This blog is designed to keep you up-to-date with Careers Education, Information and Guidance (CEIAG) available locally, nationally and through the school. I’ll be posting information about employment and training opportunities available locally as well as details of open days and useful websites. The world of education, employment and training opportunities is changing rapidly so keep checking in for the latest information.

Mr Cross


Monday 11 December 2017

Students are studying less but working more ...

A major study, involving 36,000 students at 42 universities, has found that the amount of time they give to study has fallen but the amount of time they spend on paid work has risen. The ‘UK Engagement Survey’ found that only 48% of participants spent 11 hours or more a week on independent study, a drop from 52% in 2016. The amount of time spent on timetabled classes has also fallen, with 51% saying they spent 11 hours or more, down from 55%. In contrast, 52% said that they worked during term time, up from 45% last year. The proportion of people who took part in university sports and student societies has also fallen, from 60% to 54%.

Which degree subjects lead to employment?

An Office of National Statistics survey has found that medics are the most employable graduates, with 95% of recent graduates employed, followed by engineering, at 92%. Engineering had the highest average salary, £44,980, up from £42,016 in 2013. Average pay for languages graduates fell from £30,420 in 2013 to £25,012 in 2017. Professor Alan Smithers (head of the centre for education and employment research at Buckingham University) has commented that engineering was becoming "increasingly important in its new forms within our economy.” He said that civil engineering, with the launch of HS2 and the other infrastructure projects, and electrical engineering’s role in building computers, has “moved engineering away from the image of someone in overalls with greasy hands”. The figures also show that male graduates had an average employment rate 7% higher than females. Overall, 11% of female graduates were out of the workplace because they were looking after the home or family, compared to 2% of men. Male graduates were also more likely to be in high-skilled jobs and less likely to be working part-time.

Wednesday 6 December 2017

UK universities ranked for employability

The Times Higher Education Global University Employability Ranking is a table of 150 universities producing the best graduates according to employers. This year, UK universities have fallen, with only one left in the top ten, raising fears that Brexit is damaging the reputation of the sector. Edinburgh University, the only Scottish institution recorded, fell 46 places, from 32nd last year to 78th, with US-based institutions taking the top four slots and Asian universities growing in influence. Cambridge fell from 4th to 5th, Oxford fell from 7th to 15th, Imperial College fell from 16th to 17th, King’s College from 23rd to 25th and Manchester from 24th to 34th. The rankings are based on the views of 6,000 recruitment managers from large international companies. Other British universities in the top 100 included the LSE, UCL and Bristol, all of which fell one place.

Saturday 4 November 2017

Consequences of low productivity in the UK workforce

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has released figures showing that the productivity of the UK workforce fell in the three months to June. It said that low business investment, due to concerns over Brexit, was one of the main reasons for falling productivity,and predicted that this low investment outlook would persist for a number of years. 


The average German worker produces more in four days than their counterpart in the UK does in five. The result is that UK workers work longer hours for lower pay than many of their peers in other countries. In addition, the UK has a rapidly aging population which will require a much stronger tax base. With fewer young immigrants coming in, it will mean that the productive population that pays for old age care will shrink, meaning poorer services or (and) higher taxes.

The pay "Gender Gap"

This infographic from the i newspaper shows the differences between pay for women and men around the UK. Looks like recent initiatives to "narrow" the gap have a little way to go ...


Sunday 24 September 2017

Growth in European degrees taught in English

The number of degrees taught in English in the European Continent has grown from 55 in 2009 to around 2,900. Switzerland and the Netherlands are leading the way. The major areas taught are Business & Management (26% of all courses), Social Sciences (15%) and Engineering & Technology (14%).
Find out more here.

Graduate earnings study

Research data from graduates 3.5 years after leaving university has found that 93% of graduates from the 2012/13 leavers were in employment or undertaking further study, with 87.5% of graduates living in the UK in employment. The median salary was £27k. 88% of graduates said that they were satisfied with their careers to date, with 76% saying that their degree has prepared them well for their career. The median salary for graduates from Russell Group universities was £30k. Durham University had the highest employment rate (97.9%) followed by Warwick and St Andrews (both 97.7%). Of the 25 universities with the highest employment rate, 15 were from the Russell Group.

Thursday 21 September 2017

National Trends in Earnings

Using data from the Office of National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the most recent being October 2016, and excluding self-employed workers or bonuses, the BBC has looked at income for various jobs. They used 'Gross annual pay' and 'Hourly pay, excluding overtime', and selected the median figure rather than the mean, as per ONS advice.

Overall, by May 2017, average weekly pay in the UK was 0.5% lower than the same time a year earlier, after inflation was taken into account. They said that privatisation, unionisation, skills shortages and supply and demand are major factors in determining how pay fluctuates.

Biggest winners 2011-2016
PLUS
Air traffic controllers
54%
Taxi and cab drivers and chauffeurs
44%
Rubber process operatives
39%
Electronics engineers
35%
Publicans
31%
Tailors and dressmakers
31%
Energy plant operatives
29%
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
26%
Childminders and related occupations
24%
Crane drivers
22%
Biggest losers
MINUS
Health associate professionals, other
22%
Probation officers
20%
Coal miners
15%
Advertising accounts managers
14%
Precision instrument makers
14%
School inspectors
11%
Shelf fillers
10%
Museum archivists and curators
9%
Hotel/caravan managers and owners
8%
Radiographers
8%

Is Uni for you?

A survey of 2,612 11-16yr olds by the Sutton Trust has found that 74% said that they intend to study for a degree, the lowest figure since 2009, down from 77% last year and 79% in 2015, from a high of 81% in 2013. UCAS figures show that 32.5% of 18yr olds in England and 29.5% in Wales went into higher education last year, the highest recorded entry rate for both countries. The Sutton Trust said its findings were an important indicator of pupils' plans before they took their GCSEs.

The annual poll found that 14% said they were unlikely to go on to higher education, compared with 11% last year and 8% in 2012, of these, 70% said they did not like the idea of going to university, or did not enjoy studying, 64% cited financial issues, such as wanting to start earning as soon as possible and concern over debt, 44% thought they were not clever enough, or would not get good enough results, and 42% did not think they would need a degree for the jobs they wanted to do. Of those who said they were likely to study for a degree, 51% said they were worried about the cost of higher education, up from 47% last year. The biggest concern was tuition fees, followed by having to repay student loans for up to 30 years and the cost of living as a student.

University Expectations vs Reality

A study by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has said that many young people have unrealistic expectations of university, and need much better preparation for what they can expect. Around half a million students begin university courses each year, and the annual HEPI study published earlier this year found that only about a third thought they were getting good value for money. The latest study, based on a sample of more than 2,000 young people, suggests this could be because expectations of university life are unlikely to be matched by the reality.

In terms of contact hours, 66% of the young people surveyed thought university would mean more group work than in school and 60% thought there would be more lecture hours than classroom hours in school. The reality is that for most courses teaching hours will be lower. The survey also found that those from poorer backgrounds were less prepared for meeting strangers and building a new social circle. It also found that young people are not clear about the costs ahead of them, with only about half identifying rent as the biggest expense (outside fees). Others thought that their biggest spending would be on course materials, nights out, groceries or student societies.

Criticism of the Student Loan system

A report by the London School of Economics has concluded that nearly everyone fares badly from the student loan system. The report warned that high earning graduates faced an effective tax rate of 51% in their 40s due to debts from university. In addition, due to rise to 6.1% interest accrued upon taking out the debt, medium earners in essential professions, such as teachers will pay back more over their working life than high earners in law and finance. With a typical male teacher paying £133,000 over their working life, compared to £85,000 for a typical lawyer. 

Sally Hunt, head of the lecturers’ union, the UCL, said, “There are no winners under the current student loan system, just different ways to lose”. Co-author of the report, Professor Maike Halterbreck, said that the report proved that an “in depth review “of the current system was needed, “as soon as possible”.

Tuesday 4 July 2017

University: Expectations vs. Reality

The i newspaper has published an interesting infographic to show how many undergraduates' expectations of university life can differ from the reality they find when they get there ...


Monday 3 July 2017

Guidance in applying for Medicine

If you are looking for guidance about applying for a degree in Medicine, the Central Careers Hub has produced a video with just about everything you need to know.  It includes information about the application process, as well as lots of advice from admissions tutors across a range of academic institutions. View the video on YouTube here.

Friday 9 June 2017

More about Degree Apprenticeships

Degree Apprenticeships are set to revolutionise Higher Education as a credible alternative to a "straight" Bachelor's Degree. What's the difference? Well you get your fully accredited Bachelor's Degree over your (typically) four year course but also get your professional accreditation in, law, accountancy, management, &c as well. The more expensive alternative is to go the traditional degree route and add your professional accreditation on afterwards as a post-graduate course (with the further student debt that goes with it). Oh, and your tuition is free and you earn £15-30k annual salary (with holiday and sick pay) as you go! And if that wasn't enough to convince you, you are much more employable at the end of it because you've got the relevant work experience employers crave. Is there a down-side? Well expect the courses to be competitive, you may well need higher 'A' level grades than the equivalent "straight" degree to get on the course. But if you've got an ongoing salary and pretty much guaranteed job (as opposed to an estimated £67k debt) at the end of it, it's surely worth it!

Find out more from this video.

See what opportunities our out there from the UCAS website here.


Tuesday 6 June 2017

Degree Apprenticeships at Herts Uni

The University of Hertfordshire is currently advertising Degree Level Apprenticeships in Business Admin and IT at Vauxhall and Software Engineering at Sagoss Ltd. The fifteen Business Administration and I.T. Apprenticeship opportunities will be based at Vauxhall in Luton and will combine degree level academic study at the University of Hertfordshire with job-related learning and experience within the car-manufacturing industry. Find out more here.

Monday 15 May 2017

What does a Degree get you?

The DfE has recently released its 2016 Graduate Labour Market Statistics report. The main findings are:

  • 87.3% of graduates were employed, compared to 70.4% of non-graduates. 
  • Working age graduates earned on average £9,500 more than non-graduates, while postgraduates earned on average £6,000 more than graduates.  
  • Male and female graduates had similar unemployment rates within the working age population, but male graduates had a higher employment rate and a lower inactivity rate than their female counterparts.
  • Black graduates had lower high-skilled employment rates, higher unemployment rates, lower inactivity rates and lower median salaries than White graduates and Asian graduates. 
  • Degree class appears to have more of an impact for the younger population than overall working age population. Working aged graduates with an upper and lower second degree earned £500 more, on average, than graduates with a first. Young graduates that achieved a first in their degree earned £2,000 and £3,000 more, on average, than those who achieved an upper and lower second, respectively. 
  • STEM graduates on average, had higher employment rates, greater high-skilled employment rates, lower unemployment rates and higher median salaries than the graduate population as a whole. 
  • However, within the working age population, Law, Economics and Management (LEM) graduates earned, on average, £1,000 more than STEM graduates. There is a similar pattern for the young population, with young LEM graduates earning £2,000 more than young STEM graduates.

Monday 24 April 2017

Will robots take your job?

A study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) has concluded that robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) could affect almost a third of UK jobs by the 2030s. However, the report also said that automation could create more wealth and additional jobs elsewhere in the economy. The study estimated that 30% of existing UK jobs were potentially at a high risk of automation, compared with 38% in the US, 35% in Germany and 21% in Japan. John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC, said that "more manual, routine jobs" which "can effectively be programmed" were the most at risk, whereas, "jobs where you've got more of a human touch, like health and education," would be safer ... You can already see on the railways that all these strikes are not unrelated to the move towards driverless trains”. The report said that with the UK at near record-low levels of unemployment, outsourcing more repetitive tasks to robots could free up people to do more valuable work. 

SECTOR MOST AFFECTED
  • Transportation and storage - 56% of jobs at high risk from automation
  • Manufacturing - 46%
  • Wholesale and retail trade - 44%
  • Administrative and support services - 37%
  • Financial and insurance - 32%
  • Professional, scientific and technical - 26%
  • Construction - 24%
  • Arts and entertainment - 22%
  • Agriculture, forestry and fishing - 19%
  • Human health and social work - 17%
  • Education - 9%

Sunday 26 March 2017

Degree Apprenticeships: a success story

A report by Universities UK (UUK) says that England is 'on the verge of a significant success story' in Degree Apprenticeships, with 'at least 60 universities and other Higher Education institutions currently implementing, or planning to implement, Degree Apprenticeships'. The report says that most growth is in 'chartered manager, digital and technology, and engineer related Apprenticeships', with major employers, such as Mercedes Benz, Nestle, IBM and Airbus already offering them.

Tuesday 14 March 2017

Was it worth it?

The i newspaper has published an infographic showing university graduates' opinions about whether or not they felt their degree courses were worth the money they (or their parents!) had paid toward them.


Sunday 5 March 2017

National Apprenticeship Week 2017

There are lots of videos on You Tube from a wide range of employers and government organisations explaining the advantages of taking an Apprenticeship course, including a very colourful guide from vlogger Megan Jane!

  • This clip explains Apprenticeships in 30 seconds.
  • This clip tells you more about how they work.
  • This three and a half minute clip explains how to apply.
  • This link takes you to a collection from the government website.

If you want to learn more, use the links on the left hand side of this page or look at the information on local Apprenticeship opportunities on the Youth Connexions website.
Get in, go far ...

Crackdown on cheating at universities

Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, has called for "tough action" against the spread of plagiarism and the commercial industry it has spawned and has asked the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to pursue websites advertising essay-writing services for students. Mr Johnson said these essay mills could "undermine" the reputation of degrees from the UK. QAA director, Ian Kimber, said, "Essay mills are a major challenge for universities and colleges, because, unlike other forms of cheating, the practice is notoriously difficult to detect."

Last summer, the QAA, which monitors standards in higher education, published a report into the scale of the problem. It found essay services with charges, depending on length, complexity and speed of turnaround, from £15 to thousands of pounds, with many claiming to produce customised work that was "100% plagiarism free". QAA said it was difficult to estimate how widely such services were being used, but there were about 17,000 cases a year of ‘academic offences’, however, there was no breakdown of how many of these involved students who had used essay writing services. Essay-writing websites often carry disclaimers suggesting the essays being sold should be used only as examples and not passed off as students' own work.

University lecturers bite back

As part of a recent study conducted by the Times Higher Education Supplement, involving over 1000 university academics, the following comments were made about UK universities in the 21st century:

“It takes me more time to process the students graded assessments than to actually mark them”.

“Students study to pass exams, no longer to study a discipline”

“Universities have become so defensive about marking that a considerable bureaucracy has built up”.

“Few students will read the material on the reading list, relying instead on handouts or PowerPoint slides”

“The lack of attention span and focus from students is an ongoing concern, with teachers placed under pressure often for the shortcomings of their students”.

“Many universities have shifted their focus towards student satisfaction at the expense of academic quality”

“Many students receive pass grades for sub-par work simply because academics are being repeatedly placed under the spotlight for their students’ poor performances”

“When in doubt about a mark, always give the higher option. You won’t get paid more for the time wasted if the student complains, so just make them happy and move on”

Monday 30 January 2017

Made the wrong choice?

According to a survey published by the website The Student Room, 20% of university students would have picked differently having sampled their choice first hand. The survey of 1,805 students enrolled at universities across the country also found that 18% wished they had not gone on to Higher Education (or explored other options more), whilst 1 in 8 said that they had chosen a university too far from home.

Sunday 15 January 2017

Young people are 'anxious and daunted'

A UK-wide survey for The Prince's Trust of 2,215 16-25 yr-olds has found that political upheaval, job worries and low self-confidence have left young people anxious and daunted. 58% said that political events had made them fear for their futures, with 41% more anxious than a year ago. The charity said that young people's self-confidence was at its lowest ebb in the eight years since the research began.

The research found that:

· 50% felt it was harder to get a job than a year ago

· 42% felt traditional goals like home ownership or a steady job were unrealistic

· 34% felt they would have a worse standard of living than their parents

· 28% felt out of control of their lives

· 12% said they did not know anyone who really cared about them

· 45% were stressed about body image

· 37% worried about coping at work or school

Sunday 8 January 2017

Police to become a graduate profession

All new police officers in England and Wales will have to be educated to degree level from 2020, the College of Policing has announced. The National Police Chiefs' Council said the changes would "help modernise the service". The college's Chief Constable, Alex Marshall, said that the nature of police work has changed significantly and officers were just as likely to be "patrolling online" as on the street. He said, "Cyber-enabled crime has increased, so has the need for officers and staff to investigate and gather intelligence online and via information technology". He also said that protecting vulnerable people has become a "high priority", with officers now spending more of their time working to prevent domestic abuse, monitor high-risk sex offenders and protect at-risk children.

The College of Policing is in talks with 12 universities about running the degree courses. The syllabus is likely to cover the law, safeguarding the vulnerable, understanding how an officer behaves on the street and how to build trust by interacting well with communities. There will be three options at entry level:
  • A three-year police constable degree Apprenticeship paid for by the force, allowing individuals to "earn while they learn", spending 80% of their time on the front-line and the rest completing their degree while receiving a salary;
  • A practical policing degree, as seen in other professions, where the student would complete a three-year, self-funded course and apply for a job once qualified;
  • For graduates, a six-month postgraduate conversion course funded by the police.

Update on the labour market

Employer confidence has stabilised, according to a poll of 200 employers taking part in the Jobs Outlook survey. 41% of employers surveyed expected skills shortages for permanent roles, with engineering & technology, construction, and health & social care highlighted as key areas with candidate shortages. The survey also found that 25% of employers intend to hire more permanent staff in the medium term, with 34% saying that they have no spare capacity to take on more work without hiring more staff.

Nursing Apprenticeships announced

The launch of a new nursing degree apprenticeship has been announced by Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, with the first apprentice nurses possibly working on wards from September. The government said that once the programme is established, up to 1000 apprentice nurses could join the NHS each year. Aspiring nurses will start the Apprenticeship at different stages, depending on their qualifications and experience, though the course will not require GCSE English and Maths. Before they start training, Apprentices will have their numeracy and literacy skills assessed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council Approved Education Institution to ensure they meet a minimum of Level two (GCSE equivalent).

Variation in post-graduate earnings

If you (and your parents!) are going to spend a lot of money on a university education, it's useful to know what you can expect to earn on completing it and it seems that there's variation from one university to another. Later this year, the DfE will publish "longitudinal analysis" of graduate earnings, based on government tax records but some preliminary data is published below.  It shows the earnings of Law graduates, five years after graduating, with the numbers of students at each institution:

UNIVERSITY
No.
MEDIAN EARNINGS
Oxford
120
£61,500
Cambridge
105
£54,500
LSE
50
£47,500
UCL
55
£47,000
Warwick
75
£41,500
Durham
75
£40,500
Nottingham
95
£38,000
Bristol
95
£37,500
Kings College
125
£37,000
Manchester
135
£35,500
Huddersfield
60
£20,000
London Met
95
£20,000
Middlesex
75
£20,000
Edge Hill
45
£19,500
Birmingham City
85
£19,500
Bucks New University
25
£19,500
Wolverhampton
170
£19,500
Derby
70
£18,500
Bedfordshire
35
£18,000
Bradford
60
£17,500