The ‘perfect graduate’ – from a private sector perspective

The British Council, together with the Council for Business with Britain recently held a workshop on creating graduate excellence, to help to deal with the increasing problem of graduate employability. Present were a number of top executives from the private sector including Madu Ratnayaka, General Manager of Virtusa and David Griffiths, CEO of HSBC.

The workshop which was conducted by the University of Leeds Metropolitan UK was the result of collaboration between Leeds and the University of Colombo, under the guidance of the British Council and the Council for Business with Britain.

“We want to build a sustainable educational relationship between the two countries,” said Gill Westway, Country Director British Council, who also added that they had the full support of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown behind them. The workshop featured a series of sessions, beginning with the planning of an “agenda” for the “perfect graduate”. This graduate is one who any employer would be wiling to absorb into his work force.

The participants also debated about the relationship between higher education and the job market. It was interesting to note, that some of the academics present were of the opinion that employability should not necessarily be a by-product of university education. “In the case of Buddhist monks, it is redundant, and that is a problem in many arts faculties” said an academic from the University of Moratuwa, citing a problem in the education sector.

The private sector had its say, reiterating that what they required was more skill than genius. “If we are recruiting at management trainee level, it won’t matter to us what the class they got for their degree is”, says Ravi Jayasekera, Head of HR at HSBC, “What we need is some sort of life skills”.

Representatives of the apparel sector saw graduates’ awareness of responsibility as a vital aspect to employability. Whether it is being aware of industry expectation, their need to fulfill them or the gap between the expectations and their efforts, the idea is that graduates are knowledgeable about work-related ethics.

On the same topic, whilst the common issues of English fluency and communication were brought up, many people from the corporate sector emphasized on graduates cultivating the correct attitude. “They have to be willing to work and learn and not expect to be promoted on entry because of their qualification” was a view expressed by many.

Responsibility however is a not only in the hand of the graduates. The workshop’s latter session had a segment allocated to identifying the stakeholders of the venture to create graduate excellence. The government was identified as a major stakeholder, being the only party that can sanction needed education reforms. The university faculty administration was seen as requiring a change of mentality; that they should steer their students toward employer-friendly skills and not merely academic brilliance.

The private sector’s part was especially outlined. Corporate internships to final year students and private sponsorship of career guidance events were suggested. Speaking to The Sunday Times FT, a final year student of the Univeristy of Moratuwa interning at MAS Holdings said that the experience was useful and that it gave him an important view of the business world.

However, the real question is how effective are workshops like this. While the rare interaction between the private sector and those from the educational arena is invaluable, some are skeptical. “I don’t know how fruitful things like this will be, because the real situation of the universities is difficult,” says the Dean of the Arts faculty of Sri Jayewardenepura University, Dr. D. Athukorala, who also revealed that Jayewardenepura was even at this point experiencing a clash between student factions. However, a senior lecturer of Financial Economics at the Univeristy of Colombo Professor Sarath Vidanagama said that these workshops would be useful. “I can tell my students about this, and I can also use this information in the workshops we conduct”, he said.

The fact is that all that the stakeholders can do is only skimming the surface. One opinion that was ventured by many of the participants of the workshop was that the hopeless situation of graduates’ employability is a widespread cultural and social perspective problem. Students, especially those from rural areas, are told from the inception that if they “study hard and pass their exams”, they would be able to get into university. After that, the jobs would come without any problem. In reality, academics are important in getting employed, but the new world employer is more worried about how adaptable one is to the job market.