Social Mobility & Glass Ceilings or a lack of belief in young people from those in positions of influence?

Alan Milburn’s much reported recent study on widening access to high-status jobs does not make enough of a key point (aspiration) and picks on well worn paths such as further widening access into HE. But withoutthe aspirational influencers within HE (of which there is a huge lack) there is a risk of creating more disappointed graduates. So it is what happens to them once in HE that needs more focus.

My experience is that what students need is more encouragement and inspiration – they know what high status jobs are available and out there. Today’s generation, more than ever, have huge levels of confidence, what they need to be be told is that you can do whatever you really set your mind to and then show them what they need to to i.e. how to make their dreams and aspirations happen. We as a nation are too guilty of setting aspirations too low for fear of failure – our traditional attitude as a nation is better to have not failed than to try at all.

But we will miss a huge opportunity as a country if we do not take today’s generation of young people’s confidence and say to them ‘yes you can’ and show them how to get there; hook them into networks that can support them and bring them into contact with the right people, like the Bright Futures Society that I run,  because like it or not who you know will always matter.

I heard a great expression from a Head of Careers this week at a ‘less prestigious’ University who sees her role for her students as being a ‘pushy parent’ and I think that is a great attitude to take. The aspirations are there in our students – it’s why they go to University – they just need more people, within and outside HE,  fighting their corner and critically with real ambition.

Who says getting a job should be easy?

Listening to alot of the media at the moment on how tough it is for graduates to get a job, I feel alot of sympathy for them. But something else strikes me about this whole debate which is the implication that being a graduate makes getting a good job a ‘given’ or indeed easy. This may have been the case decades ago and in the crazy boom times but it is just not realistic.

The boom times have made us forget a simple truth about life which is there is no easy route to success and the more you put in the more you get out. Getting a degree is just the start of the journey to success not the final step to it. 

Listening to some graduates being interviewed who have just make half a dozen applications, not got a job and got down about it – sums up my point. Or thinking that doing a post graduate qualification will walk them into a great job – is just folly & an expensive one at that!

Getting a graduate job today and for the future will require a degree yes, but also real tenacity when applying i.e. getting loads of rejections,plus one other key element…

The way to truly maximise graduates job chances lies in doing lots of ‘foundation building ‘ work in the early years at University before graduation by which time, if little has been done,  it is often too late. That ‘foundation building’ involves getting broad ranges of work experience, from the very menial to highly relevant;  getting actively involved in student Societies (i.e. not just being a member and never taking part) & volunteering; building a network of contacts in the world of work; taking the time to find out & learn what you want to do as a career; in other words developing yourself to be much more than ‘just a graduate’.

The world gives to those who give. You reap what you sow. And to continue the analogy in the increasingly competitive world where the world has been so heavily ‘farmed’, the seeds that where sown in the past to yield fruit no longer do; you have to sow more and better seed.  

Put the ‘foundation work’ in during the University years and successful job hunting may well appear easy to others but you will know better.