1. Copyright Tracsis Plc. All rights reserved
Employability
Are you on the right track?
16/03/2016
2. Agenda
• Current Graduate Recruitment Market
• What do employers expect, get and complain about when recruiting
graduates
• Careers in the Railway
• Tracsis’ view and experience of graduate recruitment
• Our recruitment process
• What we look for in CV’s, Covering Letters and people
4. The Graduate Recruitment Outlook
• The number of graduates hired by organisations featured in The
Times Top 100 Graduate Employers rose by 3.3% in 2015 (18,818)
• These employers plan to expand their graduate recruitment by a
further 7.5% in 2016 (20,798)
7. What do employers expect, get and complain about when recruiting
graduates
8. Important Factors - Employers Point of View
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Attitudes & aptitudes for work
Relevant work experience/industry placement
Degree subject
Degree class
University they attended
Foreign language capability
Most important factors considered when recruiting graduate (%)
2015 2014 2013
CBI, 2015 Data
Employability Skills
9. What are Employability Skills
‘A set of attributes, skills and knowledge that all labour
market participants should possess to ensure they
have the capability of being effective in the workplace
– to the benefit of themselves, their employer and the
wider economy.’
CBI, 2010
13. Use of IT Technical Skills
Basic numeracy
skills
Basic literacey
skills
Analysis skills Problem solving
positive
attitude to
work
Teamworking
communication
skills
Knowledge
about their
chosen
job/career
Self-
management/r
esilience
Relevant work
experience
Not satisfied 6 12 14 17 19 21 25 26 29 33 33 43
Satisfied 59 67 68 66 64 70 60 64 63 52 57 49
Very Satisfied 35 21 18 17 17 9 15 10 8 15 10 6
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Employer satisfaction with graduates' employability skills (%)
Very Satisfied Satisfied Not satisfied
14. What can you do to help yourself
• Identify what employability skills are your strengths and weaknesses
• Look to develop your weakness
General
• Coursework
• Find Part time work / volunteer
• Prepare CV
• Get involved
20. Why Derby Geography Graduates
• Providing local opportunities
• Supporting East Midlands partnership
• Technical abilities
• Modelling/GIS
• There soft skills, such as:
• Communication
• Professionalism
• Team work
• Positive working attitudes
23. CV
• Structure
• Personal profile
• Education
• Work Experience
• Key Skills
• Interests
• Reference
• Tailored to the job
• Concise
24. Covering Letter
• Style – traditional format
• Musts:
• Identify the job you are applying for
and where you’ve found it
• Highlight why you are suitable, with
references to your CV as required
• Make reference to the company
(show you’ve researched them)
• Keep it short and concise
25. Selecting an Employer
• What are you looking for? – job or career
• Size of company matters
• Ethics
• Opportunities / personal development
• Their financials and position in the market
26. Our Closing Remarks
• Remember you are one of hundreds of thousands
• Job or career?
• Growth and future!
• Is your employer going to offer you what you want?
• Image is key!
• Behind closed doors
• At work
ULTIMATELY ITS EXPERIENCE – don’t be disappointed!
27. Copyright Tracsis Plc. All rights reserved
Direct Line: +44 (0)1332 226878
Mobile: +44 (0)7720740003
alex.sarginson@tracsis.com
Alex Sarginson
Head of Consultancy
Operations and Planning Systems Division
Tracsis Plc
Operations and Planning Systems Division
Unit 6, The Point
Pinnacle Way
Pride Park
Derby
DE24 8ZS
www.tracsis.com
www.tracsisops.com
@Tracsis
Tracsis plc
Self-management – your readiness to accept responsibility, flexibility, resilience, self-starting, appropriate assertiveness, time management, readiness to improve your own performance based on feedback and reflective learning
Team working – respecting others, co-operating, negotiating, persuading, contributing to discussions, your awareness of interdependence with others
Problem solving – analysing facts and circumstances to determine the cause of a problem and identifying and selecting appropriate solutions
Application of information technology – basic IT skills, including familiarity with commonly used programmes
Communication – your application of literacy, ability to produce clear, structured written work and oral literacy, including listening and questioning skills
Application of numeracy – manipulation of numbers, general mathematical awareness and its application in practical contexts (eg estimating, applying formulae and spotting likely rogue figures)
Business and customer awareness – your basic understanding of the key drivers for business success and the importance of providing customer satisfaction and building customer loyalty
http://www.nus.org.uk/Global/CBI_NUS_Employability%20report_May%202011.pdf
Around one in six businesses reports not being satisfied with the numeracy (14%), use of English (17%) and analytical skills (19%) of graduates. These are worrying figures. Businesses should be able to expect a satisfactory level of competence in all these essential areas among those completing higher education courses. Nearly one in five firms (21%) is also not satisfied with graduates’ problem-solving skills, which should be a prime output of higher education. Even higher proportions are dissatisfied with graduate attitudes to work (25%), teamworking skills (26%) and communication skills (29%). All of these capacities are essential for graduates to be effective and successful in their careers. Effective communication in particular is central to almost all management and leadership functions. One of the reasons relevant workplace experience is so widely valued in graduate candidates (Exhibit 77) is that it helps build understanding of a chosen field of work and develop general business awareness. A third of businesses (33%) report graduates do not have a satisfactory level of knowledge about their chosen job or career. This is particularly true in manufacturing, where levels of dissatisfaction climb to 43% of respondents. Close to half of respondents (46%) also voice dissatisfaction with graduates’ levels of business and customer awareness. There is clearly more to do to help students understand the importance of gaining relevant experience and to help them absorb the lessons they learn in the process. Those candidates who can show a good grasp are plainly at a significant advantage in the jobs market.
Course Work
Building up examples of your teamwork experience based on your course work is a useful starting point. For example, you may have taken part in a team presentation as part of your course. Or perhaps you had to submit a group report for assessment. What role did you play when preparing the work? Did anything go wrong during the preparations? Did you help to put it right?
Find Part time Work
Not only a great way to earn money to keep you going whilst you study, part-time work will help you to increase your employability skills and will impress employers. Work such as stacking shelves, or working in a shop, can show that you have customer care experience and are accustomed to working in a team with others.
Volunteer!
Visit our jobs vacancy database for details of volunteering opportunities in the local community. For example, if you are interested in conservation work, there are many local environmental projects. Not only can you help local groups, this will give you a chance to demonstrate that you are used to working with others and give you a bank of evidence/ to draw upon when filling in application forms.
Start Preparing Your CV
If you are applying for a part time job whilst studying at the University, many employers will ask you to send in your CV (resumé). Your CV is your marketing tool. It summarises your qualifications, experience and skills.
If you start preparing your CV now, it can also act as a template that you can develop as you progress through University. This will save you a lot of time in the future if you have all your information collected in one place. As you develop more evidence of your teamworking skills, you can add it to your CV and develop a strong bank of evidence that will help when you come to apply for graduate jobs. Careers and Employability has a range of resources to help you to write a CV and/or covering letter. These can be picked up in person from Careers and Employability or found online.
Get Involved!
Get involved in clubs, societies or with the Students' Union. All of these activities will help develop your personal skills. For example, if you have been involved in sporting activities such as rugby, this can show your teamworking skills; if you are a member of a role playing group, this can show evidence of your communication skills and your ability to work alongside others. As well as having fun or keeping fit, you will greatly enhance your CV. Perhaps you could join a student committee so you can demonstrate your teamwork skills.