There is a Senate committee inquiry into the toughness of the times for Australian graduates, with terms of reference that assume they are crook, including, as an example “whether graduates of Australian universities are being taught the skills that employers are looking for” (and) “the economic, social and psychological effect that this experience has on graduates.”
It’s a rhetorical challenge that lobbies can’t ignore, lest they appear indifferent. And so some respond the same way, answering questions that were not specifically asked.
The problem is, the natural response – pointing to graduates having social literacy skills that employers value – assumes they do and that they are learned at university.
This rather ignores the obvious; bright young people with high EQs will often do well in nations with flattish social structures whether they study a traditional degree, train for a trade or acquire a bundle of specific skills on at work or in short courses.
And not everybody is buying the argument that degrees deliver generic competencies.
Future Skills Australia, the government’s training advisor for fintech and business, isn’t.
“Employers report that many graduates are not job-ready, with gaps in practical capability, digital and AI fluency, communication, and professional judgement,” FSA states in its Senate submission.
“A further issue is the lack of consistent development of transferable, generalist skills, such as communication, teamwork, and adaptability, which are critical across all sectors but not systematically embedded in tertiary education,” it adds.
National training research agency Jobs and Skills Australia points out that degrees are not everything for employment, “outcomes for graduates are shaped not only by educational attainment, but also by employer demand, recruitment practices and the structure of entry-level pathways. In some cases, this may indicate the importance of factors such as applied learning, transition pathways and employer expectations alongside qualifications themselves.”
Which is not the message in submissions from the HE community that argue they need more money to keep teaching what they do now, to more students and at lower cost for some of them – in particular the hated Job Ready Graduates fee model ($20 000 a year arts degrees).
Thus the HASS deans argue:
“Graduate employment challenges should not be interpreted as evidence that universities are failing or that Australia has too many graduates. The evidence instead points to the need for:
- stronger graduate transition support
- sustainable higher education funding
- reform of current JRG settings
- better support for equity students
- stronger support for lifelong learning
- recognition of the importance of transferable capabilities in a rapidly changing economy.”
Which rather makes the case for the relevance of a humanities education that teaches the rhetorical skill of answering questions one wasn’t asked.