Nearly 300 careers professionals and industry peers got together to share insight, impact and inspiration at this year’s HE Conference. ISE’s Anne-Marie Campion shares her key takeaways.
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Restoring the ‘social contract’
Our opening session saw ISE’s joint CEO Stephen Isherwood and AGCAS CEO Martin Edmonson reflect on market conditions and the implications for students, HE and employers.
With a competitive graduate jobs market and increased focus on the value of a degree, the conversation quickly turned to rediscovering the social purpose of higher education.
While the financial, health and civic engagement of the graduate premium still holds up, how does the narrative ring true when many students on the ground are unable to get graduate-level work?
Martin challenged the common question around whether too many people go to university: “If we flip that around, then who shouldn’t go and how do we do that fairly?” We can see how, from an emotional and inclusivity perspective, this is a lot more uncomfortable.
The expansion of HE provision and giving people from a wide range of backgrounds access has great social benefits, so how do we make this case and make society fall in love with HE again?
Stephen turned the focus to, ‘what are the best routes through education and into work?’ and that takes us back to the Post 16 Education & Skills White Paper and the bold plans for reform it set out.
This session was a perfect opener to get us thinking about our industry and its future.
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Competition for jobs
Undoubtedly the market for graduates is competitive and our employers confirmed that we are at record numbers in terms of applications – average 140 per graduate vacancy. In 2022/23 this stood at 86 and back in 2002/3 it was just 38. One of our employer panelists reported that for six graduate roles they had received 9,000 applications.
This picture is consistent across different sectors and many employers reported short application windows to manage this volume.
The advice for students is to do your research early and don’t delay in making applications, but be aware of rushing at the cost of quality – many employers are reporting poor quality applications which ultimately leads to rejection.
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Investing for the future
While the graduate market is competitive, the sky has not fallen in as some headlines would suggest. ISE’s Student Recruitment Survey reported key trends earlier this year.
The majority (90%) of graduate hiring continues as usual for ISE members and the 8% reduction in graduate vacancies is more likely attributed to economic uncertainty and volatility than AI replacing entry level jobs. And the reduction in graduate jobs is countered by an equal increase of 8% in apprentice vacancies.
Throughout the conference employers referenced a ‘doubling down’ on emerging talent hiring; the importance of investing for the future and of early careers as a critical talent pipeline for their businesses.
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AI impact
Inevitably the subject of AI and the impact on recruitment and the student experience came up many times over the conference.
While employers confirmed that the use of automation in the recruitment process for psychometric tests is common, the use of AI for recruitment and selection is extremely rare.
This goes against the common student perception - all of our evidence shows that the majority of applications are reviewed by a human.
In addition, employers are for the most part happy for applicants to use AI to help them with their research and with their CVs and cover letters, but the message for students is clear: don’t over use AI.
Employers want authenticity and for a candidate’s ‘real voice’ to shine through. As one panelist said, “a slightly imperfect authentic CV beats an AI polished CV every time”.
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Shifting from student to professional
There was much discussion across the conference on employability skills, which was explored in depth by Rebecca Fielding from Gradconsult and Sarah Mountford from Nestle.
A landmark study by Gradconsult maps the psychological transition from student to professional, helping HE identify where their support for students should be targeted.
Increasingly we are seeing volatility, ambiguity and complexity in the workplace and this requires focus on prioritisation, the agility to respond rapidly to change and for students to shift from the drive for perfection in education to the need for workplace pragmatism.
In the workplace the drive is for efficiency and delivery, but students coming out of education are worried about getting things wrong; tending to procrastinate and polishing their work fearful of criticism. A shift is required so students are comfortable sharing initial crude ideas and asking how they can get to where they need to be quickly.
Across all industries, managers ranked the top three most important and challenging shifts for new early careers hires to make as, pragmatism, self sufficiency, and fortitude or resilience.
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Are you curious?
Raul Aparici at The School of Life made a compelling case for curiosity.
As children we have innate curiosity in all and everything around us, but as we mature there are increasing barriers to our curiosity.
For example, we don’t like not knowing and want to be in control. Perhaps we see danger in AI and reject it rather than think how it can help. Perhaps we cling on to maintaining the image of our expertise and too readily default to the way we have always done things. Perhaps we fear curiosity - what if we ask our team ‘how else could we do this?’ and they say ‘without you’ or ‘with a different manager’?
But with curiosity we grow. There is an energy in curiosity that can drive things. So, break down the barriers, look at things for the first time, confront your ego and the need for certainty, give yourself time and don’t settle for the first solution. The world needs us to be curious without judgment.
One final note from an incredibly powerful session with Liverpool John Moores University and their student panel: “When we are listened to and believed in we don’t just take part. We rise.”