The National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) has recommended that universities teach their students skills in entrepreneurship in order to help them ensnare graduate jobs. Paul Hannon, director of research and education at
the NCGE, has asserted that this practice should become widespread for students of all disciplines - not just those studying business.
"The most critical thing for the future is that all students are taught entrepreneurial skills and not just those on business courses," he declared last week. "We believe that graduates need access to appropriate start up support when leaving university. We encourage the private sector to get more involved with internships, apprenticeships and NCGE programmes to help our young people drive our economic success tomorrow."
This suggestion was shortly followed by the Budget announcement of March 23rd in which George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the government's plans to finance 50,000 new apprenticeships and 80,000 work experience placements, as well as to "create a more educated workforce", one among "the most flexible in Europe". Such statements echo Hannon's sentiments in showing as necessary the place of work experience and skills outside of academia on the CV of graduates.
Hannon's proposal leads us to question the role universities currently play in not only educating us in our chosen discipline, but also education in employability in the light of a difficult few years for graduate recruitment. To what extent are we actually gaining practical skills as well as academic that will help us obtain that graduate job and make us stand out from the crowd? And furthermore, if we are gaining these skills, do we know how to market ourselves successfully so as to demonstrate them to the employer? Students of most universities would probably agree that more help would be much desired in this area, and ideally sooner rather than later. As a final-year student who has only ever received a couple of non-compulsory talks in "employability" which barely skim the surface of indeed how to be employable, further guidance certainly would not go amiss, particularly that geared specifically towards the industry I wish to go into as a future graduate. Lectures in entrepreneurship? Yes please.
