tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/graduate-careers-18968/articlesgraduate careers – The Conversation2020-02-16T18:56:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1315672020-02-16T18:56:07Z2020-02-16T18:56:07ZIf you’re preparing students for 21st century jobs, you’re behind the times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315434/original/file-20200214-10980-1cs9qsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/italy-female-pilot-airplanes-cockpit-435560257">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, the Australian Taxation Office <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/Media-centre/Media-releases/2016-17-Tax-Stats-released/">releases a report</a> that includes the highest earning occupations in Australia. These are mostly in the medical, legal and financial sectors.</p>
<p>This information is commonly used by school career advisers, together with <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/australian-blueprint-career-development">other career development material</a>, to help teenagers make career choices. </p>
<p>But the nature of work is changing rapidly under the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/focus/fourth-industrial-revolution">fourth industrial revolution</a>. This is driven by disruptive technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning and digitalisation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jobs-are-changing-and-fast-heres-what-the-vet-sector-and-employers-need-to-do-to-keep-up-118524">Jobs are changing, and fast. Here's what the VET sector (and employers) need to do to keep up</a>
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<p>The change is expected to lead to the complete loss of some jobs (such as those in repetitive, production-line manufacturing), the need for significant re-skilling in other jobs (such as pilots and radiologists) and the creation of completely new ones (such as robot trainers and big data analysts).</p>
<p>So, what should career guidance counsellors be doing to ensure today’s children have the skills for jobs of the future, not of the past?</p>
<h2>What teenagers want</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/dream-jobs-teenagers-career-aspirations-and-the-future-of-work.htm">recent OECD survey</a> showed teenagers’ career expectations were concentrated in ten so-called “20th century” careers. These include doctors, teachers, lawyers and business managers. </p>
<p>These choices have remained unchanged for almost two decades. For girls, they have become even more popular since 2000. This suggests a significant gap between teenagers’ career knowledge and choices, and the reality of the rapidly changing nature of work.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-subjects-do-i-choose-for-my-last-years-of-school-126194">'What subjects do I choose for my last years of school?'</a>
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<p>It’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/2e2f4eea-en">estimated</a> on average, 14% of jobs across OECD countries are prone to becoming automated and another third could face substantial changes in how they are performed. Nearly half of the jobs in OECD countries are at significant risk of being automated over the next ten to 15 years.</p>
<p>Careers related to how humans and machines or computers complement each other <a href="http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/11480.pdf">will provide new employment opportunities</a> across different sectors. Commercial passenger airliner pilots, for instance, will <a href="https://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/v2/publications/2018/november/2018_Flight_Ops_Survey_The_Pilot_of_the_Future_web.pdf">steadily adjust</a> to new supervisory roles due to autonomous flight.</p>
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<p>While most of the top ten jobs (such as in the health care, law enforcement and education) in the OECD survey are at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/d36cddc4-en">low risk of automation</a>, other nominated jobs outside this list (such as those in production manufacturing, office support and sales) are at higher risk. </p>
<p>The report characterises “jobs with a future” as those having higher growth prospects with a low risk of automation. In addition to those above, these include jobs in technology such as software engineers, data analysts and supervisors of automated operations.</p>
<p>In the Australian part of the survey, about 35% of jobs selected by teenagers are at risk of automation. This suggests teenagers and career advisers in Australia aren’t fully aware of how the market is shifting and what the “jobs with a future” are. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-benefits-of-job-automation-are-not-likely-to-be-shared-equally-90859">The benefits of job automation are not likely to be shared equally</a>
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<p>This misalignment between educational and career aspirations is most pronounced among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Around 6% are more likely to select jobs more at risk of automation than their more advantaged counterparts.</p>
<p>Also, teenage Australian boys are more likely to select careers in science and engineering. Paradoxically, they are 8% more likely to select jobs at risk of automation than girls of their cohort who are more likely to choose health sector professions.</p>
<h2>What should be done</h2>
<p>The fourth industrial revolution is already having an impact on current jobs. Despite young people generally completing more years of formal education than their parents, many are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/auar.12256">struggling to find relevant</a> and consistent employment. </p>
<p>Governments are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grw024">increasingly worried</a> about the mismatch between what societies and industries demand versus what education systems supply. </p>
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<span class="caption">Jobs in production line manufacturing are likely to disappear in the next 15 years.</span>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/teenagers-career-expectations-narrowing-to-limited-range-of-jobs-oecd-pisa-report-finds.htm">OECD calls</a> for a <a href="https://oecdedutoday.com/youth-employment-journeys/">partnership</a> between employers and school career advisers. Guidance that starts early, challenges stereotyping (based on gender and socioeconomic status), is well informed and delivered in the workplace in partnership with employers will be most effective. Successful career guidance <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Presentations/Publications/Careers_review.pdf">results in better economic</a>, education and social outcomes. </p>
<p>The Australian government developed a <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/school-work-transitions">National Career Education Strategy</a> in 2019, after working with the state and territory education, business and industry, and career education groups. This aims to support school students to make better informed future study and career choices.</p>
<p>While this is a good first step, we need better support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those in <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/01218_independent_review_accessible.pdf">regional, rural and remote locations</a> – as well as male students interested in participating in science, technology and engineering jobs.</p>
<p>The OECD study found countries like Austria and Germany, which had much lower concentration of 20th century careers, had high-quality vocational education and training (VET) programs available for people from a young age. This reinforces <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/publications/all-publications/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-the-implications-of-technological-disruption-for-australian-vet">research</a> findings and <a href="https://pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/vet-review">policy reviews</a> that call for closer collaboration between the Australian VET sector and industry. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/fewer-australians-will-have-uni-or-tafe-skills-if-governments-dont-reform-tertiary-education-117903">Fewer Australians will have uni or TAFE skills if governments don't reform tertiary education</a>
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<p>It also shows the importance of higher government investment in the sector in terms of training and developing skills relevant for disruptive technologies. </p>
<p>Exposing school students to relatively simple and low-cost career development activities, like attending <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/b5fd1b8f-en">job fairs</a>, has been shown to significantly increase awareness of different occupations and reduce career concentration.</p>
<p>There isn’t a <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/news-and-events/media-releases/training-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution">consensus</a> among employers on how disruptive technologies will impact on their organisations. And they are wary of investing heavily in specific skills and training. </p>
<p>But they still have a pivotal role in preparing students with the skills to succeed in the future. The OECD study actively encourages employer engagement in education. Suggested activities include careers-insight talks, subject talks, enterprise competitions, mentoring, workplace visits, job shadowing and short work placements.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is a significant gap between teenagers’ career knowledge and choices, and the reality of the rapidly changing nature of work.Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan UniversityJanice Jones, Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/452222015-07-28T20:07:56Z2015-07-28T20:07:56ZGraduating into a weak job market: why so many grads can’t find work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89877/original/image-20150728-7626-1dn0ae6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From the graduation ceremony to the unemployment line</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Times are tough for young Australians. The costs of education and housing are rising. The youth unemployment rate is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022185615571981">double the national average</a> and competition for good jobs is intense. </p>
<p>Many young people are taking longer to reach the conventional milestones of adulthood: independent housing, career stability, a partner and children. This is not because young people no longer want these things, but because they have become harder to attain.</p>
<h2>Degrees of importance</h2>
<p>A university education is often seen as a reliable pathway to a good career and a comfortable life, but this pathway also seems to be crumbling with ongoing weakness in the job market. </p>
<p>Graduate Careers Australia runs a large, annual survey of new graduates to track what happens to them after university. Over 100,000 graduates took part in the 2014 survey and the <a href="http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Graduate_Destinations_Report_2014_FINAL.pdf">results were released last week</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/grim-jobs-outlook-for-new-graduates/story-e6frgcjx-1227454542727">headline-grabbing figure</a> was that only 68% of bachelor graduates from the class of 2014 had a full-time job four months after graduating. That is the lowest full-time employment rate for new graduates since Graduate Careers Australia began measuring in 1982. The long-term average for the past three decades is 80.6%. The previous low (70.6%) was in 1992, after Paul Keating’s “recession we had to have”.</p>
<p>The 68% refers only to graduates who are available to work full-time. Those who study further, or who choose not to work immediately, are excluded. So the result is not because more graduates are taking a “gap year” after their studies. Outcomes are worsening for the graduates who want to work. </p>
<p>The 68% is also only for Australian citizens and permanent residents. Overseas students, who represent a large share of Australian university enrolments but whose full-time employment rates within Australia are lower, are also excluded. </p>
<h2>After graduation, unemployment?</h2>
<p>The Australian graduate labour market is in a serious slump. In some ways, the news is actually worse than the 68% figure lets on. First, more graduates are continuing into further study. </p>
<p>This is what we would expect with high unemployment: graduates stay out of the bad market and add to their qualifications, hoping to find work later when conditions have improved. The proportion of bachelor graduates staying on in full-time study has increased for the past six years; the trend is the exact opposite of the declining full-time employment rate. </p>
<p>Second, the chance of finding a full-time job straight after graduation is even lower (65%) for those aged less than 25 years. These younger graduates are the majority of all bachelor degree graduates, but their older counterparts seem to do better in finding full-time work. There may be an employer preference here against hiring younger applicants who have less general or specific work experience.</p>
<p>Finally, average starting salaries have declined for younger graduates who do find full-time jobs. In 2014, the median salary of graduates in their first full-time job was <a href="http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Graduate_Salaries_Report_2014_FINAL.PDF">worth 74% of male average weekly earnings</a>. Like the graduate full-time employment rate, this ratio has been declining for the past six years and is at the lowest level yet recorded by Graduate Careers Australia.</p>
<p>There is now a real risk that, in attempting to expand access to higher education, governments and universities have effectively flooded the job market with new graduates, at a time when employer demand for them was slipping. The <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537109001018">research indicates</a> that those who are unlucky enough to graduate in a recession suffer long-term “scarring” effects in terms of their employment and earnings prospects.</p>
<h2>Get better grades, or better contacts?</h2>
<p>So what can be done to help new graduates in a weak job market? One clue comes from the Graduate Careers Australia findings for graduates who did and did not work during their final year of study. Those who did any work in that year, and especially if it was full-time, were more likely to be employed full-time after graduation than those who did not work while finishing their degree. </p>
<p>This strongly suggests that employers prefer to hire graduates with recent work experience, even if it is outside their field of study. Deepening students’ engagement with the job market just as they are about to graduate seems to boost their employment prospects. Students who spend all their time studying may not actually be maximising their appeal to future recruiters.</p>
<p>Many universities already offer placement services to their students. This sort of assistance helps graduates to link up with prospective employers. It also allows universities to tailor their courses somewhat to the skills that employers demand.</p>
<p>Such programs are undoubtedly easier to administer where there are clearly defined occupations for graduates to enter (like dentistry) than when the destinations and employers are varied (like humanities). Yet graduates in the second group are the ones who appear to be most in need of assistance. </p>
<p>Providing more targeted support to graduates facing a difficult job market is inexpensive when compared with the high personal and economic costs of graduate underemployment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Healy is a researcher at the Centre for Workplace Leadership, which receives funding from the Australian Government Department of Employment.</span></em></p>The latest graduate survey found only 68% of bachelor graduates from the class of 2014 had a full-time job four months after graduating, the lowest since the survey started in the 1980s.Josh Healy, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451582015-07-27T20:06:33Z2015-07-27T20:06:33ZCharging $22,000 for a graduate position won’t solve the problem of law graduate oversupply<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89762/original/image-20150727-1341-1k7va0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">So many law grads. So few jobs. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="http://adlawgroup.com.au">Adlaw</a>”, an Adelaide-based firm launching this month, announced its plans to charge law graduates A$22,000 up front for a job with them, with the promise of learning on the job and earning back that sizeable investment. While we are currently facing a problem of an oversupply of law graduates, this isn’t the way to go about solving it.</p>
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<p>There is a huge pool of law graduates entering the market with few prospects of finding employment as a lawyer. In South Australia alone there are currently in excess of 2000 law graduates who have no immediate employment prospects. Many will give up on pursuing legal careers altogether; abandoning the investment in legal education. - <a href="http://adlawgroup.com.au">Adlaw website</a></p>
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<h2>Why do we have too many law graduates?</h2>
<p>Since the 2007-08 financial crisis there has been a dramatic cutback in the use of legal services by large corporates in Australia, the US and elsewhere. This, in turn, has shrunk the market for law graduates. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.nalp.org/uploads/Classof2013SelectedFindings.pdf">US National Association for Law Placement</a>, prior to 2007 nearly 92% of graduates found a job. That number is now below 85%. In Australia that number is <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/policy/industrial-relations/lawyers-experience-starts-to-pay-off-but-graduates-struggle-20140801-j6ycw">78.5%</a> - the lowest since records began in 1982.</p>
<p>Yet Australian law schools are turning out graduates at <a href="https://www.collaw.edu.au/insights/12000-law-graduates-seeking-legal-work-dont-think/">record rates</a>. This is making the imbalance between the supply of and demand for law graduates even worse.</p>
<p>For the large law firms this has meant lower billing rates and fewer hours, a reduction in partner incomes, and a tough entry-level market for graduates. The reduction in legal costs is good news for corporates, but the lack of demand for grads raises the question of where these talented people go.</p>
<p>Small firms may not have the right incentives to hire more graduates in ways that ultimately increase the stock of qualified lawyers in the community. Sole practitioners and senior lawyers in small firms are understandably nervous about expanding their practices in order to train young graduates. </p>
<p>They must pay them the minimum wage of $48,000 a year and are subject to unfair dismissal laws. They also need to generate enough work for a new employee. Taking on a graduate who needs to be “fed” work is a risky proposition.</p>
<p>This leads to the old employment Catch 22-problem: one needs experience to get a job but one needs a job to get experience. It also raises the question of how to make sure enough community lawyers are trained.</p>
<p>Adlaw is trying to solve the employment Catch 22. But what should we make of the ethics and the economics of this arrangement?</p>
<h2>Competition won’t drive out the bad lawyers</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/law-graduates-regulations-a-barrier-to-finding-employment/story-e6frg97x-1227454347134">Some commentators have suggested</a> that regulation of the legal services is the problem driving lack of employment opportunities for graduates. To be able to practise as a lawyer in Australia, a graduate has to work for a lawyer with an unrestricted practising certificate for two years.</p>
<p>It is easy to dismiss these kinds of regulations as part of closed-shop-style arrangements that limit supply and drive up the incomes of those lucky enough to be “in the club”. </p>
<p>Yet those seeking access to lawyers who aren’t big corporations (individuals transacting a property, writing a will, getting divorced, facing minor criminal charges, or engaged in other relatively minor litigation) are not in a great position to judge the quality of the services they receive. Often that quality won’t be apparent until after the legal work is done, and clients still have to pay even if they are not fully satisfied with the quality of the work.</p>
<p>Because of this, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=9Nt-UU1ejPMC&pg=PR58&lpg=PR58&dq=competition+driving+out+bad+firms&source=bl&ots=pm7IEEm1PT&sig=IypA_xFPzmQsl6e0RSRVC2D-bc8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI2Nul17_6xgIVhiumCh3ZNQC_#v=onepage&q=competition%20driving%20out%20bad%20firms&f=false">competition will not drive out bad lawyers</a>. If competition won’t drive bad lawyers out of the market, the only alternative is to make sure they don’t get into the market.</p>
<h2>How to solve the graduate dilemma</h2>
<p>This means the answer to the law grad dilemma is neither making graduates pay for a graduate job, nor slashing regulations of who can practise law without supervision by a more experienced lawyer.</p>
<p>To ensure an appropriate supply of community lawyers working to provide all people with access to affordable justice, the government could subsidise training through additional tax deductions for small firms that employ legal graduates in the first two years after graduation. </p>
<p>This, however, would be potentially expensive. An alternative would be to expand the range of public interest fellowships available to legal graduates, and ideally to extend them to two years, to allow graduates to become fully qualified during such programs.</p>
<p>It may also be that the problem facing legal graduates, and law schools, is a more large-scale one than that. Post-2007, not all talented legal graduates are likely to find decently paid jobs as lawyers. Part of the response to this should undoubtedly be to find ways of increasing the number of such jobs, and in ways that help provide better access to justice for the community.</p>
<p>But part of the solution may also be in changing how law students and graduates understand the nature of a law degree itself – as not simply or even primarily a form of professional training, but instead as an advanced analytic training, which may or may not lead to becoming a practising lawyer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Holden is an ARC Future Fellow.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalind Dixon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An Adelaide law firm announced its plans to charge law graduates A$22,000 up front for a job with them. While we are facing a problem of an oversupply of law graduates, this isn’t the way to go about solving it.Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW SydneyRosalind Dixon, Law Professor, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.