The Election is only weeks away – and like it or not the Government have announced the need for significant spending cuts following the banking crisis. Whether you vote blue, red or orange, these policies will be implemented by the winning Government post election; even if there is no clear winner, the end result will be the same. It is not a question of will it happen, only how much and how fast. The scale of the spending in the form of “quantitive easing” which was necessary to avoid a disaster in the banking sector has to result in a dramatic reduction of Government spending.
Cuts will appear in the public sector, education, the armed forces, social security, central & local government, etc. Spending on the Navy and Air force will reduce to compensate for the commitments made in Afghanistan. The recent expansion of higher education will now have to slow significantly.
Improvements in performance will be sought across the public sector. And it is here that we feel education could respond. Writers like Harriet Sergeant in her work on the failure of educationalists to prepare their students for working life, have shown the way ahead. Some Chancellors of Universities have claimed that their Colleges will suffer when the expansion of the education sector ends this year. Having become used to their budgets being enlarged year on year, they now have to face the reality of managing in constrained times. But if we examine some aspects of how they spend their budgets we can have insights into what might be done. As the sector expanded the LSC (Learning & Skills Council) commissioned building work of schools and Universities paying legal, architectural, and consultancy fees in addition to the construction costs. This while those same Universities teach the skills that the LSC pay for, namely law, architecture, project management, etc.
Has nobody thought to ask the Universities to take on these tasks directly, to put into practice the things they teach? Even if this were only done during the long summer vacations it could both save expenditure and, in the view of many, have a very positive affect the content of the syllabuses taught.
The financial contribution made would go a long way toward compensating for the reduced budget and much more importantly, it would teach lecturers and students the issues of managing customers, managing real budgets, real commercial situations and marketing. The practical failures of education which Harriet Sergeant describes would, by necessity, be overcome.
The best of the best are part way toward achieving the aforementioned. Cambridge University arranges engineering student projects to be “shared” with other distant Universities in an attempt to teach in a practical way the need for students to collaborate with their colleagues at Manchester etc., to produce a successful output. An example is the development of a robotic vehicle where the chassis team are in Cambridge, the power team in Manchester and the control team in Oxford. The students have to create a project plan to cope with the issues introduced by geography. Such exposure to practical issues while maintaining the highest standards of design and theory are to be applauded.
Portsmouth University has set up a project office within its school of architecture in order to utilise their existing skills base, to help with projects within the University campus and beyond. Once again, students are part of the equation, and this continuing exposure to real life instils those vital elements necessary for them, once out in the wide world of work.
Now is the time for the next step, to push the Universities to commit to real projects; for the lecturers in finance and business management to help manage their own destiny
In the job market, interviewers more often use a technique of evidence based questioning and it is this device that causes so many students to flounder. When faced with an initial question about an aspect of the job or skill the interviewee replies coherently. However, the second question, which seeks evidence of the depth of experience that the interviewee has in the area is where many students fail, as they lack experience of a practical application. How much more confident the Oxbridge students will appear, when they can draw on their experiences project managing distant teams.
The practical approach to training for employment should be followed by an equally pragmatic approach to job search. Marketing yourself when in a job search is essential. Creating and projecting “this is me” is an important element in identifying career opportunities. It is important that this is sustained and maintained (kept up to date). Many professionals have and maintain a career website – a “microsite” – aimed specifically at their career history and potential. It serves several purposes – well designed it clearly states in career/professional terms who you are and where you are going. It defeats all of the inadvertent “branding” that takes place on the web when you join social or professional networking sites. When searched it’s your career website that carries the most weight and emphasis with Google, Pipl etc.
AccendoCV are leaders in this field and can help you with the whole process. It is worth exploring the website – http://accendocv.co.uk – for more ideas and information.
