Teaching graduates to mind their own business

Citation

(1999), "Teaching graduates to mind their own business", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.1999.02220gab.003

Teaching graduates to mind their own business

Teaching graduates to mind their own business

Keywords: Graduates, Small firms, Careers

One in three graduates would like to be self-employed or start their own business, an aspiration that has stayed with them since beginning their degree course. Only half of them make it. According to a new report from the independent Institute for Employment Studies, their experience in higher education is not equipping them to become creative, risk-taking entrepreneurs with business skills.

The graduate labour market has changed. Fewer large employers offer fast track entry, and fewer graduates have stable long-term careers within a single organisation. Graduates are opening up their options and seeing self-employment as an alternative way of forging their own career.

Commenting on the report, Graduates Mean Business, principal author and IES Research Fellow, Nii Djan Tackey said:

"Self-employment is developing into an important career destination for some groups of graduates.

"The aspiration for self-employment or starting in business is high; a high proportion of the graduates we studied had a business idea they would have liked to pursue. Their stifled aspirations raise questions about how to stimulate and nurture ideas to translate them into businesses. Extra- curricular support currently provided in higher educational institutions for aspiring graduate entrepreneurs is very patchy indeed. But even more fundamentally, it raises another question, about whether self-employment and other entrepreneurial activities should be reflected within the HE curriculum."

Not for the love of money

Self-employed graduates choose self-employment principally for the independence and flexibility it offers. They are not overly motivated by the financial rewards nor, certainly, by the security of employment.

As Nii Djan Tackey commented: "What is striking is how focused the graduates were on taking control of the creative process themselves, and wanting to be taken seriously. The satisfaction was in being part of a business idea, getting people with a high level of skills on board to work with and, together, controlling how successful the enterprise could become. But this is not to deny the fact that the potential for earning considerably more than in a salaried job was very much evident from the type of businesses some of the graduates had established."

How well does higher education prepare them?

Skills issues are important to self-employed graduates. Although they are highly qualified people, they do not necessarily have the skills needed to survive in business. They rely extensively on their innovative and creative skills, which they also believe develop considerably at university. However, there were significant gaps of competence in the skills required for their businesses, and which they wished they had been taught or told about during their time in higher education. These were particularly keenly felt by graduates who considered that their degrees would lead inexorably to some form of self-employment (e.g. creative arts and design) and should have, therefore, been obvious within the context of their course.

The challenge for higher education

The issue of whether self-employment should be reflected in the curriculum in higher education was an important aspect of the study. If it is accepted that self-employment is becoming an important career destination for graduates, then 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.

The study

The report, Graduates Mean Business, was commissioned by the Department for Education and Employment. It is one of the first in a series of development work being undertaken by the DfEE's Higher Education Quality and Employability Division, focusing on the preparation of graduates for work while in higher education, and the transition from higher education to the workplace. A "good practice guide" is being developed in partnership with the University of Sussex Careers Development Unit and the London Institute Careers Service.

This study is part of the Institute's long-standing programme of research relating to higher education and graduate employment, including: The IES Annual Graduate Review, 1998-1999: the Key Facts and Making the Right Choice. How Students Choose Universities and Colleges.

Details: Tackey, N.D. and Perryman, S., Graduates Mean Business, IES Report 357, ISBN 1-85184-286-1, £35.00.

The report may be purchased from Grantham Book Services Ltd, Isaac Newton Way, Alma Park Industrial Estate, Grantham NG31 9SD. Tel: 01476 541080.