Conference sessions in Employability and entrepreneurship

Working while studying: an exploration of the drivers leading students to seek employment over the course of their degree

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Diversity and human capital accumulation in higher education

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Pay dynamics of work placements: The case of economics graduates

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The value of virtual internships as authentic assessment in developing the future generation of economists

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Work placement and graduate employment: new insights

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Schools of economics and business educational offer and employers’ expectations in Romania - case study: the Bucharest University

For universities, the labour market represents a reference and, in the same time, an indicator of the quality, utility and necessity of the educational programs they are providing. It is the place where educational activity is validated both from the perspective of the life content of the programs offered to different categories of learners and the effort implied to successfully graduate the program, but also from the perspective of the conformation at the present and future economic reality. More than non-economic universities an economic one such as The Bucharest University of Economic Studies with the mission to provide higher and in-depth knowledge in the field of economic sciences and to develop competences required to economists and professionals for public administration functions will demonstrate its own value through the value of its graduates and through their contribution to the keep the economy in function and to develop it. For every graduate who is willing to have a career and searching for success, to find a job and to be able to keep it are essential. The paper is analysing how educational offer of The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, the most important economic university in Romania, is adapted to the employers’ expectations and requirements. Employers’ opinions regarding the university programs, students’ knowledge, competences and work experiences are analysed together with their recommendations for educational programs with higher impact on students’/graduates’ employability.

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Determinants of student salaries in professional training year

The increasing cost of the UK higher education degree imposes pressure on the finances of many undergraduate students. The industrial placement year embedded in undergraduate degrees can lighten students’ financial burden and better prepare them for an increasingly competitive graduate labour market. Against this background, we collected data on three cohorts of placement students from the School of Economics, University of Surrey, including demographic characteristics, academic performance, programme of studies and employability-related characteristics. To identify the main determinants of students' salaries, we applied both OLS and quantile regression models. We find that academic performance, job location and industry are the main determinants of placement salaries. Students' efforts in their first year of their course can increase the returns of their work experience due to the possibility of high placement salaries. We also find a positive ‘London effect’ and that placement salaries in the economic and finance sector are higher, whilst in the technology sector tend to be lower than in other sectors. The associations between placement salaries and the three previous factors are particularly strong at the top salaries. Moreover, although students' accomplishments (e.g. awards or high scores achieved in aptitude tests) are not relevant at the mean or median of salaries, they are crucial for top salaries. Furthermore, students' previous job experience and demographic characteristics (e.g. age, nationality, and ethnicity) do not appear to determine placement salaries. Finally, we find no evidence of salary differences due to gender.

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Value added versus widening participation: the great employability debate

Human Capital suggests that a value-added approach can be adopted to highlight successful graduate skills formation. Evidence, based on that approach, has historically appeared impressive. Conlon and Patrignani (2011) for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), found that the earnings premium of a UK undergraduate degree is 27% compared to an individual leaving education with two ‘A’ levels or more. The average gross graduate premium is estimated at £125,000 over a working lifetime. Million+ (2013) have argued that a degree, not only providing access to a financial premium, also leads to more fulfilling careers and reduced state dependency. More recent evidence from the IFS (2018), however, has indicated less impressive outcomes. A third of male graduates, for example, were found to achieve only a negligible earnings gain. Our analysis investigates how the perception of degree value has changed. We consider the massification of Higher Education and the creation of ‘social congestion’ where an over-supply of graduates impairs career opportunities. Thus, with too many degrees chasing too few degree-level jobs, we conclude that the analysis into graduate employability should be refocused on attempting to level the playing field: to ensure graduates from working class backgrounds have equality of opportunity.

Talking your way through employability: evaluative conversations to develop confidence and critical thinking in Economics

This presentation outlines the findings from the evaluation of an innovative assessment design aimed at developing students’ confidence and critical thinking, as well as communication and debating skills, in a History of Economic Thought (HET) module running at the School of Economics of the University of East Anglia. The assessment structure of the HET module consists of three pieces of summative assessment: (i) a group video-presentation, (ii) a critical essay, and (iii) an evaluative conversation (akin to a viva voce). Whilst the group submission constitutes a stand-alone component of assessment, the critical essay and evaluative conversation assessments are inter-linked. The evaluative conversation is designed to enable students to demonstrate how they have acted upon the feedback received on their critical essay. Our design generates well-structured feed-forward dynamics as students’ engagement with the feedback received on their essay assignment directly affects their performance in the final evaluative conversation. Preliminary results highlight that students find the task helpful at developing new skills, as they recognise the usefulness of evaluative conversation. Our analysis also allows us to differentiate students’ appraisal of this novel assessment by performance and by orientation towards feedback. We argue that evaluative conversations should be more widely embedded in curriculum and assessment design as an effective means to enhance employability skills of Economics graduates.

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The employability skills gap in economics

In this session we will discuss the results from the Economics Network 2019 Employers Survey and the 2019 survey of Employability Skills in UK Economics Degrees. We will compare the preferences and perceptions of employers on skill development to the current levels of provision and integration within economics departments. We will highlight gaps between the two, particularly in areas where employers suggest economics graduates’ skills are underdeveloped. We welcome discussion on whether these gaps should be managed going forward and if so, how best departments can improve skill development within their economics degrees.

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Special Session: Employability Skills in UK Economics Degrees?

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Is our assessment up to the job?

This panel will discuss whether current assessment methods for undergraduate economics students are fit for purpose. In particular, it will question whether our assessment is inclusive to a diverse student body and if it develops adequate skills and knowledge among our undergraduate to prepare them for the working world. We hope to also introduce innovative assessment ideas and advance the conversation around what remains to be done to bring undergraduate assessment into the 21st century.

Student Academic Performance and Professional Training Year

We study the relationship between students' academic performance and work experience during their undergraduate studies. The literature on Higher Education has largely focused on whether a "sandwich" placement year affects the students' final year academic performance. In contrast, this paper considers the time frame before the placement year and examines whether the likelihood of securing a placement year and prior academic performance are causally linked. Although this relationship has been overlooked by the literature, the possible effect of first-year academic performance on PTY can bring evidence of placement opportunity being a major motivation for students to improve their academic performance. Particularly, the hypothesis that the average first-year mark may be a significant determinant of this possibility is crucial for the UK HE framework. The undergraduate programmes across the UK do not count the first-year performance towards the degree grade. This allows students that enter HE to familiarise themselves with the new environment and prepare them for the more challenging second and third year. However, first-year modules are the basis upon which forthcoming courses build on and, as we will show, affect the likelihood of securing a placement. Hence, it is important to identify the relevant factors for professional development at an initial stage to enhance the student learning experience.

Exploring Economics - Our experiences of influencing economics education in government

Exploring Economics is a cross departmental government network that aims to improve policymakers' understanding of economics, and to increase the diversity of economic thinking, in government. Over the last year, we have built this network from scratch. We now have over 200 participants, and support from some of the most senior government economists. The thinking behind our network largely grew out of student movements such as ‘Rethinking Economics’, which aim to make economics education more pluralistic, and to make economics more democratic. After leaving university, we wanted to continue this in government. As part of this, we have been developing new modules for government economists, working with the Government Economics service, so that they can learn about a plurality of economics ideas, and hopefully apply them (where appropriate) to policy. Our proposed session would share some of our findings from our experiences. We would talk about the differences between learning/teaching in a university environment to that in the world of government and policy. We would discuss where we think economics could change for the better, and how this change could be achieved. We think that doing this could help students see the connections between their learning and government economics.

Embedding Social Capital in the Economics Curriculum

The paper reports on the students' experience as business/financial consultants for qNomics. qNomics is a pro-bono organisation set up within the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University of London. qNomics provides financial guidance and resources to technology start-ups and entrepreneurs. Clients come to qNomics for advice on a range of issues including market strategy, business planning, accounting, funding, and regulatory compliance. Students have the opportunity to counsel clients on issues and guide clients through the various challenges that they face, particularly at the early stage of their business development. Under the supervision of practitioners from professional service companies, students develop research and communication skills and have the opportunity of applying their knowledge of economics and finance to the actual needs of young businesses. Through interviews with the participating students, the paper provides an account of the students' own perceived experience by investigating students’ expectations and actual experience. A particular focus is placed on the skills that students perceive having developed as well as the more general development of social capital. An understanding of whether the scheme provides a transformational experience for the students is also attempted.

Generation research: helping students become well-trained economists for the challenges of the 21st century

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One Bank Research Agenda

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