Slide 1

Time to put graduate selection and

testing to the test

Are the futures of thousands of young people being consigned

to the scrap heap just to make the lives of graduate recruiters

easier?

AGR Conference: Tuesday 9 July 2013

Us

Martin Pennington

Education, Careers & Employability specialist. AGCAS appointee to Graduate Success

Project. Former Head of CAS and member of AGCAS Board. Started in careers1984.

Simon Howard

Founder of Work, former Director of SHL Group. Managed first Graduate campaign 1980.

Nota Bene

Thought Leadership

Inspiring thought for reflection on the future direction of the industry

i.e. we dont have to provide all the answers (!)

Thought Leadership

A fact is a fact. But a collection of facts is an opinion.

Agenda

1. Newport, we have a problem

2. How we got here

3. The AGR/AGCAS Graduate Success Study points to problems

4. Why using tariff points, the 2:1 and targeting produce the wrong results

5. Why online testing doesnt produce the right or a fair outcome

6. Why we need to think again

Newport: Heres the problem

300,000 graduates 23,700 jobs: 92% need not apply

The fixation with the Top 100 Employers budgets blown on 30 campuses, 91 others mostly ignored

UCAS tariff point thresholds not a proxy for ability, just a marker for exclusion

The 2:1 bar not a predictor of job success, but changing campus life for the worse

Online testing not up to the job; its use is neither fair, reliable or valid

It adds up to exclusion on a grand scale

2. How we got here

First-rate men are uncommon, they are like the cream of the cream...there is still the grade A product which for the purpose of this

simile represents the average university graduate...the ordinary

decent chap, carefully selected because of his high intelligence which

is brought out, matured and broadened by university lifebut the first rate man cannot be kept down and they were not born equal in

personality.

Ewart Escritt, Head of Oxford University Appointments Committee

In praise of the pass man 1948

How we got here

The inheritance problem - the top 10%

The HE system and any degree careers

The search for proxies

GRM vs CRM

The internet opened the door

and a page cost nothing

and a test hardly anything

A system designed for the elite has morphed

into a system for the masses

Some lessons from the AGCAS/AGR

Graduate Success Project

Martin Pennington Consulting Education, careers and employability consultancy

AGCAS/AGR Graduate Success

Project

To identify the factors influencing successful graduate transition to the graduate job market, to inform the promotion of graduate recruitment good practice, and to raise

awareness of the HEAR

To provide students, parents, careers advisers and employers with an in-depth insight into how people from a variety of social and economic backgrounds make the

transition to the graduate job market

Method Numbers Outcomes

Online survey of 2011 and

2012 graduates

1653 responses Analysis and report

Online survey of large and

small employers

205 responses Analysis and report

In-depth telephone

interviews with graduates

31 graduates Graduate case studies on

website

Filmed interviews with

graduates

23 graduates Graduate film clips on

website

Project methodology and outcomes

The graduate survey

Background data collected on all graduates

Graduates asked to indicate views on 56 statements about career choice, planning, job seeking etc.

Responses to statements analysed against:

Background data:

pre-HE education type of HE

institution

parental HE participation

If working:

in a graduate job in a non-graduate

job

Current situation:

working and/or studying

not working or studying

Identified three factors indicating social/cultural advantage

1. Attendance at selective school/college prior to HE (23%)

2. Attendance at Sutton Trust 30 HE institution (37%)

3. Either parent participated in HE (45%)

Two groups identified:

Advantaged if any of above factors applied

Non-advantaged if none of above factors applied

Graduate groups

Background data collected on all employers

Employers asked to indicate views on 32 statements about entry requirements,

work experience/extra-curricular activities, institutional relationships etc.

Responses to statements analysed by size of employer:

Large (more than 250 employees)

SME (fewer than 250 employees)

Employer survey

Graduate survey: broad outcomes

Employed/further study

Younger (21-25)

Female

White

A levels

>320 UCAS points

1st or 2:1

Unemployed

Older (>25)

Male

Non-white

BTEC/Access

320 UCAS points

ST30 institution

1st or 2:1

Non-graduate job

Female

Non-selective education

BTEC/Access