Undergraduate students should be given the opportunities to ¡°experience real work during their degree¡± if graduate employability is to improve.

That is the view of Ruth Helyer, head of the Workforce Development Team (Research & Policy) in the department for academic enterprise at Teesside University.

Dr Helyer is part of the contributing panel for a conference that will take place next month, organised by the Society for Research into Higher Education and entitled ¡°Supporting University-Work Transitions?

Exploring the Impact of Work Placements and Internships¡±. She said that the job market is so ¡°fast-moving¡± that students need to be exposed to some sort of employment experience before their university years are behind them.

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¡°I think the main way to help them is for all types of degree programmes to have some kind of placement in them,¡± she said. ¡°People find all sorts of reasons not to do this, but the closest we¡¯ve seen for getting all students employed are the likes of Aston [University] and [the University of] Surrey, where students get some kind of work experience within the degree.¡±

She added that even within three years of graduation, some degrees become ¡°not topical¡±, with students finding that their qualification is not the direct route to the type of job they had been anticipating.

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¡°New job roles and sectors are developing all the time, faster than you can train people to be useful in them,¡± Dr Helyer said. ¡°[Employers] want people who are adaptable - because the job market can be so harsh.¡±

At Teesside, Dr Helyer is involved with the Graduate Internship Scheme, which places 100 recent graduates on a three-month paid internship. She acknowledged that, despite her university actively helping its graduates ¡°who are no longer our students¡±, she said she felt it would be better for the help to be given ¡°during the degree¡±.

Alternatives, she suggested, include ¡°bolt-on modules¡± where you gain a type of ¡°employability certificate¡±. But unless that is compulsory, Dr Helyer continued, ¡°students just don¡¯t have the time or inclination to do it, because they¡¯re very assessment- and time-driven¡±.

However, she noted that for anything tangible to be put in place the sector would have to ¡°get people meaning the same thing¡± when they talk about graduate employability.

¡°When people say ¡®employability skills¡¯ everyone means something different,¡± she said. ¡°When I think of [it], I mean the things that will help you get a job and keep a job, get you promoted and allow you to change; very similar to the sorts of things you would try and do in your own professional development.

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¡°Some people think ¡®employability skills¡¯ means writing a good CV and being good at interviews, which to me are job-seeking skills.¡±

Dr Helyer also suggested the sector could look overseas for answers. ¡°Sandwich programmes, which fell out of favour here, are massive in other countries,¡± she said. ¡°They are called ¡®cooperative learning¡¯ in the US and Australia, and they [the programmes] are huge.

¡°I know a lot of international colleagues and they think they do really well with those programmes and that they are tied to good employability outcomes.¡±

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Ultimately, Dr Helyer knows that you ¡°can¡¯t please everybody¡± but that nevertheless, there are aspects that ¡°could be tweaked to make it slicker¡±.

john.elmes@tesglobal.com