How to improve graduate employability

Help your students prepare for the world of work

Post graduate employability is a key measure of success for universities and colleges. Students and recent graduates are faced with the challenges that come with finding the right role in a competitive job market and it is vital that academic settings offer support to them.  

An important aspect that employers are on the lookout for in graduate recruits is the ability to demonstrate more than their academic achievements. Characteristics such as being adaptable, having a problem-solving mindset and attention to detail are all instrumental when transitioning into a workplace. 

Entering the workforce after university or college can be a steep learning curve and a big change of pace – effectively navigating this during onboarding can be a big tick alongside their intellectual prowess. Universities must be able to support this process and prepare their students as best they can.   

Why is employability important to students and graduates?

For the vast majority of students, the ultimate purpose of learning is to secure a desirable job that will launch them into a successful career. This means that when today’s student generation chooses a course, they are not only searching for the right subject for them, they will also be keen to find a university or academic institute that will provide a springboard into an attractive job. This is why it is key for career advisers to understand and articulate how graduates could enhance their employability opportunities.

Why offer post graduate employability support?

In a highly competitive jobs marketplace, it is no longer enough to simply offer support to students to create a compelling CV or practice their interview technique – although these elements are obviously crucial. Academic institutions need to actively encourage and advise graduates on how to develop their employability skills.

Employability skills are the core skills hiring managers are on the lookout for when employing the right person for the job role. It can include soft skills such as the ability to work well in a team, or professional skills like a particular computer program.

Whilst there is a general consensus that the purpose of gaining a degree or continuing into higher education is to expand your skills and become knowledgeable and qualified in an area that interests you, career advice professionals know there is a lot more to it than that when preparing students for the workforce of today, and of tomorrow.

Here are a few ways that universities and colleges can support future graduates and encourage graduate employability: 

1. Provide opportunities to develop adaptable skills

Students should be supported in gaining adaptable skills that can be used in the workforce and actively prepared for the future of work.

Empower each student to adopt an attitude of continuous development, broadening their skill set beyond the specific areas they cover during their course. They should also be aware of additional training and upskilling which not only strengthens their learning but can also make recent graduates stand out in a sea of CV’s and hopeful hires.

You could offer the following help:

• • Encourage relevant soft skills
    
    When discussing a desired career option with a student based on their qualifications and passions, it is also key to find out what personal attributes might best be suited to the role.
    
    What hurdles will they come across?
    
    How will they be expected to conduct themselves?
    
    Will they need to present ideas, run a team or manage budgets?
    
    Help your students look at what soft skills they may need to develop to deal with these situations effectively and with ease.
    
    
  • Provide personality test resources
    
    Personality tests can be a helpful resource to get students thinking about the psychology behind how the brain works and why they react to certain situations. However, in an overly saturated market there are plenty of tests online, that are not actually very helpful – picking through this to find something beneficial can be a task in itself!
    
    Offering students reliable and trusted sources such as the Jung Personality Test or the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator and sharing them in a way that encourages them to participate, could help them understand their minds.
    
    
  • Suggest extracurricular responsibilities
    
    Taking on tasks whilst still in education can be a huge confidence boost and also looks great on a young person’s CV, which can dramatically increase their post graduate employability.
    
    If there is a topic the student is interested in, is there a way for them to utilise that?
    
    If there is an institution-based newspaper or magazine, budding journalists can learn a lot from offering their help for example.
    
    It is important to be aware that any additional activities will be useful in boosting post graduate employability, so it does not necessarily need to be targeted to one particular sector. To avoid students taking on too much, encourage a breadth of different experiences but be mindful of what skills can be developed with each of them and how they can add value.  

2. Build work placements into student timetables

Managing time as a student can be a difficult task: juggling deadlines, writing essays, attending lectures, and having an active social life too means that planning for the future is not always high on the student list of priorities.

This is where a careers advisor can come in and offer hands-on support to boost graduate employability. Setting aside allocated time for work placements will give students a flavour of what life could be like working in their desired field.

Arranging placements with the organisation in question may also be an opportunity to offer students a foot in the door and start developing those all-important working relationships that will be invaluable once they have graduated.

Some ways to help facilitate this:

• • Broaden your institution's professional connections
    
    Building a database of work opportunities that students can easily access could be a chance to inspire those looking to enhance their employability opportunities once they graduate. Reach out to parents, alumni and local businesses to help students make those connections.
    
    
  • Utilise your social channels
    
    Whilst most young people are social media savvy, LinkedIn can often be seen as a corporate or scary place to step into. Help with removing this stigma by sharing content from work placement opportunities and encourage them to get involved online.
    
    Could you or the placement provider create a short video snippet summing up the opportunities and who would be a good fit? Encourage your students to put themselves forward in a fun and creative way too.
    
    
  • Speak with course managers and tutors
    
    Building work placement opportunities into the course itself could be hugely beneficial as it will link directly with the learning element of the experience and could support a number of students at once.

3. Encourage volunteering

Another way to help add some personality to a student’s CV whilst building their skillset is by suggesting that they volunteer some free time working at a local animal shelter, food bank or charity organization. Offering students support with getting a volunteering position in a field that they are passionate about will benefit them massively, helping develop many soft skills. This can include:

• • problem-solving
  • teamwork
  • effective communication techniques
  • time management

These skills are vital for graduate employability and are a great way to show prospective employers that they are taking the initiative to learn whilst offering up their free time, something which may help them stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs.

4. Put in place an action plan for improving employability of graduates at scale

Today’s students expect the institutions they attend to offer up-to-date support in all areas of their course, and there’s no reason why post graduate employability should be any different.

Whilst many of the suggestions within this article facilitate one-on-one advice with a career advisor, using technology could push your support out to a much wider audience, meaning that those all-important tips and tricks can be shared with the entire student population.

Anyone looking at how graduates could enhance their employability opportunities should investigate the availability of career development tools and software. There are many fantastic resources and areas to explore that all students will find useful such as:

• • developing soft skills
  • looking into work placement opportunities
  • growing your personal brand

Taking on this sort of advice can help all students become highly employable graduates.

As with many other areas of learning, the advance of online tools and digital interaction has transformed and enhanced what is possible. An exciting career and employability platform ticks all the boxes for universities and colleges seeking the very latest methods to help their students kickstart their career.

Via one easily accessible online portal, students can discover a rich source of learning in multiple formats from eLearning to articles and from video to interactive questionnaires. All of this will enable them to:

• • learn new skills
  • personalise their development
  • enhance their employability prospects

By enabling each student to further develop their knowledge, skills and attributes – you can actively boost post graduate employability by building a bridge between learning and the world of work.  

Using these resources together with practical elements of a career development platform for post graduate employability such as CV feedback, interview simulations and job trackers means that students and graduates can use it to grow their confidence but then also put the skills into practice and take the first steps to starting their dream career.  

Access Career Development 

Find out how you can boost your graduates’ employability with the UK’s leading student career planning solution.  The Access Career Development solution is the UK's most widely used student employability platform.  

With personalised assessments, soft skills training, practical support with CVs and more, this   driven software lets your career provision reach and impact all students. 

Talk to us today about how the Access Career Development solution can help your university boost post graduate employability.