In brief

Social skills and earning later in life
Review calls for shake-up in skills training
BCS warns of long-term IT graduate shortages
First degree in retail banking launched
More students stay put at home
Universities and employers working together
New research reports from HECSU
Employability guides for employers and academic staff

Social skills and earning later in life

The shift to a service economy has made the acquisition of personal and social skills more important than ever before, according to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

IPPR’s analysis of surveys of people born in 1958 and 1970 shows that personal and social skills - such as communication, self-esteem, planning and self-control - became 33 times more important, between generations, in determining earnings later in life.

Qualifications, however, still matter. GCSEs add around 10% to wages compared to those with no qualifications, A-levels add a further 15% for women and 20% for men and a degree adds a further 25% for women and 15% for men.

Review calls for shake-up in skills training

At least 40% of the adult population in the UK will need to be qualified to a degree level or above by 2020, up from 29% in 2005, for the UK to become a world leader in skills, says the final report of the Leitch Review.

Setting this new target would mean measuring attainment rather than participation, as well as covering the whole adult population rather than subsets. The Review, however, warned that the 40% target would only deliver economic benefits if ‘they are based on economically valuable skills that are effectively used in the workplace’, and that there should be a demand-led system.

The Review also recommends that individuals and employers should pay the bulk of the additional costs in higher level skills training, as they will benefit most.

For more information, go to HM Treasury.

BCS warns of long-term IT graduate shortages

The year-on-year reductions affecting the number of students studying computing within higher education will continue until at least 2009, says Professor Nigel Shadbolt, President of the British Computer Society (BCS).

Academic members of the BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT), including nearly all the heads of computer science at British universities, are predicting that the growing demand for skilled IT professionals will be frustrated by a 25% shortfall of computer science graduates by 2009, with public services more heavily hit than private companies.

Although nothing can now halt the decline in the number of computing graduates through to 2009, action is required now to reverse the decline from 2010 onwards, says Professor Shadbolt.

First degree in retail banking launched

Barclays has launched the UK's first retail banking degree in partnership with Nottingham Business School.

Selected students start on the Retail Development Programme at the end of the first year of their business management course at Nottingham Business School. Over the remaining two years of their course, they will undertake four five-month placements in Barclays branches, while working full-time towards their degrees.

Students will be paid £12,000 per annum, and Barclays will fund their university fees for the two years they spend on the programme. Students are also guaranteed a full-time position immediately after graduating.

For more information, see the news release (27 November 2006) at Barclays Media Centre.

More students stay put at home

Rising financial concerns have resulted in more students staying at home than ever before. More than one in five (22%) undergraduates live at home with their parents - a jump from 16% in 2005, according to the 2006 NatWest Student Money Matters survey.

The survey of over 2,000 students and graduates also found that a rising number of graduates are admitting their original choice of university was influenced by location: 19% of graduates in 2005 picked a university based on location, up from 15% in 2004 and 14% in 2003.

Similarly, a study from Scottish Widows Bank reported that 60% of graduates believe they do not earn enough to get them on the housing ladder, and almost a third said they just cannot save for a deposit. Even for those graduates that have succeeded in getting on the property ladder, almost two thirds bought with a partner, and if they were to split up, 68% would not be able to buy their other half out. This rises to 75% of women.

For more information, see the press releases at Natwest and Scottish Widows.

Universities and employers working together

A new report from Universities UK showcases the many ways universities are working with employers to develop business-focused degrees and to enhance graduate employability.

'Higher level learning: universities and employers working together' features case studies from 26 universities across a range of industries including sport and leisure, construction, brewing, media, fashion, and financial services. It also looks at how universities connect with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and help instil entrepreneurship.

Professor Drummond Bone, President of Universities UK, said: 'Critics and media commentators have sometimes referred disparagingly to some of these courses as "Mickey Mouse degrees". This publication - which we could equally have called The Mouse that Roared - is our response. While some of the degrees featured were unheard of a few years ago, graduates with the skills developed on these courses are essential to the success of the UK economy.'

The report is available at Universities UK.

New research reports from HECSU

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) has recently published two reports as part of the longitudinal programme 'Career Making'.

The first report, 'Credit-Bearing Career Education', presents the findings from research into the degree of integration of credit-bearing careers education in the higher education curriculum, which has identified a rich diversity of practice within the sector. The study was carried out by Ros Foskett and Brenda Johnston from The University of Southampton.

The second report, 'A Systematic Literature Review of Research into Career-related Interventions for Higher Education', by Jenny Bimrose, Sally-Anne Barnes and Jamie Brown (Warwick Institute of Employment Research), provides an analysis of research evidence relating to curricular and extracurricular interventions that influence the career-related decision making, learning and progression of students and graduates.

PDF versions of the reports are available at HECSU.

Employability guides for employers and academic staff

A series of student employability profiles has recently been published by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE). The series is designed to help employers, academic staff and students to better understand the skills developed through the study of a particular subject.

Two complementary guides will also be launched, one intended for academic and support staff, and the other for employers' use. For employers, the guide may help them to develop a more informed selection process that matches applicants to role requirements more efficiently, to recruit from a wider range of academic backgrounds, and to show the value that a graduate can bring to an organisation straight away.

The guide for academic and support staff explains how higher education staff can make use of the Profiles, for example, to support career development learning or subject-specific Personal Development Planning; and to enhance prospective students' (and their parents') understanding of the value of degree-level study.

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