'Student to Workplace' presentation by David Shindler, Learning to Leap, at LTA Conference on Transitions, ACES Faculty, Sheffield Hallam University on 11th September 2014

3. “We have just employed 2 more people.
During the interview process, I met with 3
grads with business degrees from ‘decent’
universities. All absolutely useless, no
impact, dreadful interviews and worst of all,
no appreciation of a commercial or work
environment.”
Personality and experience matter!

4. “You can teach a bubbly person to
repair shoes but you can’t put the
personality into a grumpy cobbler”
John Timpson, Chairman of Timpson’s
Shoes
47% of 200 employers surveyed by
REC in 2014 considered attitude to
be the most important factor when
hiring a young person

5. Only 4% said that
specific academic
results, such as
achieving a 2:1 degree
classification, was most
important to them
UKCES Employer Skills
Survey 2013: 38% of
employers rejected
young applicants
because they lacked a
professional hard-working
attitude

6. “Character and resilience are the
crucial ingredients for success in
the workplace. Businesses want
more rounded and grounded
young people”
John Cridland, Director General, CBI, 2014

7. “The whole system of education – schools,
colleges and universities – needs to be more
responsive to employers. One side effect to
the rise in tuition fees is that students are
more demanding in terms of what they want
to get out of university. The role, for
instance, of enterprise in university is
expanding.”
Matthew Hancock, Minister for Skills & Enterprise,
2014

8. “Expectations were not as
high as I expected. Tutors
were saying a 2.2 was fine – I
would like people to back
me.”
“Everything you do during
your time at university now
has implications on your
ability to be employable”
76% of students
go to university
to improve their
job prospects

10. “Because there is so little certainty about
what the jobs of the future will involve,
universities must train graduates with the
right “attitudes and attributes” to keep
learning for life. Universities should focus on
this when trying to improve employability
rather than on “preparation for a specific
job”.
Sir Michael Barber, Pearson

14. “The outcome of the Sheffield Hallam
student experience will be highly
employable graduates equipped with the
skills and knowledge to prepare them for a
professional life, socially responsible and
able to live and work effectively in the 21st
century.”
The ‘Holistic Student’

15. • Business, commercial &
customer awareness
• Numeracy
Knowledge
application
•Self-awareness
•Self-management
•Positive attitude
Motivation &
Engagement
• Global & Inter-cultural
awareness
Social
Responsibility
Creative & • Solving problems
Critical Thinking
Integrity & • Professional
Professionalism
•Solving problems
•Communicating
•Self-management
Research &
Enquiry
Digital • Digital literacy
Literacy
• Communicating
• Working collaboratively
• Teamworking
Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
SHU 8 Graduate
Attributes mapped
with CBI/UKCES
12 Employability
capabilities

16. 35% of students think that
the main responsibility for
preparing them for
working life lies with their
university
They’re wrong!

18. 1. Finding out the rules of the game
2. Preparing well – job hunting is a job
3. Managing expectations
4. Creating a 6 months positioning plan
5. Tapping into Alumni and mentoring