I know most careers advisers will be familiar with this, but for anyone who's just getting to grips with employability development, it's worth pointing out the limitations of the High Fliers (and AGR) survey as an indicator of the graduate job market.
They survey quite a rarefied group of large employers, and only take into account the graduates who join them on their prestigious "graduate schemes". Most graduates don't get these jobs - they work for SMEs, or large but less well known employers, or work for these "top" employers, often doing graduate level work but not on their "graduate schemes".
They're good surveys as long as you recognise they're only a small part of the picture. Unfortunately, the media picks up on them and quotes their findings as gospel, particularly inflating salary expectations of many graduates. For a good rant on this, Chris Phillips from GTI (and an ex-careers adviser) blogged about this last week:
http://chrispgtimedia.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/unreal-starting-salaries-just-one-more-kick-in-the-teeth/
I've also unpicked the salary implications of the High Fliers, AGR and DLHE surveys in my recent blog post for students (it's tucked away in the middle of the post):
http://manunicareersblog.com/2013/01/03/widening-your-job-search/
As ever with surveys, use with caution.
Best regards
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Wilkinson | Head of Postgraduate Career Development | Careers and Employability Division | University of Manchester | Crawford House | Booth Street East | Manchester M13 9QS | Tel: 0161 275 2828 | [log in to unmask] | Careers Service: www.manchester.ac.uk/careers | Blog: http://manunicareersblog.com | Twitter: @ManPGCareers | An Academic Career: www.manchester.ac.uk/academiccareer
-----Original Message-----
From: List for UK HEI employability developers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Raphael Hallett
Sent: 25 January 2013 08:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: High Fliers
Thanks for the Guardian link Ruth,
Very timely, since at Leeds I'm designing a curriculum strand called 'personal and professional development' that gathers together elective modules from across the University. It allows students to take linked modules beyond their core subject each semester, and to fuse 'skills' development with academic development. It is part of our Curriculum Enhancement Project.
http://curriculum.leeds.ac.uk/broadening/broadening-strands
Keele seem to be doing something similar, so it is a valuable comparison as I draw it all together,
Rafe
Dr Raphael Hallett
University Teaching Fellow
Early Modern History
School of History
University of Leeds
e: [log in to unmask]
t: +44 (0)113 34 33588
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/people/20041/school_of_history/person/793/raphael_hallett
________________________________________
From: List for UK HEI employability developers [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ruth Lawton [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 24 January 2013 17:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: High Fliers research 2013 + Guardian article
With the Guardian link this time!
Hello everyone
The annual report on the graduate recruitment market from High Fliers is available now http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/GMReport13.pdf
It's a very tough market.
And an interesting article in the Guardian about extra curricular activities needing to be co-curricular. http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/jan/22/student-development-university-curriculum-design
It's something I have argued here and am really glad to see this. I want to raise the level of the crowd rather than simply encourage those who already stand out from it to move even further away.
Best wishes
Ruth
Ruth Lawton
FSEDA, FHEA
University Learning & Teaching Fellow for Employability Centre for the Enhancement of Learning & Teaching Birmingham City University City North Campus
(0121 331) 5126
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
6th Floor Edge Building
My ePortfolio: http://portfolio.bcu.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=130820
Creating Future-Proof Graduates: http://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/employability/futureproof
Co-author of Pedagogy for Employability http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/employability/pedagogy_for_employability_update_2012
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