Post-graduate careers, research excellence and growth.

1. Post-graduate careers, research excellence and growth. 08/05/2014

2. Outline • Why focus on graduates and post-graduates? • For firms • For individuals • For the economy • Traditional view of the labour market • Scale facts and quality concerns • Career ladders v. career portfolios • Do external markets really exist? • Mobility In and out of academia • External progression and subject • Profiting from “leakage”

3. Why graduates & post-graduates? All grads and post grads more prevalent in innovating firms; S&E proportionally more prevalent in innovating firms (UKIS, 2011)

4. Why Graduates and Postgraduates? BIS Research Paper 45; June 2011

5. Why Graduates and Postgraduates? • Nearly 2/3 of productivity growth stems from sources other than workforce and capital volume and quality (knowledge driven economies) • Open Innovation • Absorptive capacity • Knowledge spillovers • A 1% increase in foreign, public and private investment in R&D triggers percentage increases of long term productivity growth of 0.45, 0.17 and 0.13 per cent respectively. • FDI for R&D follows primarily the quality of R&D personnel and access to a good Research Base – virtuous circle?

6. Traditional View of the Labour Market • Employment opportunities are unevenly distributed over time, across sectors and regions, • But concentrated among the highest skilled occupations. • There are increasing sustained numbers of graduates and postgraduates in all subjects, • And increasing qualifications in the labour force in all sectors, • Plus increasing proportions of graduates in employment 6 months after graduation.

7. So what is the problem?

8. PG and other HE • No big changes in composition by subject within PG • In green increasing % PG in HE qualifiers within subject

9. Scale facts and quality concerns • Scale of graduate numbers still short of the scale of need, thus demand expected to stay strong especially caused by: • Replacement demand (retiring/leaving talent) • Diversity of destinations ( typically STEM graduates into non-STEM) • Persistent skills needs reported despite increasing achievement in workforce mean that qualifications are less relevant than other attributes for employability • Flexibility in role and practical skills are in short supply • Lacking managerial skills hinder internal personnel policies aimed at developing and retaining talent in house • Without additional training talented juniors are often incapable of performing senior roles • There is no one-size-fits-all solution • Tailor action to specific need

10. Career ladders vs career portfolios • Career progression for graduates and talent retention for employers. • Subject specific skills generally acquired externally (entry level skills). • Firm/sector specific skills generally developed in-house or sector. • Generic skills for internal labour market clearance can be acquired externally or in-house (practical, flexible, communication, team-working, numeracy…) • Leadership skills predominantly acquired through dedicated training externally provided but often paid for internally. • The higher up in the hierarchy, the more important leadership and firm/sector specific knowledge (entry level skills fall short of replacement demand requirements). Replacement demand External Market: Recruitment Professional Experts Executive programmes Qualifiers with experience Qualifiers with experience Internal Market: Retention Qualifiers

11. Do external labour markets exist? • NCDS and BCS Data (Dex & Bukodi, 2010) show increasing mobility in early career, • and highest mobility rates for graduates and post-graduates • In red types of mobility increasing: job to job (total) and single direction either upward or downward. • Immobility and two way occupational mobility decreasing.

12. External progression and subject • Destinations of postgraduate education leavers 3.5 years after graduation (2008/9 cohort) LDLHE – HESA 2013 • More diverse destinations widen opportunities for external labour market progression

13. Profiting from “leakage” • High level and technical human capital matter for economic growth • The exchange of knowledge embodied in people moves in and out of academic is a pillar of innovation • Destinations of postgraduates by subject are more varied than those of undergraduates – are they more versatile? • International mobility and collaboration improve research base performance thus attracting FDI on top • Need better understanding of the impacts of inter-sectoral mobility

14. Mobility enhances research excellence 51% of PG in UK end up in the Education sector International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base – BIS 2013

15. In and out of academia • Similar levels of domestic exchange (in and out) for all countries • Some countries higher imports of industry authors to academia than domestic and higher exports of academics to industry abroad – importing absorptive capacity?

16. Thank you for listening rosa.fernandez@ncub.co.uk