Employability

August 2006, a survey of the current and future needs of employers in science-based industries:

•What do you want from the science, technology and mathematics graduates you appoint?
•Are the science, technology and mathematics graduates you appoint well prepared for their roles? Has this changed recently?
•What skills, knowledge and experience are lacking? Has this changed recently?
•What can they do that you hadn't expected/didn't require? Has this changed recently?
•From your perspective, what components are important as part of Higher education? Which experiences is it important to offer students?
•How (if at all) do you communicate your requirements to the people who determine the contents of undergraduate courses?

Respondents call for significant improvements in communication and numeracy skills

An understanding of basic science was mentioned by fifteen respondents, with a “good grounding in science”, a “broad level of scientific literacy,” or “with a strong maths /physics / technology foundation”. Written and verbal communication, were both cited by fourteen respondents as being key. Seven specifically cited numeracy. Ten respondents talked of teamworking, a further two respondents required the ability to influence and persuade, or to build relationships and two others requested “interpersonal skills”.

Problem solving was mentioned by five respondents; innovative behaviour or “thinking outside the box” by six, and a further two cited creative thinking. Seven required a logical and analytical approach or “critical thinking”, and five wanted cross-discipline thinking or versatility and adaptability.

“Many students fail at the interview stage as they not aware, or do not place as much focus on the need to have strong communication and team working skills. This is often frustrating, as technically they are highly proficient but have failed to appreciate the equal importance of these soft skills in allowing them to successfully apply their technical knowledge in the work place.”

14 respondent wanted graduates to have good communication skills, but many were concerned that they had experienced a drop in the standard of graduates’ communication skills.

Respondents think higher education should offer experience of industrial research and develop interpersonal skills, in addition to developing academic knowledge and rigour.

One third wrote of the need for graduates to have “a really good idea of the work environment” through, for example, industrial placements, job shadowing, “business training”, “practical, challenging projects” or “real research experience”. One organisation, in discussing their links with academia stated that they “do not have the resources to address the scope of expectations from a majority of agencies, and would like to focus our resources and provide our support to students with a keen interest and aptitude in the science & technologies appropriate to our business.” Four respondents cited “knowledge and understanding of where and how science and technology fit into the rest of the world”, with “technology/social interaction and government /technology interaction”, including “an awareness of intellectual property and patents”. It was noted that employees understanding seems to be more superficial. People seem to be less dedicated and driven'. Graduates recruited are generally well prepared for the technical aspects of their initial roles, though less well prepared for the business aspects of their role as expected. There is huge variation in ability, almost regardless of the degree type of level shown on paper.
There seems to be a shortage of graduates with a broad background.




Respondents found students are more ambitious and have better IT skills than anticipated

Four respondents wrote of the expectations, confidence and ambition of graduates being higher than expected – though two warned that their confidence and eagerness to progress may be misplaced. “They usually are very enthusiastic, but sometimes frustrated by the pace of change. One respondent points out to surprising lack of statistical skills has been evident recently although they all trust spreadsheets. Graduates need to understand the difference between research based work "trying to understand why", and development based work "trying to build X". Courses seldom ever explore this crucial difference. Doctorate graduates mostly lack social skills because they are not required to work in teams commercial awareness is low but improving with the spread of knowledge transfer and university start-up initiatives


Respondents have no clear way of communicating their needs to the people that determine the contents of undergraduate courses

Respondents either did not communicate their needs to the people that set courses (ten responses) or cited informal contact with lecturers and university staff (fourteen). “There is no easy mechanism for industry to do this as there are many universities. I am a BOARD MEMBER on one University just trying to understand this.” [Respondent’s emphasis]

Respondents cited specific subject knowledge where they are experiencing difficulties, which usually reflects their organisation’s speciality: “Physicists more difficult to find than chemists”, “Skills related to curation of collections and a restricted knowledge of whole organism (plant) biology”, “Chemists – lack of knowledge of formulation chemistry”, “Micro-biologists – lack of knowledge of disinfectants”, “Finding good chemistry graduates is getting harder”, “PhD/Post Docs with Mass Spectrometry and Separation Science backgrounds, which we have found very difficult to recruit”, “infrastructure skills […] engineering and networking”, “engineering calculation skills”, “Specific need for power engineers is difficult to fill.”

Respondents were receptive to being consulted on this issue – “it is good to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate.” One respondent put it bluntly: “I believe the ability to attract and keep good engineers and scientists is the most serious threat to our company.”


Source: http://www.rdsoc.org/membership.html