Matt Clarke explores Jisc's 'Discover graduate outcomes' dashboards and picks out five key insights into employability covering zero-hours contracts, student debt, and the value of working with people
Jisc data analytics have recently launched 'Discover graduate outcomes' (DGO), a suite of interactive dashboards delivered through Heidi Plus that have been co-designed by employability and careers professionals from across the higher education sector to support benchmarking and the analysis of the latest two years of HESA's Graduate Outcomes data.
I recently looked through the new self-employment dashboards in DGO with Gareth Trainer from Enterprise Educators UK to see how the newly available insight can benefit users, and this follow-up reveals what the rest of the dashboards tell us about employability.
1. Almost all graduates in high skilled employment think their qualification gave them an advantage in securing their job
From the 'Occupations and industries' dashboard, it's interesting that in 2018/19, over 90% of full-time, first degree respondents in high skilled employment believed their qualification either was a formal requirement or gave them an advantage in securing their job*. When this was expanded to all types of employment, the figure remains at over three quarters meaning that the vast majority of graduates saw the value of their qualification when finding employment.
Now that students are paying a lot more in tuition fees than they have done previously, it's reassuring that many of them considered their qualification important in securing their subsequent employment.
2. Working with people attracts large numbers of graduates
From the same dashboard, we see that in 2018/19, the most popular industry groups for full-time, first degree graduates in employment* to go into were:
- Human health & social work activities (20%)
- Professional, scientific and technical activities (14%)
- Education (11%)
- Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (11%).
These are big industries so large numbers are always likely to be drawn towards them, but what it does also suggest is that while we now live in an age dominated by technology, industries with higher amounts of human contact still remain an attractive route for many. Supporting this point further is the fact that 'Human health and social work' was the largest group by some distance attracting 20%*.
3. Number of graduates on zero-hours contracts appears low
Also included in 'Discover graduate outcomes' is a breakdown of the type of employment being undertaken by graduates. In 2018/19, only 6% of full-time, first degree graduates in employment marked that they were on a zero-hours contract.
While it's not ideal for any graduate to report being in this type of employment if it didn't suit their circumstances - I certainly thought this figure would be higher before seeing the dashboard.
Above: An example 'Occupation and industries' dashboard from Discover graduate outcomes. Please note, this screenshot uses synthetic data so will not match the statistics in the article but gives an example of how it looks.
4. Some subjects are delivering lower proportions of high skilled employment
Looking at the 'High skilled employment' dashboard, one of the most interesting metrics is high skilled employment by subject of qualification. This is looking at the number of graduates in high skilled employment as a proportion of all those in employment from that subject in 2018/19.
When looking at full-time, first degree respondents* using this metric, some subjects appear to deliver comparatively low proportions of high skilled employment compared with others. There are even some that drop below half meaning that the number of graduates working in high skilled employment are in the minority. Examples of subjects that meet this criteria include the relatively high-profile ones shown below:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Hospitality, leisure, sport, tourism & transport.
5. Hardly anyone reported paying off debts as the main reason for taking their job
It's good to end on a high note. From the 'Main reason for taking the job' metric, less than 1% of employed graduates in 2018/19 considered the main reason for taking their job to be 'in order to pay off debts'*.
We know that debt is something that a lot of people accumulate in some form and is quite often referred to in the media, but it's heartening to think that there doesn't appear to be large swathes of graduates only taking a job to pay debts off. A word of caution though. 17% reported the main reason for taking theirs was 'in order to earn a living' as opposed to one of the other options such as 'it fitted into my career plan'/'it was exactly the type of work I wanted'*. While that more positive option accounted for 42% of responses, we wouldn't want to get to a stage in society where more and more students are only working to pay bills rather than build a career or sense of purpose.
Discover graduate outcomes for yourself
Contact the Jisc data analytics team to find out how you can subscribe to Discover graduate outcomes. Let us know how you found us by picking 'Luminate blog' from the how did you hear about us field.
Higher education users will need access to Heidi Plus before being able to access this dashboard suite. If your institution already subscribes to Heidi Plus but you don't yet have a user account, please contact your lead contact who is usually located in your Planning Office.
If you'd like to enquire about subscribing to Heidi Plus as an organisation, or if you're not sure who your lead contact is, you can call 0333 015 1170 or email Jisc's Customer Success team.
Above: A list of dashboards contained within 'Discover graduate outcomes' along with Jisc's production partners.
Notes
*Information taken from the relevant dashboard from Discover graduate outcomes at the time of writing. Data based on full-time, first degree graduates in 2018/19 with any additional filters quoted in the statistic itself.
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