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Last year the CBI's director general Richard Lambert caused a stir by announcing that many employers prefer migrants to UK graduates. He called the low employability of young Brits "depressing", saying that foreign gradautes offered far more in the way of "skills and work attitude". Are British graduates really dropping to the bottom of the pile? |
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Looking the employees of some of the biggest companies in the UK , it appears that the face of the business world is changing.
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The Goldman Sachs London group on Facebook is a telling example – very rarely are the members from the UK . |
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Even looking at the background image used on the recruitment section of the website suggests that the firm are looking to a more international pool of graduates for their recruits.
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While Richard Lambert blamed the preferences of employers for foreign migrants on poorly educated British graduates, a recruiter from Robert Walters attributed the change as being indicative of a far deeper trend.
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Caroline Roberts described two distinct types of potential employees, with different ambitions and behaviours: the ‘X generation’ and the ‘Y generation’. Foreign migrants tend towards the ‘X generation’, Brits tend towards the ‘Y’ – and the ‘X’ type of graduate are the more attractive to employers.
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Dr Paul Parry, an engineering professor at Sheffield University , believes that British graduates are no worse off than foreign ones.
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“In terms of the skill base, I don’t think British graduates are any worse than graduates from any other part of the world," he said. "In fact, quite the opposite, I think they are in a better place presently – British education I don’t think has ever been so good.” He added: “I think a lot of British students are realising that a post-grad is regarded as a differentiating factor. A lot of graduates are coming out of university and thinking 'What can I do to get in front?' - a post-grad is a way to do that, and I think British students are realising that this can make them more attractive to employers." |
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Jonathan Hick, who works for the graduate advisor agency Future Foundations, agreed that British graduates are not necessarily lacking in core skills when they come out of university. But he remarked that the skills that they have are different to those of foreign graduates.
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While this may not necessarily be to the detriment of the British graduate, the world is globalising at a fast rate. Perhaps as long as the British graduate is not as adept with languages or worldly knowledge, they will be beaten to jobs in the big companies by foreign candidates.
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