Reframing the 'work-ready' graduate myth

Rebecca Fielding, founder and managing director of Gradconsult, introduces a new way of looking at the commonly-held belief that graduates aren't 'work-ready' when they leave university

'Graduates aren't work ready' is a phrase many careers professionals will have heard and indeed debated over the years. However, in the post-COVID era, it is something we are hearing more often.

Data from the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) 2024 development survey suggests the gap between employer expectations and graduate behaviours is widening.1 Just under half (49%) of employers reported that graduates were career ready at the point of hire (a decrease from 54% in 2023). In the same report, 43% of employers rated self-awareness as lower than expected, 37% rated resilience as lower than expected and 26% reported that work-appropriate written communication skills were lacking.

But is it time for the 'work-ready' graduate myth to be reframed? Rather than taking the binary view that graduates are either ready for work or not, can we take a more thoughtful approach to better understand this liminal transition from student to professional? A transition which, until now, has been undefined and opaque to many - particularly those students who come from more diverse backgrounds.

With our occupational psychology partners at Sten10, we set out to take an evidence-based approach to demystify the transition in attitudes, mindset and behaviours that enable students to make the leap successfully into working life.

What does the transition look like?

We started with a rigorous literature review to understand previous research findings into education-to-employment transitions before conducting focus groups and interviews with more than 50 careers professionals and employers. Through this, we identified nine significant transitions.

To bring this to life, imagine a high-achieving student in your university. In their first weeks, they immediately note down the dates of their assignments and plan how to complete them. They read the assignment brief and marking criteria meticulously and often. They spend a significant amount of time perfecting their work to ensure they receive the best grade possible.

Now imagine this student is working in an organisation where they have multiple tasks due at once, the task demands and deadlines are constantly shifting, the information given is incomplete or contradictory, and efficiency is valued far more highly than perfection.

The student will have to rapidly recognise that the approach that helped them to succeed in education won't serve them in this new environment, and that to succeed, they must change their approach. Of course, this isn't easy, especially when we don't have a shared language and understanding of these transitions.

How can we support students and graduates through this transition?

Now that we have identified these key transitions, there is much that can be done to both prepare students and graduates for this shift. This includes supporting students and graduates to:

• become aware of the key shifts from student to professional life
• normalise the shifts through shared language and understanding
• explore and plan for the shifts through coaching and development plans
• run development workshops themed around the key transitions, including in graduate transition programmes aimed at those who may be struggling to transition into employment.

While we have developed rigorous psychometric and development interventions as part of the pilot, there is much that careers (and early careers) professionals can do to support students using the model alone. One small example comes from a preparation for placement module delivered to second-year students. Each of the shifts are given to students on flashcards to discuss and reflect back on how they expect they may need to adapt their behaviours or mindset during their placement year.

What next?

We're still yet to see the full impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on the behaviours of students - many of whom will have missed out on the formative experiences that help us when we're in work - and as such, we expect that the gap between employers’ expectations and graduates’ behaviours will continue to widen unless we work collectively to demystify and articulate the key shifts and create development programmes and university interventions that specifically focus on the transitions.

We'll be publishing the results of our large-scale pilot in a white paper later in 2024, including the impact of the tool and development interventions on graduates’ transition to professional. Follow Gradconsult on LinkedIn to be the first to read the report.

This article was first published in the 2024/25 edition of What do graduates do?

Notes

1. Is career readiness in decline?, ISE, 2024.

Written by

Rebecca Fielding

Founder and managing director

Gradconsult