Redlands Liberal Democrats: Students and the recession: University of Reading responds

I was pleased to receive an email this evening from Professor Christine Williams, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise) at Reading University in response to my post earlier this week in which I expressed my fears about the difficulties graduates and school-leaver are currently facing finding work.

Calling my concern "justified" she drew my attention to the fact that this year we are seeing the biggest ever graduate cohort enter the job market and added "and this in a year when the recession promises grim news for job seekers of all types."

Prof Williams wrote to me with details of what Reading University is doing to actively support students graduating this year.

This includes the publication of a new leaflet published by the University's Careers Advisory Service which aims to help graduating students find their first jobs in small and medium-sized organisations (SMEs).

I've attached below an excerpt from the briefing issued by the University to the press:

"The message to students this year from the University Careers Service (CAS) is that the jobs market will be more difficult and that students will need to think laterally about job opportunities. Companies recruiting need their graduates to hit the ground running and so need them to have business acumen, know how to fit in and operate in an organisational environment. Students who have already built up these skills through placements and work experience are in a stronger position. Students in years one and two of their courses need to start thinking now about how they are going to acquire these skills."

I am impressed by the lengths University staff are going to to provide advice and support to students at this critical time. Full details are listed below:

Preparing students for life – the Careers Management Skills programme is embedded in the university and is compulsory. It is the only comprehensive, compulsory and credit bearing programme run at a UK higher education institution. (taken in 2nd year). The programme involves self awareness, looking at job opportunities and preparing resources such as CVs.
New seminars addressing a new style of graduate recruitment - shift towards hiring directly from internships thus making work experience and extra curricular responsibilities essential to gain core skills and awareness.
Spring 09 - special ‘finding opportunities in the recession’ workshops
Course specific sessions for Finalists on the ‘Coping with the recession’ and ‘Where the jobs are in the credit crunch’.
Students in other year groups informed that they should also being taking action now for the summer.
Internships are being promoted and further developments of the 11 work experience schemes, including SEED, the Summer Enterprise Experience & Discovery scheme.
Careers Fair - Tuesday 2nd June - full. Employers from IT, financial services, law and agriculture etc . Still employer interest in recruiting Reading graduates this summer. The large autumn 09 careers fair is already well booked by employers and demonstrates ongoing recruitment of Reading graduates.
Dedicated support from Careers Adviser for their subject area for final year students. Via email / personal appointments or through FACEBOOK site
Dedicated website for careers tools – www.reading.ac.uk/destinations-demo

It's also really good to hear that the University is continuing to offer support to students once they have left University:

CAS will be staying open all summer and is proposing to run events, fairs and workshops to help Reading graduates find opportunities.
Life time guarantee of careers advice for Reading graduates
Helping retrain people changing careers to become teachers in maths, chemistry, French and physics through the free and bursary-supported ITT Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses.
Appointments for graduates of other universities living nearby
With funding from the Centre of Career Management Skills CAS will be developing this summer teaching and on-line resources in the following areas: coping with the recession for unemployed Reading graduates, improving the employability of international students at the university, helping to write careers education materials for MBA students, producing better careers materials for professional researchers and developing interactive and diagnostic features on the Destinations® career management skills website

I hope other universities follow suit and that Reading's colleges and schools adopt a similar approach, resources permitting. It will be worth it to help prevent young people in Reading from spending weeks, months or even years out of work.

I was also sent data y the University from by the annual Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) Survey of leavers from 2008. This survey shows that unemployed Reading University graduates from 2008, as of January this year, accounted for 8% of the total number. T

This figure is apparently around 1.5% down on the average over the past 5 years. The University's briefing suggests that this in line with most other universities.

The University's briefing observes that 'those graduates who found jobs in the summer fared better than those who put off entering the job market until later in the year.'

Survey stats in full:

2008 – 52% in full time work, 6% in p/t work, 2% in voluntary work, 9 % work and study, 18% further study, 8% unemployed, 5% not available for employment, . 83% response rate.

The University's briefing also adds that 'Reading University was rated as number one in the 1994 Group of universities for employability by international students in the 2008 International Student Barometer.'

While I can understand why the University's press office is keen to emphasise the positives, all the signs are that this year's graduates - including those from top flight universities such as Reading, are likely to face an uphill struggle finding work.

Latest figures published by the Office of National Statistics yesterday revealed that unemployment has risen to it's highest level since 1996 ,with job vacancies sinking to a new low.

Overall, the action taken by Reading University is a positive start.

But the reality is this: youth unemployment is currently running at 16.6%.

This summer, 400,000 young people will be graduating from university. This figure does not include the number of youngsters leaving school or college.

Rising youth unemployment is an urgent issue requiring a timely and co-ordinated response from people and organisations in Reading. I will be campaigning in my capacity as councillor to see this happens as far as possible locally.