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GraduatesRecruitment & retention

Graduates struggle to find degree-related jobs, CIPD warns

by Personnel Today 30 Mar 2010
by Personnel Today 30 Mar 2010

The high number of graduates moving to unrelated employment will create a generation of debt-ridden workers unable to find graduate-level employment, a new survey by the CIPD has found.

As thousands of final-year students begin to job hunt during the Easter break, the survey, Focus on Graduate Jobs, claims that 59% of employees who graduated in the past two years are not currently working in a field related to the degree they studied.

The survey of 700 graduates, conducted for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) by YouGov, also found that 58% of recent university leavers said they had been unable to find a suitable job, 28% claimed their degree did not equip them with the skills they need for the workforce, 21% chose a new career path post-qualification, and almost one-quarter (24%) had decided to postpone the start of their careers altogether.

Tom Richmond, skills adviser at the CIPD, said: “The rising number of students unable to work in jobs related to subjects they studied at university threatens to create a ‘disillusioned generation’ â€“ unable to find graduate-level employment but saddled with thousands of pounds worth of debt.”

Commenting on the government’s pledge to increase the proportion of young people they want to secure a degree or equivalent qualification to 75%, Richmond continued: “The consequences for future graduate job prospects look bleak indeed if there really is an attempt to nearly double the numbers of graduates in the UK.”

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“Government should focus on the needs of learners and employers, and also needs to spend more time and effort developing and promoting the new vocationally-based diplomas for 14- to 19-year-olds.

“This over-promotion of university or equivalent-level study could leave many without the knowledge and skills that will genuinely help them find graduate-level work and apply it in the workplace,” he said.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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