What do employers want from graduates? Health Care

It is important for higher education institutions to be aware of what employers want from graduates in relation to employability (Wilson, 2012) to ensure a partnership between the two. Engagement between higher education institutions and employers has been well established in the past, with a suggestion that the gap between education and employers is widening over recent years (Rosenburg, Heimler and Morote, 2012).
It has been suggested that employers can have a narrow interest and understanding of employability (McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005). However, from previous discussions in this chapter, the same could be said about higher education institutions! There needs to be a common language of employability between academia and employers. This can be very difficult to achieve (Harvey, 2001). It is, therefore, difficult to answer the question of what employers want from graduates. Sometimes employers may not be entirely sure themselves, and may be under constant change resulting in limited evidence to provide direction to graduates. Despite this backdrop, it is still important to try to establish what is important in order to focus on key areas of development (Holmes, 2006), as employers are not just looking for a subject-specific achievement (Yorke, 2006). Also, with a changing health and social care work landscape, graduates may need to initially work in roles that are not considered to be graduate level (Moreau and Leathwood, 2006) or relating to their degree subject, thereby increasing further the importance of an individual’s wider employability, rather than just their degree. It is likely that some skills will be prioritised within certain areas of work (Wilson, 2012). To a certain extent the responsibility lies with you to establish which skills are prioritised within certain areas of work, by exploring the organisational culture and values and personal specifications of similar roles via relevant web sites. Students generally are not ignorant of employer’s requirements but still give employability a low priority over other things in their lives (Atkins, 1999). It is difficult when you have the demands of studying to think beyond just getting from one assignment to another as well as how you need to be developing your employability – but you should aim to do this when at all possible, as you will reap the benefits when it comes to applying for jobs at the end of your studies.

Time for reflection

What priority do you give employability within your everyday life? What aspects of your personality do you think would appeal to employers and why?
Rosenberg, Heimler and Morote (2012) undertook a research study to establish what were perceived as important employability skills that are required for employment. Three groups were studied: recent graduates, the faculty that taught them and human resources managers that recruited them. The three groups articulated differences in opinion in relation to required elements of employability. However, all three groups agreed that leadership was a critical skill. Numeracy and literacy were identified as skills that are a basic requirement. In another paper, personality has been as identified as one of the most important criteria for employers (Moreau and Leathwood, 2006). Values and ethics, including work ethic, have also been highlighted as important aspects of employability (Rosenberg, Heimler and Morote, 2012: Hinchliffe and Jolly, 2011); it is not just down to skill performance, it is about who you are and what you can contribute to an organisation. The requirement of common generic employability skills within jobs has little published evidence to inform individuals (Atkins, 1999). If you are thinking about areas such as values, engagement, intellect and performance, you will be ensuring that you are focusing on doing employability-related activities/experiences, which is key evidence for your employability and potential (Hinchliffe and Jolly, 2011). Employability needs to be systematically approached to enable employers to see how your learning has been developed and built upon. There is an assumption that learning can be transferred from one situation to another, but you need to ensure that this is explicitly evidenced and confidently communicated to employers (Yorke, 2006, Holmes, 2011). Unprepared students are unlikely to be successful in getting jobs (Rosenberg et al., 2012).

Time for reflection

What long term employability goals do you want to focus on and why? For example, do you want to develop yourself to be a team leader, do you want to have the ability to set up your own social enterprise?
You need to be able to hit the ground running (Harvey, 2000) within a changing work landscape. You need to have a range of strong core employability skills to be able to respond to the job-specific specialist skills, which may be changing (Rosenberg et al., 2012). Flexibility and response to change are required from employers, and an ability for you to sometimes grow your own jobs within an organisation will be required from you, as you will be part of organisational change (Harvey, 2000). For example, a junior Occupational Therapist had a desire to work towards becoming a palliative care specialist. A palliative care specialist Occupational Therapy post did not currently exist within the hospital where she was working. However, when the opportunity arose to develop her knowledge and skills within the area of palliative care, she took them. Any relevant courses on palliative care – she attended. Any networks related to palliative care – she joined and built up contacts. Any research related to palliative care – she participated in. She undertook audits to demonstrate the need for a specialist Occupational Therapist in palliative care. Within two years she had secured funding for a senior position as an Occupational Therapist working within palliative care, and within five years was a specialist palliative care Occupational Therapist. Her passion, drive and proactiveness were what led to her success. Within the changing world of work, resilience is an essential trait for individuals to demonstrate (Rothwell and Arnold, 2007) – employers want to have confidence that you will survive in the world of work.

Health and social care professions are tough – there are constant changes and pressures, and resilience to manage and respond positively to the changes and pressures are key for your well-being and progression through your career.
Employability is a life-long issue (Dacre Pool and Sewell, 2007) and does not finish when you have been successful in gaining employment. Employability needs to continue throughout your career – those individuals with high employability are influential within organisations (Nauta et al., 2009) and can, therefore, maximise their career potential. For you to continue to maximise your career potential, a continuing drive to develop yourself and take opportunities within your new work situation is crucial.