Whilst
browsing Facebook last Wednesday I noticed a trending videos called ‘A 2.1 just
won’t cut it any more’. Well, you have to have been living under a rock for the
past three years to have missed that, so not exactly a hugely intriguing
revelation. Everyone knows that there are exactly 3.5 trillion other graduates
out there to compete against for employment, and that you must complete 49
unpaid internships in order to qualify to fill out a job application form. But I
clicked through anyway, curious to see another perspective on this issue which
is affecting myself as well as thousands of other young career contenders,
hopeful for some constructive advice in the very least.
It turned
out that the video was published on The Guardian website, as part of their
newly established Comment Is Free online series called ‘The Graduate Without A Future’. Cheery,
no? I settled down, readying myself for some quality journalism, as one would
expect from the Guardian (no sarcasm). Instead, I was treated to a lamentation
of the ‘futureless’ graduates of 2012 – seven and a half minutes of completely useless
despair and melodrama.
One of the
main features of the report was the stories of two 2012 graduates from Sussex
university. Neither were asked very much about their individual career goals, so
instead of an interesting and relevant interview focused on what jobs they were
looking to pursue and how they were going to go about obtaining them, their
portrayal focused largely around their ‘ambition’ to avoid ending up in a “mindless
sales job”. In line with the video’s
title, they also talked about how throughout their time at uni they had made
conscious efforts to get involved with extra-curricular activities. As students
and recent graduates, I think we’re all probably quite familiar with the notion
of enhancing your CV with activities and societies as well as work experience,
and this is really important for graduates like myself who have traditional academic
degrees. Take the rise in degrees with placement years; this is a significant
sign of the increase in employers’ expectations for graduates coming straight
out of uni. The presenter, a Guardian writer called John Harris, seemed
outraged at the thought of these girls doing anything with their three years
but studying. The fact is, that involvement in these extras is now part and
parcel of the personal development we’re expected to undertake at uni, and
complaining about it will get us nowhere. One of the grads, India, told us how
left her small hometown in Essex in order to pursue better things; surely this
involves making the most of the opportunities on offer in a big city like
Brighton? Harris may mourn the new necessity of diverting your attention from
your studies to prepare for post graduate life before you’ve even secured your degree, and I agree that your
priority should be studying, but as the other grad, Chrissy, rightly pointed
out, if she hadn’t been trying to get involved with other things, “What would I
have done for three years, just mucked around and got a degree?” It is true, a
degree alone is not enough any more. But instead of lamenting this, should we
not celebrate all the extra skills we will develop as a result of involvement
in extra-curricular projects?
The second
half of the video featured a visit to the Graduate Recruitment Bureau, a
recruitment consultancy specialising in graduate recruitment which is based in
Brighton (the setting for this happy tale). Dan Hawes, the founder of the company
and actually someone who was kind enough to agree to be interviewed for this
blog a few months ago, was interviewed by Harris, giving his perspective on the
importance of rivalling the competition from fellow grads by supplementing your
degree with extra experience.
In his
interview, Dan explained how the GRB typically works to recruit STEM graduates for
its clients (that’s those who’ve studied Science, Technology, Engineering and
Maths) – no crime for a company to have a specialism. However, the report
managed to twist even this seemingly innocent admission into a negative. As
they entered the GRB office, Harris’ voiceover
uttered this sombre statement: “If you study humanities, the kind of jobs open
to you may well come down to working at a place like this.” As well as debasing
the value of humanities degrees, Harris also managed to insult the company who
had just given him a relevant and constructive interview. Nice.
My annoyance
with the angle of this report peaked at the mention of student loan debt. Erm…why
did how much debt these girls have need to be discussed? It seemed that this
was mentioned simply to further demonise the situation of these ‘graduates with
no future’. Student loan repayments are no more of a detriment to a graduate’s
bank balance than they would be if the job market was hunky dory, because repayments
are relative to earnings. The hyperbole of the presenter raising the subject of
debt and portraying it as a distressing issue spoke volumes for the type of
messaging that the report is attempting to convey. But then again, what is
media without a little bit of hype? …Even if that hype can only amount to the
fact that the entry phone system at the Graduate Recruitment Bureau doesn’t
work...SO WHAT?!
You can watch the video below. Do you agree with me?
Hi Jos!
ReplyDeleteI think I disagree with what the report is actually taking about. Although it might be useful to graduates for the video to give advice its just a political piece trying to point out that graduates have it a lot worse now than when Harris was studying and graduating (no recession, no fees, less graduates, more jobs)- so rather than debasing the value of humanities degrees or trying to run graduates down, I think he's saying that the situation of graduates is the bad thing. I find it sympathetic essentially.
More widely, I think he's frustrated with (and I agree with him here) how degrees are becoming almost solely qualifications to put on a cv rather than anything that might be mind enhancing or valuable as a stand alone recognition that knowing things is nice, rather than solely knowing things or having skills to get a job is nice.
I think the debt thing is really relevant. If degrees are to both make you employable and make your mind all nice and sparky then there has to be a recognition that £20k (raising to £40k soon?) will turn degrees solely into a qualification to make you employable, and there's no chance humanities will compete in that market, at least not amongst those without dad's credit card.
BUT, the defeatism of the whole report is something I do get. Signing on because retail won't have you and you can't break into journalism is a joke. (work unpaid for the paper and take your degree off your cv to get into debenhams, sorted!) Essentially, for humanities grads I'd say the degree and largely the result are almost entirely irrelevant; three years and revising and it all means nothing! BUT actually that gives you a lot of freedom. I think, I hope.
xxxxx
Thanks for commenting! I agree with you that the aim of the video is to convey the situation facing today’s graduates. In his post to recruit 2012 graduates to appear in the video, Harris describes the project as "a snapshot of how university leavers are feeling about their job prospects, and the value of a degree". I think that the video certainly provided us with a snapshot – but a really brief one that only really focused on two graduates from one uni, and failed to present much in the way of specific information regarding their backgrounds, experiences and skills. Information like this would have helped us to more fully understand their experiences of the job market. All we heard was that they were struggling to find jobs, but as 2012 graduates they haven't really been in the job market long enough to seriously provoke my sympathy. If it’s the difficulty of getting a job straight out of uni that is the subject here, I wish that would have been tackled more directly rather than distracting us with sob stories from people we know hardly anything about. Have they applied for any graduate schemes? What relevant experiences and skills do they have to offer to an employer? Why do they think they are struggling? These are important questions that weren’t covered at all, yet the matter of their debts was and I found that frustratingly irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteYes they have debts, but it’s not like they are having to make repayments without a salary. Hence I felt like to bring this up was a tactic to just exaggerate their sorry situation. Their conversation went…
Harris: “How much has three years of higher education set you back?”
India: “£21,000 plus a £2,000 overdraft”.
Harris: “£25,000?!”
For me, this embellishment and the other overstated parts just detract from the credibility of the piece. Of course the issue of fees versus the value of a degree is an important one, but that question wasn’t properly approached at all.
I'm really with you on what you say about degrees being something to just put on your CV. As you know, Jos Can is about my efforts to get into a specific industry with an academic degree background – there are many times that I have reconsidered the value of my degree in the face of intense competition from marketing graduates. And I do mourn the loss of those days (though I barely experienced their existence!) when the mind-enhancing qualities of academic degrees were more fully appreciated. Harris is frustrated, yes – like the rest of us! But I found aspects of the report kind of lame. References to how students in Brighton have no time to appreciate the bohemian sub-cultures reek of a nonsensical and propaganda-like reporting that is trying unashamedly to elicit the sympathy of viewers. I feel like his frustration has resulted in a sketchy portrayal of the issues here.
My feeling is that we are all aware of the grim situation and that there is plenty of journalism out there that discusses graduating in these times, but this is not one of the better pieces.
Hey Jos!
ReplyDeleteAnother great post!
I must say, the only thing that caught my attention in this video was not the issues discussed, the questions that weren't asked or whether this was a true representation of what grads go through these days. On this last point, I must say, the video does show typical graduate behavior and attitude. This is, indeed, how most graduates feel, think and rationalise.
The one thing that made me wonder was the conclusion ...
"In the end, the story is about much more than the class of 2012. It's about the way the job market and the wider economy is going at speed. I've heard, while I've been in Brighton, a lot of the same things you hear at job centers, about hidden jobs and the need to endlessly market yourself. A restless ever changing economic system requires restless ever changing human beings and the only thing I wonder is, are people actually like that?"
Well, without going too philosophical, I'd say that, for me, the question is not about a change in being but a change in perception and reaction to change. I don't think that this short film was ever made to illustrate what grads are doing about finding jobs. To be honest, I'm not even sure what the point of it all is. And this is my reason to deem the piece less than good journalism.
Anyways, I found your blog much more thought-provoking. I really respect your positive attitude. You rightly say that a degree alone is not enough any more. But then, instead of complaining about how much effort and money you spent to obtain it in the first place, you mention the benefit and excitement of getting to do other things alongside your education. See, to me a graduate with this sort of mindset is not one without future ;)
Keep up the good work, Jos!
Best,
Galina
Hi Jos,
ReplyDeleteBoth you and Fran have made some very good points about the video, so I will take it from a different perspective to avoid regurgitating your arguments. I think we’re all agreed that the video doesn’t really tell us anything we don’t already know, and so to a graduate it is really of no value.
For me, this video would be far more useful for a 17 year old starting to consider his options after A-level. Assuming that he sees straight through the sensationalism of the report (he’s a smart kid), the whole thing essentially boils down to one point; don’t assume that you’ll walk out of university and into your dream job without breaking sweat. It is a blindingly obvious point now, but I may have been guilty of that complacency once upon a time, even if it was somewhat subconscious. At 17 I think it is easy to think that getting into uni is the hard part, and then you are off and away on your journey to the top.
Putting myself in that teenager’s shoes, I’d also start to think very carefully about what course I would choose at uni. Am I passionate enough about a particular subject to forego the extra employability that may come with a more industry-related (or STEM) degree? Or do I regard university as simply a means to an end? I’d also start to seriously appreciate the importance of extracurricular achievement. I don’t think John Harris was necessarily outraged at the idea that the two girls didn’t consider academic fulfilment enough; his question about Nietzsche & Kant showed no more than a journalist fuelling the discussion, and it almost becomes a rhetorical reinforcement of the girls’ argument. Comments elsewhere in the report do reveal his personal despair that university is no longer about the freedom of youth, personal discovery and so on, but this is rather beside the point.
I would also disagree with your point that the issue of debt is irrelevant. It is true that loans are repaid only when your income exceeds a certain level, but tuition is becoming more expensive and therefore the question of whether a degree has a net return is increasingly relevant when deciding whether to go to university. At the very least (from an economic perspective), a degree that does not improve someone’s life earnings is three years lost, that could have been spent climbing the ladder.
I’m sure Harris had little of what I’ve said in mind when he made the video. His claim that “this story is about a lot more than the class of 2012” is ambitious. It is about so much less. Interviewing a few graduates in Brighton tells us nothing, but nonetheless he does inadvertently raise a few questions that are crucial for today’s would-be students to consider.
Hi Jos and all!
ReplyDeleteI find this blog and the comments after quite intriguing. I believe we are all agreed that Harris has made a complete howler of the article. His real credibility gets called into question when he bluntly and in a cold manner insults The Graduate Recruitment Bureau (GRB). Dan Hawes spent a good amount of time to help Harris build his piece, but to then speak about them how he did was not acceptable. If he feels that such an article, with an outrageous title, will get him any form of credibility then he is in the clouds. The time that Dan Hawes took out could have been put to better use. i.e. placing graduates into graduate jobs rather than supplying information to a journalist that will simply stab the organisation in the back. Harris should make more of a point that he has focused on two graduates. Two graduates can not realistically provide a good over view of all graduates.
However when it is stated that a CV has become something that students just want on their CV, to some extent he is true. This is true only for the students who come to the university to say that they have been. However this represents such a small proportion of the students. Many students hold up part-time jobs and extra curricular activities, and understand that you must interact with potential employers through different mediums. As such with social and technological advancements are now requiring us to do so.
All in all Harris has depicted everyone with the film poorly to make him feel more powerful. When in fact his credibility, if he ever had any, has diminished preventing him from getting anything else.
As a graduate and current student I am extremely aggravated that a so called journalist for a top newspaper has used one location and two students to generalise every students and their prospects.
I studied and worked hard to ensure that my career prospects improve. But surely do we all not do this who want to achieve something??
The use of video in this post will make the message more clearer and be able to retain so easily.
ReplyDeletehumanities degrees
Hey Jos, great article. I think the video is a load of crap and it's focusing on all the wrong things. And Laurence I couldn't agree more with what you said about the decision to use these two rather uninspiring students to represent the entire student body is a big no-no. I was so annoyed that I decided to write something about it. You can read it here: http://charlesoben.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/graduate-without-future.html
ReplyDelete