Contributions of Higher Education to Obtaining Employment and Skills Essay

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Updated: Mar 10th, 2024

Access to higher education plays a significant role towards an individual’s acquaintance of skills and employment. In most occasions, it provides an individual with an opportunity of outcompeting persons that lack degrees. Most employees prefer graduates to individuals who stopped at A-level because they associate graduates with success.

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Graduates from higher education centres also portray good characters in diverse organisations, in which they work. Most of the graduates acquaint good characters from interacting directly with the society.

For instance, majority of the graduates portray a sense of belonging; they join many groups that assist the society in meeting some set standards. This paper aims at providing detailed information about why higher education is somehow an effective means for both obtaining employment and learning the necessary skills for the workplace.

Negative perception of graduates

In the past, most employers preferred graduates to A-level students when deploying employees. Unfortunately, the current employers have developed negative perception towards graduates. According to them, most graduates lack some capacities. For instance, they argue that most graduates lack not only business awareness, but also self-management.

Some graduates also portray their lack of skills in carrying out some organisational responsibilities. It is also evident that some of the graduates seek employment without preparing. This is evidenced by the opinion of the interviewed employers.

According to the employers, over 40 percent of the graduates that apply for jobs show unpreparedness (Atfield & Purcell, 2012 p. 1). Thus, it is evident that higher education does not fully prepare students for employment that is offered in the job market.

Lack of skills among graduates

Reports provided by some renowned organisations also show that graduates do not get fully acquainted with skills that will enable them compete for jobs. For instance, the report provided by the CBI and Universities UK shows that most universities do not develop employability skills in their students (Atfield & Purcell, 2012 p. 25).

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According to these organisations, universities and businesses opt to take part significantly in developing the employability skills of all students.

Selectivity of skills

Some of the institutions are also selective on the skills they teach their respective students. Some of the students also believe that employers seek for respective skills when recruiting employees. According to Atfield & Purcell (2012 p.2), “most students believe that employers require strong work ethic, communication skills, and ability to work in team”.

The selection of the skills contributes significantly to the unpreparedness of graduates for employment. For instance, “the selectivity criteria contribute to most students lacking crucial skills such as computer literacy, knowledge and analytic ability” (Atfield & Purcell, 2012 p. 2). It is evident that IT is one of the requirements in almost all jobs; and lack of it portrays unpreparedness for the job market.

Student qualifications also play a significant role in the job market, most of the employers love employing graduates that are well acquainted with the job they offer them. Thus, institutions need to develop students all around, and not only for specific job opportunities.

Institutions and employment

Most of the students have also the tendency of thinking that employers do consider certain institutions when recruiting employees. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Most employees adore good degree classification and not the reputation of the institutions, from which job applicants graduated.

Additionally, some degree combinations also play a significant role in enhancing individuals that compete for higher skills jobs. Thus, it is evident that higher education contributes somehow to the employability of graduates.

Exponential growth of students

The number of students joining universities increases exponentially each year. To some extent, the exponential growth of students in the universities is crucial. However, the rapid growth of students in the universities also impairs with the availability of jobs in the job market. In most occasions, expansion of higher educational opportunities leads to an oversupply problem (Vignoles, 2008 p.3).

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The number of students obtaining degrees outnumbers the amount of graduate jobs outside schools. In most occasions, expansion of educational opportunity also leads to graduates earning the same amount with individuals who stopped at A-level. Thus, access to higher education does not guarantee an individual gets an employment opportunity in the job market.

Increase in job opportunities

Fortunately, advancement in technology has contributed significantly towards creation of job opportunities in most states. “Countries such as the United Kingdom have a substantial increase in number of professional graduate-level jobs” (Vignoles, 2008 p.1). The increase in job opportunities, however, hampers with the quality of the degree in one way or the other.

In addition to increasing the potential of accommodating all graduates, it also leads to the lack of manpower. In most occasions, the UK is forced to recruit individuals who stopped at A-level to work at the same level with graduates. The increase in job opportunities in some countries also leads to imbalance in payment for the graduates and A-level individuals.

In most occasions, the salaries of the graduates bypass the salary of the A-level slightly. This imbalance in payment leads to not only development of wrong perception of the degrees, but also to loss of morale for advancement of some skills in the universities (Office of National Statistics, 2012 p. 1).

Perception of universities

The perception of the universities among people also hampers with the attainability of employment to the graduates. “Occasionally, university performance is measured by observance of financial returns to individuals and impact on economic growth” (Shaheen, 2012 p.2). Such narrow evaluations disregard the role of the universities to the societies.

It is evident that the universities contribute significantly towards the development of the societies both hygienically and economically. Through voluntary groups, students not only raise substantial funds, but also combat some societal challenges.

Thus, students ought to magnify their influence to the societies within their rich so as to have good opportunities for securing job opportunities in the job market. Additionally, students also ought to advance their creativity by being innovative. Innovativeness will not only create job opportunities, but also enhance the usefulness of the societal relationship.

Competition for higher skill jobs

Currently, there is a great competition for higher skill jobs in the job market. This has led to most employers diverting their attention to the recent graduates. High competition for jobs has also led to the falling of the rate of employment in the society. Unfortunately, “the fall in employment for graduates also affects the employment rate for all graduates” (Office of National Statistics, 2012 p.1).

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In conclusion, higher education alone cannot assure an individual of obtaining employment. In most occasions, employers do consider a lot of things before recruiting new employees. For instance, most employers require their employees to have good knowledge of IT.

Additionally, most employers recruit employees that relate well with people. Self-management is also one of the crucial elements that employers ought to have for them to get access to higher skill jobs.

Despite all these, access to higher education also plays a significant role in obtaining employment and learning some of the necessary skills for the workplace. It enables individuals diversify their communication skills by associating with different members of the society.

List of References

Atfield, G. & Purcell, K., 2012, “The fit between graduate labour market supply and demand: 3rd year UK undergraduate degree final year students’ perceptions of the skills they have to offer and the skills employers seek.” University of Warwick: Institute for Employment Research. Web.

Office of National Statistics, 2012, . Web.

Shaheen, F., 2011, Degrees of value: How universities benefit society. New Economics Foundation. Web.

Vignoles, A., 2008, Graduate Market Trends: The value of a degree. The Higher Education Careers Services Unit. Web.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "Contributions of Higher Education to Obtaining Employment and Skills." March 10, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/contributions-of-higher-education-to-obtaining-employment-and-skills-essay/.

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