26/06/2012

Employers 'Missing Out On Talent'

Top companies are recruiting from just six leading universities and "missing a large amount of graduate talent", the Universities Minister has said.

David Willetts told the government that employers were "fishing in an unduly narrow pool" of talent and risking discriminating against students from less prestigious institutions.

He criticised recruitment programmes for the practice when introducing the government's formal response to a review carried out by Prof Sir Tim Wilson, former vice-chancellor of Hertfordshire University, into the links between higher education and business.

Mr Willetts warned that degree classifications were "incredibly crude" and failed to take extra-curricular achievements into account, so employers should use new-style Higher Education Achievement Reports more, which break down academic grades and other activities and are being trialled at thirty universities.

It is believed as many as three-quarters of leading employers currently require good grades – a first class degree – as a minimum threshold for an interview.

Mr Willetts said: "Sometimes you find employers who complain that they can't find the graduates they’re looking for and how incredibly difficult it is to track them down. You talk to them and discover they're looking at about six universities. That is to miss out on a large amount of graduate talent."

He added: "We have got now an incredibly crude binary system in which basically a first or a 2:1 means a pass and a 2:2 or less, sadly, has significantly less value. That binary result from three years of higher education doesn't properly capture the range of achievements of students."

(NE)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

27 February 2013
Over A Third Of UK Employees Opting Out Of Pension Scheme
The governments plan to boost workers retirement savings could be undone as research carried out for Aviva reveals more than a third of UK workers would opt out of any pension they are automatically enrolled into.
11 January 2005
NHS pension proposals anger trade union
The NHS employers group has announced controversial new pensions proposals, incurring the wrath of health service union Unison. The new proposals include increasing the retirement age from 60 to 65.
11 May 2006
Universities pay dispute faces 'meltdown'
The higher education sector is 'facing meltdown' over a dispute over lecturers pay, a union leader has warned. Speaking at the Association of University Teachers council in Scarborough, AUT General Secretary Sally Hunt, urged employers to listen to their staff over the dispute.
29 June 2012
Employers Get Support For Graduate Jobs
A new pilot scheme in Scotalnd to support graduate recruitment and business growth has been launched by the Minister for Youth Employment Angela Constance. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Dumfries and Galloway can now receive up to £3,000 to take on a graduate in a permanent post.
20 December 2010
Transition For Universities Set Out
The Government has today published its annual Grant Letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The letter from Secretary of State Vince Cable and Universities Minister David Willetts sets out what HEFCE’s priorities should be when allocating higher education budgets to the sector for 2011-12.