Employability and Skills

"Students today and in the future will be competing for jobs in a global marketplace, and so it is vital that engaging them in the Bologna Process is prioritised."

Wes Streeting, President, National Union of Students - BBC News, April 2007

One of the key education challenges for the UK is to develop a skilled workforce which can compete in an increasingly competitive global market. The influential Leitch Review focused on the global context and the imperative to develop world-class skills. 'Our nation's skills are not world class and we run the risk that this will undermine our long-term prosperity.' Raising basic skills and engaging learners is critical to this development. At the time of writing (2009), the UK Government was promoting the new 14-19 Diplomas/Foundation Degrees as key to this and emphasising the importance of working closely with employers. Alongside this, widening participation in Higher Education is a key objective with a focus on engaging learners from non-traditional backgrounds.

Lifelong learning as a process is increasingly important as a way of supporting an individual's personal development. Ongoing development of knowledge and skills is key throughout a job/career to maintain and increase employability. Work-based learning has a role to play in this alongside the notion of Continuing Professional Development and Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolios are both useful tools to help support the learner.

Employers value international skills which are developed through increased mobility (student exchange programmes, work placements abroad) and international skills e.g. language competencies. Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) research shows that, "Around 60% of the country's top employers indicate that experience of international study enhances employability" (Fielden, J., Middlehurst, R. and Woodfield, S. Global Horizons for UK Students: A guide for universities, 2007). This of course has strong ties to the issue of mobility.

Business/Employer engagement

"The continued international competitiveness of the UK rests on the continuing supply of high quality graduates and postgraduates who have the knowledge and capabilities that knowledge intensive businesses need. This will require closer partnerships between businesses and universities so demand can be more informed and supply better geared to the needs of high value-adding sectors of the economy which will secure our future prosperity"

Graduate Employability: What do employers think and want? Will Archer and Jess Davison, CIHE

Business and employer engagement has a key role to play in the success of Higher Education in the 21st Century. JISC adopted a Business and Community Engagement (BCE) strategic theme as an agenda to meet an aim of its 2007-09 strategy to develop and implement "a programme to support institutions' engagement with the wider community".

HEFCE has established an employer engagement strategy that emphasises the importance of the role that Higher Education should play in making the UK more competitive, "by promoting the knowledge-based aspects of our economy".

This engagement offers real opportunities to the sector. The National Employer Skills Survey in 2005 estimated that employers invest £33.3 billion in training annually and of this around "1% is spent with higher education institutions - and most of that is with business schools, on management education. To catch up and keep up with the pace setters, according to Lord Leitch's review of skills..., we need 45% of the workforce to be educated to degree level by 2020". (Arnot, Chris (2007) 'Better Shape Up' The Guardian, 4 December).

Careers Services in the Higher Education sector can play an important part in the area as they are well positioned to build on partnerships and networks already in place in order to better understand employer needs and skills requirements.

The employer needs and requirements alongside those more generally apparent for citizens of an increasingly global environment have an influence on curriculum development.

Language Learning

An increase in globalisation highlights the requirement for an increase in the level of language skills within the UK. According to Marshall (Making the case for Languages: Myths and realities' - available from the Higher Education Academy's Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies), 60% of UK trade is with non-English speaking countries so it is important that steps are taken to ensure that engagement is undertaken in a language appropriate to the customer. The uptake of languages in schools has been in decline over recent years (less than 50% take language at GCSE level (Dearing Languages Review 2007) but there are moves afoot to reverse this situation including the HEFCE-funded 'Routes into Languages' initiative which intends to promote take-up of languages from primary education to university.