-timers/part-timers; the mix of men/women
The occupational structure (if this has changed: obtain details why)
The proportion from ethnic minority groups
How many graduates are employed in the company as a whole (number or %)?
(If not collected already) What number or % are employed in specialist areas where the
subject of a degree is a prerequisite for recruitment.
84
4.
GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT AND RECRUITMENT
Note that the discussion is about entry level jobs (i.e. for recent graduates - those who would
have typically graduated in the past three years).
In the discussion investigate where there is a formal graduate recruitment process (e.g. take
on X no. of recent grads every year) versus more ad hoc, just-in-time recruitment.
Information required:
o
How many recent graduates (people graduated in the last 3 years) have you recruited in
the last 12 months?
_____________
o
How many recent graduates recruited over the past five years?
___________
o
Into what jobs have graduates been recruited in the last 5 years? (probe for details and
whether a specific degree was required)
Main jobs for recent graduates
o
o
o
Specific degree
WHICH?)
required?
(IF
SO
How does the workplace recruit graduates?
(probe for whether has a graduate recruitment programme and the methods it
uses: e.g. web-based recruitment/use of assessment centres/competency
based testing/newspaper advertising)
How many applicants typically for graduate level vacancies?
Does organisation take on a) recent graduates in unpaid or paid placements/work
experience? B) undergraduates in unpaid or paid placements/work experience?
IF YES:
Why?
What benefits for the organisation?
Which types of position / job is this done for?
Does it help with recruitment later? (e.g. do you often go on to recruit these people
for permanent positions? For which type of positions/jobs does this tend to happen?)
Is this done from particular universities? If so: Why? Any local?
o
Are there different types of graduate recruitment programme (and if so which?) e.g. do
they have combination of: fast-track management graduate programme; non-fast track
but regular programme of graduate recruitment; ad hoc recruitment of graduates as and
when positions arise).
85
o
Is there / what is the career structure for graduates?
(IF MORE THAN ONE PROGRAMME) how does this vary by different graduate
recruitment programmes?
Is there a formal induction / trainee period? After this what is the expected
progression route?
5.
GRADUATE RECRUITS
[If more than one type of graduate recruitment programme, for each type of graduate
recruitment programme obtain information about]
o
Like to move on to which universities are used for recruiting graduates and why. First
can you tell me which universities you regard as your local universities? Which others?
FOR EACH: how do you rate them? (and on what criteria?)
IF POOR FOR GRADUATE RECRUITMENT: have you had discussions or tried to
have discussions with local HEI about problems / poor quality of candidates? IF SO:
what came of it?
o
What links do you have with local universities, whether for recruitment or in other areas?
Why have these links developed – what benefits sought for the company?
How have the links developed / changed over recent years?
How important are these links are to the company for i) acquiring skills ii) business
development more generally?
o
So thinking about recruitment of graduates, are specific universities targeted for your
graduate recruitment?
IF YES:
Which ones and why? Check: if local universities targeted is this because they are
particularly strong (and if strong – in what respects) or because they are local and
therefore easier/more convenient to deal with).
86
o
Which subjects prefer to recruit from and why?
o
What level of degree required?
o
Are A level results still taken into account?
o
Are post-graduates needed for some posts?
o
How much do you know about different degrees offered by different universities (probe
for: how much the organisation knows about the types of education provided? How can
they compare the degrees offered by different universities and the comparative strengths
of each)
o
Willingness to recruit at sub-degree level from the higher education system (i.e.
diplomas/HNDs). If so, what are the advantages/disadvantages associated with people
recruited at this level?
o
Foundation degrees
i. Have you heard of them?
IF YES
ii. What do you know about them - what are they comparable to qualificationwise. How do you rate them?
iii. Have you recruited anyone with a foundation degree?
IF YES
iv. Were you specifically looking for someone with a Foundation Degree? (If
so: why?) / what qualification level were you looking for?
v. How have these people turned out in terms of the level of skills they
brought to their positions? What qualification level are they closest to in
terms of what they bring to the organisation?
vi. Will you actively look to recruit people with Foundation Degrees?
o
Which qualities do you rate as the three most important in graduate applicants? Why are
these so important?
o
(IF TARGET SPECIFIC UNIVERSITIES): How do you rate applicants from targeted
universities compared to others? Why say that?
87
Recruitment/settling in problems
For each graduate training programme if more than one:
o
Any difficulty recruiting graduates?
IF YES: why (probe for skills sets required by company, wage levels, to what extent are
skills needed hard-to-find etc.).
What has company done to get around recruitment problems – probe around developing
better links with HEIs, especially local ones.
o
Are graduates well prepared when recruited given the role/job/training the company has
in mind for them? If not well prepared probe for details).
o
Wages paid to graduate recruits: employer perception of relative position on wages
compared to other recruiters of graduates locally
o
Any problems with retention of recent graduates? IF SO at what point do you find they
leave? What are the main causes of difficulties retaining recent graduates? what is
company doing to solve retention problems?
o
How do you go about training of graduates?
Contribution of graduates
•
Overall, what do graduates bring to the business?
(probe around:
1.
need less supervision or training than non-graduate recruits
2.
bring specialist skills
3.
bring new ideas / innovation
4.
higher level of intelligence of general benefit to the company
5.
future managers
6.
knowledge transfer to other employees
[if vast majority of staff are graduates can be useful to ask: why take on recent graduates
as opposed to more experienced staff?]
88
•
What evidence has the company about the way graduates contribute to
organisational performance?
PROBE:
a.
Any examples of where you have taken on graduates for traditionally nongraduate roles?
IF SO: for what roles? Why has this happened? To what extent that
organisational decision that needing graduates in these roles now? What have
graduates contributed over and above non-graduates in the same roles? Has
taking on graduates for roles not traditionally filled by graduates conferred any
benefits to the business?
b.
Any other examples of comparative positions / jobs where graduates and
non-graduates side by side, with comparisons of their productivity / skills /
contribution / progress etc
•
Thinking about degree level qualifications and the contribution staff with these
qualifications bring, do you train up staff taken on without degrees up to degree level,
or actively encourage this?
IF SO: how often, in what circumstances, in what qualifications? What benefits has
this brought to the productivity and contribution of these employees? What
universities used for this, and why? What mode of learning used (distance learning,
part time, work-based etc) and why? Do you prefer this to recruiting recent
graduates directly?
IF NO: Is this just because of circumstances e.g. no staff willing or suitable to train
up to degree, or is it because don’t see any benefits in this (is it easier just to recruit
graduates directly) or are there other barriers (cost, lack of suitable local HE etc)?
Future recruitment
•
Over the next five years expect to recruit graduates?
IF YES
- will this be in same occupational/functional areas in the past?
- if expanding scope of graduate recruitment – obtain details
- how expect graduate recruitment to change over the next 5 years in terms
of such things as the skills you will be looking for, the roles for which
graduates will be recruited, how you manage graduate recruitment and links
with universities?
89
OTHER FORMS OF STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Over the past five years has the business been involved with universities or other Higher
Education Institutions to provide the following types of education and training to staff?
•
•
•
the use of formal taught courses leading to a qualification (MBA, diploma,
professional qualification, etc.);
the use of ad hoc courses such as those provided through, for example, the adult
education or continuing education sections of universities – such as foreign language
training;
bespoke training courses provided by a university at the request of the company.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
•
IF YES, what type of courses?
At which universities? Why were these universities chosen?
If not one of the local universities – why not?
How has this been paid for? (obtain details of any funding)
Have they always led to a qualification? Have they have had transferable
credit and is this important?
How easy was this to arrange?
How was the training rated?
And has any Continuing Professional Development training been provided to staff
(high level training and not induction, health and safety etc) which is NOT delivered
by a university / HE institution.
Who delivered it?
Do universities / HE Institutions deliver this type of training locally (or at all)?
If yes: why not used them?
If no: could / should they be delivering this type of training?
7.
OTHER TYPES OF UNIVERSITY / HE LINK
Thus far the discussion has been about the recruitment and use of graduates within the
workplace. But a further important element relates to other types of HE-company linkage
(described below). For each type of linkage details are required:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Marketing
Development of supply chain
Design
Prototyping
Technical innovation
R&D
Any other link not specified above
90
For each type of university/HE collaboration collect the following information:
o
o
o
o
o
o
•
Why was the link sought?
At which universities/HEIs? / Why were these universities chosen?
If not one of the local universities/HEIs – why not?
How was link with university/HEIs facilitated? (Probe for: details of any
intermediary bodies used, e.g. Business Link, RDA, LSC etc.)
Have new products emerged from university/HEIs collaboration?
How was collaboration funded?
• Government funded
• University funded
• Company funded
• Jointly funded (obtain details)
o How useful has the linked proved to be in practice?
o Will the company continue the link with the institution, look for other links,
or not continue at all.
Are there any areas of activity where the company wanted to establish a link, or
would like to establish a link with an HE institution, but have not been able to do so
(collect details) i.e. what sort of links would you like
What have been the barriers?
- what sort of response have you had from HEIs if any contact made?
8.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
Any further comments respondent wants to make about recruitment, retention, and
development of graduates, and links with local universities.
If further contact with other individuals in the workplace/company is required – record details.
THANK AND CLOSE
91
ANNEX B: CITY-REGIONS
One of the dimensions the study addresses is the spatial one – based upon the city-region
classification of areas in England. Accordingly there is a need to consider the spatial
aspects of HEI – employer engagement in the context of city-regions.
The concept of the city-region has a long history in location theory and geographical
analysis. Essentially, city-regions comprise a central urban core, together with the
associated commuting hinterland – i.e. they are defined in functional terms as the area over
which economic markets (notably labour markets) operate.
Implementation of policy in fields of economic development, skills, planning, transport,
physical infrastructure, etc., tends to cut across existing administrative boundaries.
Advocates of the concept of city-regions suggest that the efficiency of sub-regional planning
would be improved by aligning investment and planning decisions with functional entities.
More broadly, the current debate about city-regions can be seen within the context of the
argument that globalisation and economic restructuring have eroded the power of nation
states, leading to a re-invigoration of sub-national institutional arrangements operating at
regional and city scales. In England cities have been identified as having the potential to
play an important role in driving economic development for three main reasons. 64 First, they
contain the majority of the population and an even greater share of jobs. Secondly, through
agglomeration economies 65 they provide significant benefits to knowledge intensive
manufacturing and service industries that are important to regional and national growth in
the global economy. Thirdly, they are seen as central to driving regional and local economic
growth, so addressing regional and sub-regional disparities and tackling deprivation.
In February and March 2006 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) published a
number of research reports relating to city-regions66 and the Treasury has also endorsed
city-regions and emphasised the importance of cities to regional growth, outlining that
empirical evidence has shown a significant correlation between the number of university
students and economic growth. 67 The ODPM reports define city-regions as: “the enlarged
territories from which core urban areas draw people for work and services such as shopping,
education, health, leisure and entertainment. The city-regional scale also plays a significant
role for business in organising supply chains and accessing producer services. The cityregion is therefore an important functional entity.”68
In geographical terms, commuting data (i.e. journey-to-work data from the decennial Census
of Population) may be used to examine travel-to-work patterns and identify sets of local
areas that form the tributary areas for England’s major cities. For other types of flows (e.g.
shopping trips) the geography is likely to be different in detail. Thus, in reality, the
64
65
66
67
68
HM Treasury, DTI and ODPM (2006) Devolving decision making: 3 – Meeting the regional
economic challenge: the importance of cities to regional growth. London: HM Treasury.
Both ‘urbanisation economies’ and ‘localisation economies’ are of relevance here – see Malmberg
A., Malmberg B. and Lundequist P. (2000) ‘Agglomeration and firm performance: economies of
scale, localisation, and urbanisation among Swedish export firms’, Environment and Planning A
32 (2), 305-21.
Of particular relevance are Marvin S., Harding A. and Robson B. (2006) A Framework for CityRegions. London: ODPM; and Robson B., Barr R., Lymperopoulou K., Rees J. and Coombes M.
(2006) A Framework for City-Regions – Working Paper 1: Mapping City-Regions. London: ODPM.
HM Treasury, DTI and ODPM (2006) op. cit.
Marvin et al. (2006: 5) op. cit.
92
boundaries of city-regions are ‘fuzzy’ and may vary for different types of policy issue.
Reflecting this, there are no ‘official’ definitions of city-regions. 69
There are alternative ways of determining commuting-based city-regions. Underlying these
alternative ways are two key considerations:
•
•
whether city-regions cover the whole country or only part of the country; and
whether destinations are nodal70 or non-nodal.
The ODPM research71 developed two alternative approaches:
ix.
exhaustive and non-nodal: every area in England is allocated to a city-region; (this
approach is developed using ward-based commuting data and can be thought of as a
‘bottom-up’ approach). For the current concern with HEI a ‘regionalisation’72 based on
commuting flows of professional/managerial commuters 73 (imposing an 80 per cent
self-containment threshold) may be considered appropriate. 74
x. non-exhaustive and nodal: some parts of the country are not allocated to a city-region,
and flows are to a pre-determined set of nodes (or destinations);75 (this approach can
be thought of as a ‘top-down’ approach).
Neither of these approaches is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but the debate illustrates that the precise
geographical extent of city-regions is disputed (at least at the margins). It has been argued
that the ‘top-down’ approach is a more appropriate way of identifying the main tributary
areas of the major cities within England, since it is based on identified nodes, while the
bottom-up approach is a more inclusive way of understanding the workings of complex flows
of commuting across the whole country.76 (For details of the definitions adopted for
empirical analysis in this project see Table B.1.)
While there is a substantial literature on the role of HEI in regional development, there is
much less coverage of the role of HEI in city-region development. But much of the former
body of literature is of relevance to city-regions. Three major inter-linked shifts in the focus
of attention about the role of HEI in regional/ city-region development in recent years may be
identified. First, there has been a shift from an ‘idealist’ to an ‘instrumentalist’ focus.
Academic and policy debates about the role of higher education in society have shifted over
the last twenty years or so from an ‘idealistic’ position focused on the creation of knowledge
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
i.e. in terms of their precise geographical extent.
Here there is an additional question as to whether a city-region has a single node (i.e. core) or
more than one node (i.e. whether it is polycentric).
Robson et al. (2006) op. cit.
A range of minimum size and self-containment threshold criteria may be set in regionalisation
algorithms.
These individuals are more likely than average to have higher level qualifications and to travel
longer than average distances to work.
See Figure 2.5 in Robson et al. (2006) op. cit.
Robson et al. (2006) identified 39 nodes in England based on several criteria including the size of
employment base of districts, the ratio of flows into versus flow out of a district, sets of ‘significant’
urban areas, higher-order retail centres and higher-order urban centres defined in previous
studies. The minimum threshold of flows from each origin district to the destination nodes can
then be altered to form alternative geometries for city-regions.
In the case of the ODPM analyses regionalisations were conducted for the whole England and
Wales set of commuting flows. This results in city-regions which span the England-Wales border
(e.g. in the case of managers and professionals the Chester city-region extends along the A55
corridor into Wales).
93
(in which the primary role of universities was seen as teaching and research per se77) to a
more ‘instrumentalist’ position.78 There is an increasing expectation that HEI should
contribute to the regions in which they are based. This reflects both the expansion of higher
education and changes in the perceived role of education in society, a renewed focus of
attention on regional policy and changes in emphasis in policy on regional economic
development79.
Secondly, there has been an increasing focus on the ‘non-economic’ role of HEI, alongside
their ‘economic’ one. 80 Traditionally, the contribution of HEI to regional development has
been studied in economic terms, with respect to their role as ‘economic entities’ (i.e.
highlighting the role of HEI as employers, payers of salaries, buyers of products and services
and as attractors of students who spend money in the local economy) and as ‘commodified
knowledge producers’ (in studies focusing on intellectual property rights, technology transfer,
science parks and spin-off firms). 81 In relation to the latter role, Government policy
statements have focused on the role of HEI in underpinning economic vibrancy within a
context of support for clusters, innovation and entrepreneurship in regional economic
development policy. 82 The ‘innovation systems approach’, highlighting the importance of
knowledge spillovers from the educational and research activities of HEI in regional
knowledge spaces, has been one popular way in which the role of universities in regional
development has been theorised.
Thirdly, there has been a growing emphasis on ‘forward’, as opposed to ‘backward’ linkages
of HEI. This is evident in studies emphasising the role of HEI as ‘shapers of human capital’
(i.e. in attracting, educating and retaining students, shaping them into knowledge-based
graduates for firms within the region83) and as ‘institutional actors in networks’ (participating
formally and informally with other regional actors in linkages and networks of learning,
innovation and governance, 84 and so playing an important role in animating regional and
local economic and social development85).
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
Lawton Smith H., (2003) ‘Universities and local economic development: an appraisal of the issues
and practices’, Local Economy 18 (1), 2-6.
Charles D. (2003) ‘Universities and territorial development: reshaping the regional role of UK
universities’, Local Economy 18, 7-20.
Charles D. and Benneworth P. (2001) ‘The regional mission: the regional contribution of higher
education: the national report’, Universities UK, Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Boucher G., Conway C. and Van Der Meer E. (2003) ‘Tiers of engagement by universities in their
region’s development’, Regional Studies 37 (9), 887-97.
Boucher et al. (2003) op. cit.
Kitagawa F. (2004a) ‘Universities and innovation in the knowledge economy: cases from English
regions’, Higher Education Management and Policy 16 (3), 53-75.
This is a key concern for Regional Skills Partnerships in England.
Boucher et al. (2003) op. cit.
Gunasekara C. (2006) op. cit.
94
Table B.1
City-region definitions adopted
Case Study Area
Newcastle
Teesside
Manchester
Liverpool
Leeds
Sheffield
Nottingham
GOR
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
YH
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
NW
EM
NW
NW
NW
NW
YH
YH
YH
YH
YH
YH
YH
YH
YH
YH
EM
EM
Local Authorities in City-region
Alnwick
Tynedale
Castle Morpeth
Wansbeck
Blyth Valley
North Tyneside
Newcastle upon Tyne
Gateshead
South Tyneside
Sunderland
Easington
Chester-le-Street
Durham
Derwentside
Hartlepool
Stockton-on-Tees
Middlesbrough
Redcar and Cleveland
Darlington
Hambleton
Bolton
Bury
Manchester
Oldham
Rochdale
Salford
Stockport
Tameside
Trafford
Wigan
Warrington
Macclesfield
High Peak
Liverpool
Knowsley
Sefton
Wirral
Leeds
Bradford
Calderdale
Kirklees
Wakefield
Harrogate
Craven
Selby
Sheffield
Rotherham
North East Derbyshire
Nottingham
95
Northampton
Birmingham
Coventry
Norwich
Cambridge
Bristol
Plymouth
Portsmouth/Southampton
Canterbury
EM
EM
EM
EM
EM
EM
EM
EM
EM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
WM
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
SW
SW
SW
SW
SW
SW
SW
SW
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
Rushcliffe
Gedling
Broxtowe
Ashfield
Erewash
Northampton
Daventry
Wellingborough
South Northamptonshire
Birmingham
Dudley
Sandwell
Solihull
Walsall
Wolverhampton
Bromsgrove
Redditch
South Staffordshire
Lichfield
Tamworth
North Warwickshire
Coventry
Nuneaton and Bedworth
Rugby
Warwick
Norwich
Broadland
North Norfolk
Great Yarmouth
South Norfolk
Cambridge
South Cambridgeshire
East Cambridgeshire
City of Bristol
South Gloucestershire
North Somerset
Bath and North East Somerset
Plymouth
South Hams
West Devon
Caradon
Southampton
Portsmouth
Isle of Wight
New Forest
Test Valley
Eastleigh
Fareham
Gosport
Havant
Canterbury
Thanet
Dover
Shepway
96
London
London
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EE
GREATER LONDON
Medway UA
Maidstone
Tunbridge Wells
Tonbridge and Malling
Sevenoaks
Gravesham
Dartford
Mid Sussex
Crawley
Tandridge
Reigate and Banstead
Epsom and Ewell
Mole Valley
Guildford
Elmbridge
Woking
Surrey Heath
Spelthorne
Runneymede
Windsor and Maidenhead
Slough
Wycombe
Chiltern
South Bucks
Watford
Three Rivers
Hertsmere
Dacorum
St Albans
Welwyn Hatfield
Broxbourne
East Hertfordshire
Uttlesford
Chelmsford
Epping Forest
Harlow
Brentwood
Basildon
Castle Point
Rochford
Southend-on-Sea
Thurrock
97
ANNEX C: SAMPLING OF CASE STUDIES
The National Employers Skills Survey 2005 was used as the initial sampling frame. This
was a representative survey of just under 75,000 employers in England. NESS2005 asked
the question: “in last 12 months have you recruited anyone to their first job from university or
other Higher Education institution?” Around 7,500 employers answered “yes” to the above
and indicated that they were willing to be re-contacted for further research.
This sample source was supplemented with additional local knowledge of key industries /
employers (such as shipbuilding in Portsmouth and steel manufacture in Sheffield).
Sample was drawn for each of the 18 city-regions covered by the research. It was possible
to ensure that the sample of case study employers contained a wide variety of organisations,
including:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
those with a structured and regular graduate recruitment programme, to completely
ad hoc recruitment of graduates;
cases where the subject of the degree was not important when recruiting, cases
where the broad subject of the degree was important (such as ‘a science degree’) to
those where a specialised degree subject was sought (such as ‘naval design’ or
‘quantity surveying’);
companies where the vast majority of staff have degrees to those where graduates
represent a small minority;
employers with and without a long history of graduate recruitment;
a mix of industrial sectors;
a mix of SMEs and larger organisations;
single-site companies to those with multiple branches across the UK;
recruiters from prestigious and non-prestigious HEI;
employers who recruit those with high level but sub-degree level qualifications such
as HNDs.
Table C.1 shows the profile of achieved interviews by case study area, size of employer,
broad sector and whether the organisation operates from one or multiple sites within the UK.
.
98
Table C.1:
Case study area
Cambridge
Cambridge
Cambridge
Cambridge
Portsmouth/Southampton
Portsmouth/Southampton
Portsmouth/Southampton
Portsmouth/Southampton
Portsmouth/Southampton
Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury
Manchester
Manchester
Manchester
Manchester
London
London
London
London
Coventry
Coventry
Coventry
Coventry
Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham
Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth
Northampton
Northampton
Northampton
Northampton
Teesside
Teesside
Teesside
Teesside
Bristol
Bristol
Bristol
Bristol
Leeds
Leeds
Leeds
Leeds
Achieved interviews
Sector
Size of
employer
(UK-wide)
250+
250+
50-249
250+
250+
50-249
250+
50-249
250+
50-249
50-249
250+
250+
50-249
50-249
50-249
50-249
20-49
20-49
250+
250+
50-249
250+
20-49
20-49
20-49
20-49
20-49
50-249
250+
50-249
50-249
20-49
50-249
20-49
250+
250+
50-249
250+
250+
250+
250+
50-249
50-249
50-249
250+
20-49
50-249
50-249
250+
Manufacturing / Engineering
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business Services
Business Services
Education
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business Services
Communication
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business Services
Business Services
Manufacturing / Engineering
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business Services
Business Services
Manufacturing / Engineering
Construction
Business Services
Business Services
Business Services
Finance
Construction
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business Services
Business Services
Business Services
Business Services
Finance
Business Services
Finance
Manufacturing / Engineering
Finance
Manufacturing / Engineering
Construction
Business Services
Business Services
Retail and wholesale
Business Services
Manufacturing / Engineering
Manufacturing / Engineering
Manufacturing/ Engineering
Retail and wholesale
Health
Construction
Construction
Finance
Business Services
Business Services
Business Services
Retail or wholesale
99
Single or multi-site
Multisite
Multisite
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Single site
Multi site
Single site
Multi-site
Single site
Single site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single site
Single site
Single site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi- site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single site
Single site
Single site
Multi-site
Single site
Single site
Single site
Multi-site
Table C.1 (continued):
Case study area
Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool
Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex
Newcastle
Newcastle
Newcastle
Newcastle
Norwich
Norwich
Norwich
Norwich
Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham
Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield
Achieved interviews
Size of
employer
(UK-wide)
20-49
250+
250+
20-49
50-249
50-249
50-249
250+
50-249
50-249
50-249
20-49
50-249
250+
50-249
250+
250+
50-249
20-49
20-49
250+
50-249
250+
250+
Sector
Business Services
Hotels, restaurant, catering
Business Services
Business Services
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business services
Finance
Hotels, restaurant, catering
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business services
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business services
Manufacturing / Engineering
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business services
Construction
Business services
Retail and wholesale
Business services
Business services
Business services
Health
Manufacturing / Engineering
Business services
Single or multi-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Single site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Single-site
Multi-site
Multi-site
While part of the discussion with employers aimed at understanding the subject and level of
degree required and the universities from which employers recruited, in the sampling a
broad mix was sought of those employers who recruited only from specific degree courses
and those for whom the subject played little or no role. It needs to be remembered that this
is a qualitative study and that sampling aimed to achieve a range of graduate recruiters
rather than a representative sample of employers. Annex A provides the structure used to
guide the case study interviews.
A broadly even split was achieved by those employers for whom the degree subject of their
graduate recruits is important (32 employers) and those for whom it is not (32 employers),
with a small number (10) saying it had some influence (for example a company that normally
recruited Media Studies graduates had recently taken on a Zoology graduate who had
shown enthusiasm and personal motivation).
Just under half of the achieved interviews were in the business services sector (this broad
sector covers a range of businesses including ‘traditional’ graduate recruiters such as law
firms and accountants as well as industries that do not have a long history of graduate
recruitment such as creative and media related industries), with manufacturing / engineering
also well represented (18 interviews – also covering a variety of sub-sectors such as
pharmaceutical manufacture and medical research, civil engineering and newsprint
manufacture).
Employers in the finance, education, health, construction, transport, storage and
communication, hospitality and retail sectors were also represented. Just over a third of the
interviews were conducted with large organisations employing 250 or more staff across the
UK, the remainder were with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
100
Copies of this publication can be obtained from:
DfES Publications
P.O. Box 5050
Sherwood Park
Annesley
Nottingham
NG15 0DJ
Tel: 0845 60 222 60
Fax: 0845 60 333 60
Minicom: 0845 60 555 60
Online: www.dfespublications.gov.uk
© IFF Research Ltd 2007
Produced by the Department for Education and Skills
ISBN 978 1 84478 901 6
Ref No: RR835A
www.dfes.go.uk/research