Are Employers Seeking Sustainability Literate Graduates

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Are Employers Seeking Sustainability Literate
Graduates?

• Eddie Cowling BA (Hons)
• Professor Sarah Sayce BSc (Hons) PhD FRICS IRRV
• C-SCAIPE
• Kingston UniversitySchool of Surveying
  Planning

All our Futures Conference
9-11 September 2008
University of Plymouth
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Sustainability in the built environment

• Buildings have significant environmental impacts
  over their whole life cycle during construction,
  operation and even demolition
• (Building Commission)
• Buildings now responsible for 50 of carbon
  emissions in the UK

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The Circle of Blame
Investors We would fund but there is no demand
Occupiers We would like to have more sustainable
buildings but there is little choice of
properties
Developers We would ask but investors wont pay
for them
Constructors We can build but the developers do
not ask for them
Source Sustainable Construction Task Group
(2000a)
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The professions reaction?
The RICS Position

• 2004 Peter Fall sets up sustainability
  commission

• 2005 Joined up with Forum for the Future in
  developing PiPS

• 2006 RICS officially adopts sustainability
  policy

• 2006 New competency introduced to APC

• 2007 Commission issues Surveying Sustainability
  a short guide for the property professional

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Professional Body Response

• A core RICS qualification requirement for
  graduates from 2006
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of why
  and how sustainability seeks to balance economic,
  environmental and social objectives at global,
  national and local levels in the context of land,
  property and the built environment.

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Educational Response

• HEFCE made the embedding of sustainability their
  Objective 1 in 2002

• The goal of the United Nations Decade of
  Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014,
  DESD), for which UNESCO is the lead agency, is to
  integrate the principles, values, and practices
  of sustainable development into all aspects of
  education and learning.

• Initiatives amongst universities to encourage
  students to develop sustainability skills are
  still relatively localised

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Sustainable Development in Higher Education
(2005)

• Strategic statement aiming to make the HE sector
  recognised as a major contributor to societys
  efforts to achieve sustainability-through the
  skills and knowledge that its graduates learn and
  put into practice

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2008 Strategic statement and action plan

• The strategic review looked at the requirements
  of employersand this action plan reflects that
  further work needs to be undertaken in this area
  to understand their requirements and explore how
  we can facilitate and meet these

• Thus, will aim to Build links to
  employersencouraging these groups to view
  sustainable development as a desirable component
  of HE courses
• we will work with employers to understand their
  requirements in relation to sustainable
  development and explore what is needed to meet
  them
• Source http//www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2008/08_
  18/

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Future Leaders Survey 2007/08
Student Aspirations

• When choosing a HEI, 3 cite environmental
  performance of the university as very important
• (54 the quality of teaching, 23 position in
  league tables, 10 nightlife)

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Graduate aspirations Future Leaders Survey
2007/08

• When deciding who to work for at the end of
  university, 10 said how seriously the
  organisation takes environmental issues was an
  important factor to consider.
• (way behind all other listed issues such as
  location of the organisation, salary and bonus,
  the organisational culture and opportunities for
  career development)

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The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2007

• 27 of respondents think that giving something
  back to the community is very important
• Compared with other elements such as gaining a
  professional qualification (32) and starting a
  real job (29)

Source http//www.sussexlearningnetwork.org.uk/do
cuments/GradSurveySummary07.pdf
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Employable Graduates for Responsible
Employers (2008)

• Nearly a fifth of respondents (17) said they
  considered the social and environmental ethics of
  an employer before making a career decision.

Graduates often judged and selected potential
employers based on their reputation and
commitment to sustainable development and
corporate social responsibility
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Student survey exploring perceptions of
sustainability 2008 intake
Do you think a good understanding of the
principles of sustainability will better equip
you in your chosen career path?

• Real Estate students 31
• Fine Art students 7
• Geography/ES 47

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So what about recruitment?

• Client Needs

• Student Aspirations

Recruitment Policy? Has the changing context
changed employer requirements?
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• 89 Barriers to Teaching Sustainability
• Number 11 Employers dont want it
• 89 Reasons to not teach sustainability
  Computing for Sustainability

Key Q To what extent do employers actively seek
graduates from cognate property courses who have
sustainability knowledge and skills?
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So what has C-SCAIPE done?

• 2007 survey Questionnaire distributed to 100
  private and public sector organisations employing
  surveyors

• Qualitative data gathered to support the survey
  analysis

• 2008 job advert analysis 339 job adverts
  analysed (web and print media)

• 2008/09 continuation

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Pilot survey conducted

• 3 broad themes explored
• -Organisational values
• -Market readiness
• -Skills requirements

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Organisational values
Environmental policy

• CSR Policy

• Results suggest that organisations that have
  explicit policies (CSR, Environmental) tend to be
  more likely to have taken positive action e.g.
  encouraging employer awareness, green travel
  plans, environmental office practices

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• just as things were moving and companies were
  reacting to the sustainability agendathe
  changing economic climate and suffering property
  market has shifted the focus back towards fiscal
  priorities
• (London firm)

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The market
Drivers for the organisations to incorporate
sustainability into advice and services offered
1st Market Transformation 2nd Legislation 3rd
Better informed clients 4th Investor requirements
5th Rise of CSR 6th Occupier requirements
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Skills requirements
-CPD needs
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Skills requirements

• Respondents were asked to what degree the
  sustainability agenda had effected their business
  in terms of skills requirements (1no effect,
  5significant effect)

• Mean score 2.83 (3.4 for construction focussed
  practices)
• Supported by the qualitative work conducted
• the rising sustainability agenda has without
  doubt increased the need for our team to up-skill
  in that area (Recruitment officer-London
  surveying firm)

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Skills requirements
Those that did, usually showed a strong overall
commitment to sustainability issues (CSR policy
etc)
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so why are graduates not required to have a
knowledge of sustainability???

• other criteria are more importantday to day
  work is not affected by sustainability issues and
  therefore there is no need for high levels of
  knowledge in the area

Theyve passed their APCand they can learn all
that sort of stuff on the job
We havent required them to have a know-how up
to now, but we now realise its becoming a major
issueand graduates are asking us about it too!
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of those that do require sustainability
literacy, how do you assess it?

• At interviewwell explore general awareness I
  guess
• We ask them a few questions in the interview,
  nothing too technical, they answer them!
• Quiz them at interview, but weve had a fair few
  that quiz us about it first!

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Job advert analysis

• 339 job adverts analysed
• Built Environment Architects, BS, QS, Planners
• Exploring the extent to which sustainability
  literacy is any form of prerequisite in positions
  advertised

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Job advert analysis

• Only 4.7 (16) of the adverts mentioned
  sustainability/SD literacy (or related) as a
  desirable or a requisite for the post

• Of these, Planners most likely to ask about
  sustainability, closely followed by Architects
  and BS

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The perceived future

• Most organisations (78) believed graduates
  knowledge of aspects of sustainability will need
  to increase substantially over the next 5-10 years

Slowly but surely, we are taking a keener
interest in what our graduate recruits know
regarding sustainability and environmental
performance London surveying firm
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So

• Its clear that the BE sector needs a
  sustainability literate workforce

• and it appears that graduates are becoming more
  keen

• But employers on the whole are still not reacting
  at the recruitment stage?

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Questions raised

• Have employment policies not been adapted in
  light of perceived market transformation?
• Do employers worry about narrowing their employee
  pool? Are they just seeking bright people?
• Is learning on the job, APC and CPD seen as
  sufficient means of up-skilling workforce?
• As survey will be refined on a year-by-year basis
  these issues will be monitored

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Thank you