A report today calls for a radical overhaul of university career services. ‘Class of 2010’ is published by Endsleigh and in response to feedback from the first set of graduates to have gone through university through the recession, it recommends careers services become not-for-profit recruitment consultancies specialising in finding work for graduates in businesses local to the institution.
The research has been carried out for the insurance company by Demos over the past six months. It studies the aspirations and concerns of graduates on issues such as university life, the job market, family and community life, politics and the environment.
One of its key conclusions concerns the role that universities and local businesses could play in helping graduates find work. It believes changes to careers services would reduce the graduate skills gap and graduate unemployment, foster closer relationships between students and their careers service and assist universities in raising additional funds that would be channeled into education and training activities and small grants to encourage student and graduate enterprise.
The report says an increasing number of graduates are changing their priorities to care for their children and parents in their old age. It found that a third of male graduates were willing to sacrifice their career to care full time for their children.
Ian Passmore, Managing Director of, Endsleigh, said there was a high level of optimism among the students. “While optimism alone is not enough for graduates to secure their dream job, we clearly saw that today’s graduates are determined to work hard to get a foot on the career ladder but they need more help to make the transition,” he said.
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