Teaching graduates to mind their own business

Citation

(1999), "Teaching graduates to mind their own business", Education + Training, Vol. 41 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.1999.00441iab.003

Teaching graduates to mind their own business

Keywords Entrepreneurs, Graduates, Higher Education

One in three graduates would like to be self-employed or start their own business, but only half of them make it. A report from the Institute for Employment Studies says their experience in higher education is not equipping them to become creative, risk-taking entrepreneurs with business skills. The problem is particularly acute for graduates in subjects such as creative arts and design, who often consider that their degrees will lead inexorably to some form of self-employment.

The main author of Graduates Mean Business, Nii Djan Tackey, said: "Their stifled aspirations raise questions about how to stimulate and nurture ideas to translate them into business. Extra-curricular support currently provided in higher-education institutions for aspiring graduate entrepreneurs is very patchy indeed. But even more fundamentally, they raise another question - about whether self-employment and other entrepreneurial activities should be reflected within the higher-education curriculum".

Self-employed graduates choose self-employment mainly for the independence and flexibility it offers. They are not overly motivated by the financial rewards, nor by the security of employment. Nii Djan Tackey continued: "If it is accepted that self-employment is becoming an important career destination for graduates, it may also be considered important to improve awareness of this fact in higher-education institutions and to build expertise among those who provide career guidance and support for graduates during their time at university".

An Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) also addresses a "new generation of graduates". The report suggests that employers stand to lose up to £3 million if they fail to adapt to a new generation of graduate recruits. The report reveals that the latest generation of graduates have different priorities and expectations of the workplace from their predecessors. If employers fail to adapt to their new recruits, they risk losing four out of five graduate recruits in five years. Given the high cost of recruiting and training graduates, this can represent a loss of some £3 million to graduate employers with the poorest record on staff retention. AGR chief executive Carl Gilleard comments: "This new generation of graduates wants to succeed on its own terms, and that does not always mean a fatter salary. Employers need to respond to the graduates' desire to balance work and personal life and be honest about what graduates can expect from working life".