£4.8m bill for graduate jobs ‘failure’
Saturday 19th June 2010, 11:30AM BST.
Taxpayers spent almost £5 million on a project to help find graduates a job – from which only one in five actually found work.
The scheme by the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands was today branded a waste of money.
Figures obtained today showed 1,615 graduates have taken part in Graduate Advantage since 2003, but only 319 full-time posts have been created as a result.
AWM, whose future is currently in doubt, has paid £506,394 into the scheme over the past year and spent £4.8 million of public money in total. It paid companies to take on graduates for a period of work experience.
The figures were obtained after a Freedom of Information Act request was made to the quango but AWM insisted today that any spending of public money is “rigorously assessed”.
Director of skills Pat Jackson said: “Projects like Graduate Advantage help the region attract, nurture and retain graduate talent in particular areas and highlight the benefits of higher level skills to businesses.
“This is vital if we are to boost the region’s skills to compete in a global, 21st century market on the business front, particularly with manufacturing and technology.
“The scheme placed more than 500 graduates between July 2009 and April 2010, making them more employable by offering them experience, and giving businesses a helping hand during the recession.”
But the West Midlands TaxPayers’ Alliance dismissed the project as a waste.
Fiona McEvoy, of the Alliance, said: “Over the years expensive publicly-funded projects like this have pushed taxes up for businesses who might otherwise have had the reserves to recruit new graduates without such help.
“While it is important young people find work in the marketplace, there are pressures on public finances that mean taxpayers simply can’t afford to lay out so much money for so few successes.”
By Daniel Wainwright
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Er, ok. Right, so these people who DIDN’T get full time jobs, what are they doing? Are they unemployed now? Can we have the FULL story please, rather than a Tax Payers Alliance press release?
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We can only hope that Advantage West Midlands (Birmingham) will be one of the first quangos to be cut.
So expensive to run and with so much waste.
I see that Wolverhampton Development company haven’t updated with any news since March. Are they doing anything?
Wolverhampton needs to become a low tax, low regulatory red-tape, sustainable transport city.
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AWM has been wasting money for years. The sooner it is closed the better!!!!
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Now can you see why some graduates don’t stick around, once they’ve completed their under-graduate or even post-graduate work? It’s like saying..why bother? You’re just a number to be tossed around like a political football. You aren’t wanted or valued. I’m sure many people on the New Deal scheme will find this very familiar territory.
Yep folks, come work in the Midlands..work long, hard hours for poverty wages just to exist. Hey, got a degree? We don’t need the wrong type of people here..so be gone with your aspirations, they’re upsetting the board at the annual shareholder’s meeting of Pig Trough Training, Inc.
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In other parts of the world a degree is not only a pretty good guarantee of a livable wage, but is also a prerequisite to first step on the ladder. As you see here, getting a degree in the West Midlands isn’t the done thing, apparently. After all, we don’t want to climb too high above our station.
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I have to agree with the last comment
In this country they want us to work for nothing even if we have a degree,
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Not sure who this ‘we’ is. Employers?
They will take what they can get. But have to pay high for some skillsets.
There are still many graduate positions around. Not as many as say 4 years ago but still a lot.
Not everyone has the skillset to take one, not everyone wants to move area or go into particular types of jobs.
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You don’t need quangos like AWM to help ‘graduates’ find jobs-they should be doing it themselves-ever heard of a CV? Isn’t that the whole point of going to university, to become independent, free thinking. Not spoon fed dummies.
Anon-a graduate degree does NOT and should NOT guarantee that you will walk into a job-either here or elsewhere in the world-if your degree is worth anything, then employeers will be happy to take you on, but you have to offer something tangible in return, not just a degree certificate. Too many so-called ‘graduates’ are being turned out in this country and we simple do not have the number of jobs in th UK to meet their lofty aspirations-nothing to do with climbing above your station-it’s just a fact.
The government could do a lot worse than direct this money into helping graduates start up their own companies-jobs with a long term future, which can grow to provide more jobs and create wealth-that’s the future.
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The problem comes with those who have little to put on their CV.
Leave Uni at age 21, never worked, its a tad harder to get a job. Some employers won’t take you because of your degree – you’ll leave as soon as something better comes along.
While others don’t want you as you have no track record of working.
Easier for those students who have worked a bit or volunteered, or for mature students who have a bit of life behind them too.
I hope to stay in this country but with the degree I’m studying and my profession I can get jobs abroad paying 50% or more extra.
Still, costs need cutting and this I daresay is one of those for the scrapheap.
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Trouble with College and Uni is you spend many years learning and have no experience of anything..unless you are a mature student. These Mature students have more chance at a job than anyone. Younger students will struggle unless they get in some voluntary work as experience.
uni and college courses should also reflect the market and what employers want. Why waste money on courses that are useless in the real world!!
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Can’t say I’ve come across any Uni courses that are useless in the real world yet. Not seen any that teach no skills whatsoever.
I’m at Uni for my skills, the subject is a bonus. In my field many jobs require a degree, doesn’t matter what.
As for the future, who is to say what courses will be relevant? Don’t forget many 21 year old graduates will be in the job market for the next 46 years – time enough for a degree to be of use for the subject matter as well as skills.
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I suppose any course could provide a job but some more than others. It might be harder finding a job with a criminology,philosophy or sociology degree,or even sport,execise and science. Perhaps these are the degrees that the article is on about..who knows!!
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I have a degree with my job and I can tell you that the learning curve in the job is far higher than what I got through any degree.Most real success comes from life experiences and working in the industry you are in and not from a piece of paper,athough unfortunately employers like you to have a proven academic record for all the good it will do when you enter the real world.
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stjoe, we don’t often agree but on this subject I think we do.
I’ve been in the workforce for over 25 years, often working alongside people with degrees. Skills learnt in work count.
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The best thing the govenrment could do is employ people like Mr Sugar and the likes of the richradsons,All self made with no degrees. They got success the hard way. They all have degrees but in real life.
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Would they have done better with also getting a degree? Some skills are very expensive to learn by experience, cheaper to learn them by lectures, projects, assignments and so on.
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No lecturers with the ability to do what these folks have done I’m afraid. If they could do it then they wouldn’t be lecturers would they?
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Lecturers could not have taught them additional skills? Lecturers could not have taught of what problems can be encountered?
And solutions that have worked?
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why bother as a graduate
I got an “internship” through garduate advantage which the employer that took me on got a £1,000 for.
My work consisted of made up things like “yeah could you go and research” so and so. No practical experience being gained just sitting there like a spare one at a wedding. You dont get paid, which is fine however you do not do anything, well i certainly did not.
Knowing that you’ve worked hard at university to get a 2:1 its embrassing a year on no job and no future
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I fully agree with you here Terry. It is embarrassing to think that this situation occurs when you have worked so hard at uni.
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I went on a GradAvantage scheme and was fortunate enough to get a permanent post. However, I am earning little more than min wage having got a 2:1 from a respectable uni and a years relevant work experience.
I find that I am constantly looking for other jobs as I don’t want to simply settle for second best. Any other grads in the same boat?
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I was on a GradAvantage scheme and was fortunate enough to get a permanent post. However, I am earning little more than min wage having gained a 2:1 from a respectable university and a years relevant work experience.
I find that I am constantly looking for other jobs as I don’t want to simply settle for second best. Any other graduates in the same boat?
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The problem is, theres very little investment in the Midlands. I left for London and got a jobby job.
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I graduated at 22, and had worked weekends/evenings since the age of 16. Every summer holiday at college/uni I did temping roles, mainly in admin (aswell as still working evenings/weekends in retail) to gain money and experience of working in different environments.
After graduating I again did temping work, took anything I could get, whilst looking for a permanent job that would put my degree to good use. Maybe I was one of the lucky ones as it took me about 6 months to get something. I found that the months and months that I had worked doing admin temping jobs really added value to my CV as it gave me experience in the workplace, aswell as showing willing to work hard. I had admin and customer service skills from my years of working – both of which were invaluable to the job I do now.
So those who are saying you don’t want to settle for 2nd best, don’t think of it like that, think of it as any job will give you experience, something to add to your CV, the chance to pick up new skills and money! Not many people fall straight into the job they want, you need to work your way up.
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