Universities should support graduates in getting a job

Different universities are in different positions on the matter.
A number of universities stress on skills by promoting career- counseling/related activities/groups/efforts. Lectures by successful people in your field are made compulsory.

Practically usable skills: such as training to use new software related to your subject areas are also made compulsory.

The claim that all universities ignore the importance of career skills is an incorrect assumption.

Dartmouth in the United States for example is an employer favorite because students are not just smart like all other IVY league colleges but very well equipped with job-skills.

For this reason; on average Dartmouth graduates currently make more money than alumni from any other American university.

But before you start thinking I’m for the motion. Universities cannot help you once you get a job; why should they help you get one in the first place. This is an issue of independent learning versus pedagogy. Mothering students every step of the way, softens them/us.This unnatural dependence on your Alma Mater after graduation is not usually appreciated for good reason.

Graduation means you’ve been through the ropes, you have the wings and it’s up to you to fly.

The age of youth is ever increasing. That comes with increasing education. We seem to be fixated with nannying any person who attends full time education. In the 60’s when most people left school when they were 14, this seemed appropriate. Then when O’ levels became increasingly accepting, even to women, the age opened to 16. Then came the widening culture of continuing education to A’ levels, this increased the age in which we nannied our children until 18. Now, because so many pupils are attending University, we are considering nannying those children till 21! The nannying should stop here. At the age of reaching University we should stop spoon feeding and leave the students to source their own skills. University is supposed to be about own study. The same should apply to the entrepreneurial skills that could be learnt whilst there.

It is a logical misapprehension to believe that entrepreneurial ability can be taught! The idea of being an entrepreneur is to seek opportunities, to spot niche markets, to be resourceful. If Universities start to provide lessons, if they start to provide more opportunities for students to partake in ‘entrepreneurial activities’ then there is no entrepreneurial skills required to take them! Entrepreneurial promotion by Universities will in fact lead to the demise of the resourcefulness and therefore entrepreneurial ability of students.

At the time of reaching University, students will have left an environment with pushy teachers and mere information regurgitation. University is supposed to be more about private study and taking one’s own studies into one’s own hands. The same should occur with the skills learnt. This should be down to the students own initiative rather than a University shoving ideas down the student’s throat. We should ensure a consistent approach at University, both to the academic side and the entrepreneurial side – get up, take the initiative and do it yourself!

What the problem we are facing now is that there are so many students that have degrees that there are increasingly fewer jobs for these people to fill. Instead, employers look now for entrepreneurial ability. Only a few candidates will have this. However, if Universities start gearing more and more of their resources into initiating such skills, then we will be left with the same problem. Employers will then have an abundance of students with the academic records and the entrepreneurial skills. There will then be the same problem of too few jobs for students who have the same skill set.

With many debates surrounding the funding, or the lack thereof, how can we think about applying more funding to non-academic opportunities? We are already falling behind with academia, we are falling behind with research, and we will not be able to culture entrepreneurial skills with a lack of research and higher knowledge. We should invest here first before we think of other more frivolous ideas of education.

Universities already provide enough opportunities through the extra curricular programs that Universities cater for. There are student union positions which can be gained, there are sporting societies, academic societies, obtrusively weird societies, everyone at University should pave their own way for entrepreneurial skill enhancement. Universities have left the path open; they should not have to also guide students down those paths.