Employability Is Not All About A Degree

The employability of a candidate does not rest entirely on their degree, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
While the REC does not necessarily advocate by-passing formal education, it is urging secondary school pupils to broaden their skills set beyond their undergraduate qualifications.

The director of external relations at the REC, said: "For a lot of employers, your degree shows a certain level of academic achievement, and that kind of thing is all fine.”

"I'm tempted to say that a lot of employers will almost take that for given in a lot of jobs and look for what else you've got, which is why the CV becomes very important."

He said that regardless if a candidate has a history of media relations degree, the need to embellish their CV with work placements and the kind of practical experience needed for a particular job is vital.

A study of a group of 11 to 16 year olds has found that young people's aspirations towards higher education are the highest ever, with 77 per cent saying they are fairly likely or very likely to enter university.

However, the research highlighted a disconnect between students' aspirations and outcomes; currently only 32 per cent of young people enter higher education, which is less than half the percentage that say they are fairly likely or very likely to go to university, when asked earlier in their education career.

What is more, there are a large number of students going to university and not getting a job afterwards. During the same period, of the full-time first degree graduates who were employed in the UK, only 30 per cent of these posts were classified as associate professional and technical occupations, with 12 per cent being administrative and secretarial. Another 11 per cent of employed graduates were working in customer sales.

In the main, there are a lot of people coming out of universities with very broad degrees which in themselves aren’t really going to make an employer go: "Wow, I really need to recruit this person". It all comes back down to trying to be pro-active and building a CV from an early age which is quite difficult.

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