Students face degree of career uncertainty

THEY have racked up thousand of pounds of debt, but university graduates are facing the gloomiest job market for years.

And as reporter Karen Doherty found out, that makes Stephen Boyd’s own job all the more challenging.

NEARLY two thirds of students leaving university this summer do not expect to find a graduate job.

With the credit crunch and unemployment topping 2.2 million, the highest figure since 1996, confidence in the graduate job market has slumped to a 15-year low according to a survey of more than 16,000 fina- year students.

While the Government wants more people to do degrees, many current students fear that even if they do get a job offer, it may be withdrawn, they will be made redundant or their pay cut.

Expected starting salaries have dipped and Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said: “Our latest survey shows that final-year students due to leave UK universities this summer are gloomy and frustrated about their employment prospects.

“Students are all too aware that a significant number of employers have cut their graduate recruitment programmes this year or are delaying taking on new trainees until the economic situation improves.

“Having invested an average of £15,000 on their degrees, tens of thousands of finalists are now set to leave university without a job offer and feel they have little prospect of finding work in the immediate future.”

But while students are worried, the advice from Stephen Boyd is remain flexible, do plenty of research and learn how to highlight their strengths.

The 37-year-old from Chadderton is the new head of the careers and employability service at Huddersfield University, which includes its Oldham campus.

“We’re finding that students are worried about the situation but they are not in a state of panic,” he explained.

“The careers services has a key role to play. We act as a conduit between the students and the employers, so we are at the crossroads of all that seems to be happening.

“We try to get across to students that each sector of the economy is different. The media tends to focus on areas such as banking, retail and media, here there has been a downturn.

“However, the engineering sector, for example, has an anticipated rise in graduate vacancies of 8.3 per cent and their biggest concern is that there are not enough graduates to fill them.”

The former Chadderton Hall Junior and Manchester Grammar School pupil has worked in careers advice since the 1990s.

After graduating in history from Leeds University, he spent a great deal of time talking to careers advisers trying to find out what he wanted to do. He said: “I suddenly realised that the people I was talking to about careers were the very people I would like to become myself!

“Working in this field is a great opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives.”

Stephen worked for Oldham Careers Service, which funded him to study for a diploma in careers guidance at the Huddersfield University. This was followed by a seven-year stint at Salford College before he became a careers adviser at Huddersfield University, which saw him divide his time between the Queensgate campus in Huddersfield and University Campus Oldham.

Since April, he has been head of the university’s entire careers service which has a staff of 14 and offers a wide variety of services.

He still spends a portion of his working time in Oldham, where the careers service has recently expanded, and said: “All students are different and they respond differently to different kinds of support.

“The mainstay of what we offer is the traditional one-to-one careers guidance interview, but we also provide small group workshops, careers education programmes linked with academic courses, careers management and personal development.

“We also offer e-guidance because a lot of students, particularly part-timers, may not be able to access some of our other services.”

Another feature of the university is an emphasis on work-based learning, through placements or work experience.

He added: “From the feedback we get from employers and graduate recruiters, what they value above all else are students who can demonstrate some related experience.”

And despite the gloom, he is in no doubt that university study is the best course to take.

“Over the course of your career you will earn considerably more on average than your counterparts who didn’t go to university.

“But beyond that, going to university is a great experience. All of this provides the raw material that makes a successful employee. And that’s why employers still like graduates.”

He also also highlighted the benefit of UCO to the borough, adding: “We now have employers actively coming to us who are keen to recruit our students.

“It is really very promising and I suspect that the success of graduates from the Oldham campus will be of great benefit to the town, because most of our graduates are keen to stay local and invest themselves in the Oldham area.”