Students ‘believe they have necessary skills’ for job market

Most final-year students are optimistic about their long-term career prospects but are realistic about the problems they face making their first steps in the jobs market, research has shown.

More than 80 per cent of students about to complete three-year degree courses feel they now have the skills that employers need, while two-thirds described themselves as optimistic about their careers. Over a third (36 per cent) said it would be ‘easy’ for them to find the job they wanted, although most were more realistic, with 41 per cent admitting that they did not feel confident about their immediate future.

The figures come from a project called Futuretrack, a longitudinal study by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HESCU), which is tracking the destinations and attitudes of 50,000 students from the time they apply for university until two years after graduating.

A sizeable minority felt dissatisfied with what they had gained from university, with 10 per cent saying the skills they had developed were not wanted in the job market. While three-quarters said the university experience had made them more employable, a quarter expressed some doubt that this was the case.

Jane Artess, research director at HECSU said: “Students were more likely to believe that they had skills employers were looking for than they were to believe the skills they developed on their course had made them more employable, reflecting a realistic evaluation of the current economic climate.

“There is a big question mark over how quickly new graduates will find work; the graduate labour market continues to be tough and it will not be easy, particularly for those who lack employability skills. We urge graduates to seek advice from their university careers services as soon as possible.”

Kate Purcell, who leads the research at the University of Warwick says: “What Futuretrack has shown us is that despite positive views about skills development and overall satisfaction with the university experience, they lacked confidence about being able to find graduate jobs in the immediate future.”

Students who had developed high numeracy skills were significantly more confident about finding a job than history, philosophy, creative arts and communication students, while men were more confident than women about their skills and prospects.

Source: Peoplemanagement.co.uk, Monday 23rd January 2012