Exploring the new graduate labour market

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Exploring the new graduate labour market
A presentation to the Graduate Labour Market
Forum, 15th December 2003, Westminster,
London Kate Purcell, University of the West of
England, Peter Elias, University of Warwick and
Nick Wilton, University of the West of England
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Structure of the presentation

• a brief outline of the development and validation
  of SOC(HE)
• an exploration of labour market experiences of
  1995 graduates Seven Years On using SOC(HE)
• a comparison of the characteristics of those in
  different SOC(HE) categories, using data from
  both the survey and follow-up interviews to
  investigate the extent to which graduates in the
  sample were using their HE skills and knowledge.

Slide 3
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The nature of occupational change

• Scientific/technological development
• Growth of disposable income
• Organisational change
• The knowledge society or graduate
  under-employment?

Slide 4
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Measuring occupational change in relation to
higher education

• Our approach
• Examine occupational structure at the most
  detailed statistical level (300-400 unit groups)
• Problems
• Tautological definition must distinguish
  between unit groups which become populated by HE
  leavers because of overcrowding and changes in
  the nature of work
• Need to convert/recode data at the most detailed
  level to overcome problems of revisions to
  classifications

Slide 6
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SOC(HE) a new typology of occupations

• Traditional graduate occupations
• Modern graduate occupations
• New graduate occupations
• Niche graduate occupations
• Non-graduate occupations

Slide 8
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Traditional graduate occupations
The established professions, for which,
historically, the normal route has been via an
undergraduate degree programme

• Solicitors and barristers
• Medical practitioners
• HE, FE and secondary education teachers
• Biological scientists/biochemists
• Management consultants, actuaries, economists
  and
• statisticians

In 2001 2003 we observe gt60 of graduates in
21-35 and 45-54 age groups
Slide 9
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Modern graduate occupations
The newer professions, particularly in
management, IT and creative vocational areas,
which graduates have been entering increasingly
since educational expansion in the 1960s

• IT consultants
• Authors/writers/journalists
• Software and design engineers
• Primary school teachers
• Social workers

Not Traditional and in 2001 2003 we observe
gt40 of graduates in 21-35 and 45-54 age groups
Slide 10
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New graduate occupations
Areas of employment to which graduates have
increasingly been recruited in large numbers
mainly administrative, design, technical and
caring occupations

• Marketing sales managers
• Physiotherapists, occupational therapists
• Accountants, finance managers
• HR Managers
• Product, project development managers
• Project engineers

Not Traditional or Modern but in 2001 2003 we
observe gt25 of graduates in 21-35 age group and
this is gt10 points higher than 45-54 age group
Slide 11
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Niche graduate occupations
Occupations where the majority of incumbents are
not graduates, but within which there are stable
or growing specialist niches which require higher
education skills and knowledge

• Civil Service executive officers
• Graphic designers
• Hotel, entertainment and sports managers
• Retail managers
• Medical, dental and other scientific
  technicians
• Nurses

Not Traditional, Modern or New, but a significant
proportion of degree holders in both 21-35 and
45-54 age groups, and we are aware of areas of
employment in this unit group which are graduate
entry
Slide 12
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Non-graduate occupations
Graduates are also found in jobs which are likely
to constitute under-utilisation of their higher
education skills and knowledge

• Call centre operators (16 of 21-35 year olds
  have degree)
• Sales assistants (15 of 21-35 year olds have
  degree)
• Filing and record clerks (21 of 21-35 year
  olds have degree)
• Debt, rent and cash collectors (2 of 21-35
  year olds have degree)
• Routine laboratory testers (36 of 21-35 year
  olds have degree)

(Non-graduate includes all remaining unit groups)
Slide 13
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Slide 19
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Occupational structure of the UK labour force,
2001 - 2003
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The Seven Years On research

• Longitudinal survey of 50 of 1995 graduates from
  38 UK Higher Education Institutions, including
  full work histories
• 3.5 years after graduation, in 1998/99
• 7 years after graduation, in 2002/3
• Programme of telephone and face to face
  interviews with 200 second sweep respondents
• Evidence from the 1995 graduate cohort study
  validates SOC(HE).

Slide 14
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The movement of 1995 graduates into the labour
market, 1995 - 2003
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Occupational history of 1995 graduates (SOC2000
version of HE occupational classification)
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(No Transcript)
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Degree required for job held in 2002/03, by
gender and type of occupation
Slide 15
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Percentage of respondents stating that their
current (2002/03) job is a 'dead-end' job, by
type of occupation and gender
Slide 18
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Graduates employed in traditional graduate
occupations
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Graduates in niche graduate occupations
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Graduates working in non-graduate occupations
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Skills used 'a lot' by 1995 graduates in current
job at time of 2002/3 survey
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Use of organisational skills in current job, by
SOC(HE) category
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Proportion of 1995 graduates who spend most of
their time supervising the work of others, by
SOC(HE) category
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Those in New and Niche Graduate Occupations are..

• More likely
• to work in the private sector in a large
  organisation
• to be using entrepreneurial skills, management
  skills and leadership skills
• to supervise the work of others
• Less likely
• to have done a postgraduate degree
• New graduate jobs were mostly done in
  male-dominated contexts/ niche graduate jobs in
  female-dominated contexts, and those employed
  full time in New graduate jobs were more likely
  than those in other categories to earn 40K)
• BUT what do these graduates DO? And does it
  differ from the work that those in traditional
  and modern graduate jobs do?

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We identified three clusters of intrinsic
skills in graduate occupations..

• Expertise
• Strategic skills
• Emotional labour skills

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Expertise

• specific, specialist technical knowledge and
  skills that are essential/central to the
  undertaking of a job. This expertise is most
  often acquired on vocational degree courses,
  sometimes followed by postgraduate study or
  professional training and accreditation. Jobs
  positioned at the expert extreme are typically
  roles with a high level of emphasis on technical
  analysis, problem diagnosis and solution.

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Strategic skills

• the generic skills set required to plan,
  co-ordinate and administer processes and
  (usually) people. For example, most senior
  management jobs require elements of substantive
  expertise and interpersonal skills but at core,
  their successful performance relies on vision,
  capacity to evaluate risks and opportunities and
  take effective strategic decisions.

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Emotional labour skills

• a high level of emotional intelligence and the
  involve a substantial emotional labour component
  (Hochschild 1983) the ability to manage one's
  own or other people's emotions in carrying out
  the work objectives. Examples of jobs that
  require hard interpersonal skills include
  negotiation, selling and persuasion. Soft
  Interpersonal skills are associated with caring,
  counselling and welfare provision. Liaison
  skills require both elements.

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Interview Sample (189 cases) - Mean skills scores
by SOC(HE)
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New Graduate Job University Marketing Officer
(female age 30 graduated in hospitality
management from new university, 18-30K

• If I am in the office, , I am juggling a lot
  of things. It could involve liasing with the
  designer over the latest piece of publicity
  material, or liasing with the person who is
  providing content for that. . . I might be proof
  reading, or checking documentation. I would
  probably go to a meeting to discuss the various
  projects, or keep people updated generally on
  what I am doing. I am the only person that
  deals with marketing in the faculty. I spend a
  lot of time telling other people what Ive been
  up to, or they are instructing me what the next
  policy things are going to be which we are going
  to have to meet. So meetings. Answering
  enquiries, maybe feeding stories through to the
  pressvery, very varied. If I am not in the
  office, then I might be at an event, in which
  case I am travelling to a venue, setting up the
  stands and then spending the next day, 5 hours,
  talking to students or potential students about
  our courses, entry requirements, facilities,etc
  and then packing up and coming home.

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New Graduate Job Sales Marketing Executive
for a ICT manufacturer (female graduate in
medical instrumentation computing,new
university, 24-27K)

• Respondent We deal with people all around the
  world so first thing in the morning there are
  e-mails from people in America or people in
  Singapore or whatever from people who are my
  accounts asking for information or quotes - or
  theyre people who are doing an evaluation and
  are asking questions How do you do this or
  that, how much does it cost? . I also tend to
  co-ordinate a lot of things because . the team
  that Im in, we have a business development
  manager, a technical manager and then a technical
  engineer as well, and I tend to work between them
  keeping everything going and making sure the
  customers are all up to date on whats going on,
  so theres a lot of liasing. Then I might be on
  site visiting customers doing a training course.
  I went to America last year to visit one of my
  customers and did a couple of days
  workshop/presentation on the new release of the
  software .. so a day isnt that typical!
• Interviewer It sounds as if there isa
  significant technical element, even though youre
  not necessarily involved in the software
  development directly, that you have a kind of
  support role
• Respondent Yeah I think we all do, everyone in
  the company because the products that were
  selling are very technical and very specialist so
  the people that were talking to are technical
  people - so we have to be able to converse at
  that level, so I think everybody has a technical
  background.

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New graduate Job Regional Sales Manager for
Brewery ( Male, aged 29, with Psychology degree
from new university, 36-40k)

• Every day is different. I would say that I work
  from home at least one day a week. I would
  probably be in a meeting one day a week and the
  other three days I would be out in trade with my
  sales teamat the moment he manages nine
  people. Thats quite motivating to see people
  start off very raw, very inexperienced, and to
  train them and develop them to be competent, to
  perform in the role and then take them forward
  again, to move them on with the business. That,
  in itself, is rewarding. And also the challenge
  of achieving results.
•  

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Niche Graduate Job Technical Manager for food
manufacturing company(female aged 28 with degree
in food science/microbiology from 1960s
university, 50-60K)

• I get up around 6 oclock, earlier if Im doing
  a hygiene audit when you have to be on the site
  for 5 oclock in the morning. But typical day
  get up at 6 oclock, probably leave the house
  just before 7 and arrive at work at 7.30plug the
  laptop in, read the e-mails, delegate it, delete
  it, whatever. We have a management meeting at
  8.30 every day where we go through key issues for
  the day and that generally takes around half an
  hour. Then the next couple of hours is spent
  dealing with whatever immediate issues are going
  on in the factory there might be quality
  problems, issues with temperatures or whatever
  So deal with those. Then typically a lot of my
  day is spent dealing with customer requests, so
  do that, responses to complaints, dealing with
  environmental health officers A lot of the day
  could be spent working on various large projects
  such as, in January, the whole industry is going
  over to a new packaging format so obviously
  thats only just around the corner. Theres no
  set structure to the day really, my role is
  overseeing everything that happens..

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Non-graduate Job University Admin Officer,
graduated in Plant Environmental Biology from
old university, female age 29, 18-21K

• Respondent What we spend some of the time
  doing is going out to departments or to other
  institutions that we validate programmes for and
  then so, we go out and monitor them from a
  quality assurance point of view. Theres a lot of
  time involved in planning those visits and then
  the follow-up from those visits, particularly the
  report writing. So, a typical day you might be
  spending a lot of time sitting in front of a
  computer writing a report on a visit that you did
  a week before but then you might also be going
  out and having a quick meeting with someone in
  the department, seeing how things are going or
  youll probably be meeting a couple of people
  planning future visits. On a regular basis
  there is.. a lot of writing, meetings, committee
  meetings, liasing with staff from the
  departments, staff in designated institutions...
  Those sort of thingsChecking that departments
  are maintaining academic standards, I guess is a
  way of looking at it.

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Implications

• Traditional and Modern graduate occupations and
  New and Niche differ, but there are significant
  overlaps between them
• New graduate occupations mainly encompass new
  areas of management and administration that
  involve the need for hybrid skills that range
  from high to routine reflecting flat
  organisations and occupational restructuring
• Niche occupations most often involve junior
  management or specialisms within non graduate
  areas
• The boundaries between graduate and non-graduate
  employment are changing in many areas of work
• A significant proportion of those in
  Non-graduate jobs are using their skills and
  knowledge appropriately.