Employability After Graduation: The Insider’s View
Number of employers taking the QS Employer Survey jumped to 28,000 from 17,000 in 2011
University administrators like to think that their institutions offer a solid bridge to employment after graduation – and place a considerable amount of effort in career advisory services for their graduates to achieve this. However, they have to contend with market forces, not all careers choices are recession proof. Taking into account economic turbulence, and new technologies impact on the job market, how can we measure employability? There are the recruiters and employers on the other side of the table, and their evaluation of graduates impacts the perception that an institution produces better qualified candidates in a chosen field.
For the past decade, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, publishers of the World University Rankings, asked employers around the world to voice their opinion about which universities they prefer to recruit new talents from. The responses of the QS Global Employer Survey are treated in strict confidence and published in aggregated form, giving HR personnel and managers with hiring responsibilities the ability to express their views anonymously. In the last couple of years the number of employers taking the QS survey jumped to 28,000 – from 17,000 in 2011.
QS has developed an extensive database of employers in key markets worldwide and their expert opinion informs university rankings, as well as other influential reports about MBA and graduates jobs and salary trends.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, QS managing director and a graduate of Wharton School MBA program, sees employability as central to universities’ appeal: “Graduates’ employability is a key mission for world-class universities and business schools. Employers are undoubtedly the most objective judges when it comes to the career outcome of a bachelor degree or a postgraduate qualification. That’s why we value and seek their views. We invite HR managers and staff with hiring responsibilities to share their opinion. The findings will help prospective students to make a more informed decision about their next study and career move”.
QS 2014 Global Employer Survey, for which employers can sign-up for here takes only a few minutes to complete. The findings will inform the QS World University Rankings 2014/15, and will be published on the 16th September 2014.
Nunzio Quacquarelli points out that the results of the QS Employer Survey help students make informed decisions about their choice of school which include a long view on their career prospects: “Our mission is to help motivated individuals around the world to fulfill their potential through educational achievements and career advancement. We estimated that over 70 million students from every corner of the planet consulted our primary research and university rankings in 2013. Our methodology is unique in taking into account how institutions are perceived by employers globally: an insight extremely relevant to the next generation of learners.”
