Sir Stuart Rose sets out his graduate recruitment policy—and calls for better links between business and academia
Sir Stuart Rose has called for greater collusion between education and business to address the skills gap. Speaking at the annual Career Academies UK conference, the Marks & Spencer chief executive, also criticised school leavers' readiness for a career in business. "The biggest single issue we have got at the moment is this misunderstanding about what the workplace is actually about," he told delegates. "You're producing people and we're receiving people and there's a mismatch between what you're sending out and what [business] wants. As an employer we really do have to worry about the skills coming through in the UK."
In 2006 Sir Stuart set up the Retail Fashion Academy alongside Arcadia Group boss Sir Philip Green because "we couldn't necessarily find the people we wanted with the skills we wanted". The academy currently has 420 students on its books. Sir Stuart said businesses shouldn't use the recession as an excuse to cut graduate placements. "At M&S we take in 115 graduates a year. We haven't cut that this year. I think it's important that not only M&S, but other companies, really step up and be counted and make sure they continue to take in graduates. It's woolly-thinking to suddenly stop recruitment of graduates because it would create a gap of people coming through."
According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), this year's graduate job vacancies have been cut by a quarter. Asked what colleges and schools could do to better prepare students for business roles, Sir Stuart said learning to solve problems as part of a team was an often-neglected attribute. Business needs to work hard to shed its negative image, he added. "The most important thing to have is the ability to work in a team. What we don't want to encourage is the belief that the way to get on in business today is to be completely selfish, is to climb on your colleague's back... is to get on at any cost. What we see in The Apprentice sends a very bad message out. Business at the moment is demonised anyway. [But] people are getting the wrong impression of what's needed."
Sir Stuart, who didn't go to university and failed medical school, said it was important for employers to look beyond "A, B, C and D" and search for hidden attributes that might indicate leadership or entrepreneurial potential. "I don't think they need to be graduates. We're looking for team players. High energy-levels. People that can think on their feet. We're looking for people that want to have fun."
Commercial experience isn't everything, he added. "To have shown some initiative in anything, it doesn't matter that it's not in the workplace. To have done some vocational thing, to have climbed a mountain, [achieved] something in the community. Rather sadly in the workplace today, because there's such a huge number of people chasing a particular job [applicants sometimes] get filtered out for the wrong reasons. What we try and do is say, 'is there something beneath this that might be helpful?'"
John May, chief executive of Career Academies UK, had earlier called for more employers to consider taking on summer interns. Perhaps the mismatch alluded to by Sir Stuart could be reduced by offering commercial experience to more youngsters while they were still at school, he suggested. "It's been a struggle," he said. "There are many young people this summer who are not getting an internship place. Some are getting a shorter placement than they would like."
May called for more pressure on the business community. "I am personally convinced that the six-week paid internship is the most impactful part of the Career Academies experience for young people. We have to work to persuade employers of the business case for providing them." Keeping up the pressure would enable an internship tipping point to be reached, he said, "and in the future it will become the norm. Young people will be quizzed on how effective their placement was, not just applauded for having got one."
Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors, spoke about the increasing relevance of skills over academic knowledge, particularly when fast-growing nations, such as India and China, had much stronger skills bases. But the UK is at least starting to see skills in a different light, added Templeman. "My education was more about knowledge. Now, there is a much greater understanding of how important it is to give all of our children enhanced skills," he said. The UK is currently 17th in the world for basic, "which isn't great." And with the OECD forecasting that Britain will soon slip to 23rd, it's imperative that we work together to close the gap, he said. Our skills base, Templeman added, "will derive our economic success in the future."
He echoed Sir Stuart's call for employers to put aside recessionary fears and focus on building links with academia. "The recession makes it more difficult in the short term for employers to play the part we want them to, and it makes it more difficult for everyone to focus on the longer term, but I don't think it affects the issues we faced before we came into the recession—and when we come out of it, when actually I fear the climate will be even more difficult." Unfortunately, he added, "those in education don't always know what business wants. And that's down to business not engaging and telling education what it wants."
Posted 9 July 2009 : Director.co.uk
