Guide to skills and employment

We want all students to gain the skills they need to succeed in future employment or further study.

We also want to make sure that the pipeline of graduate talent meets the needs of employers today and tomorrow. This relies on good collaboration between employers and providers.

We encourage collaboration in a range of ways to produce benefits for student employability, national productivity and the Industrial Strategy, and to support local communities to thrive and prosper.

Our work

We want all students to recognise which skills will make them more employable and have the opportunity to gain them. We do this by funding projects and research that result in improved student information, or may increase work experience opportunities and support.

Our initiatives encourage providers to focus on employer engagement or skills development in line with the Industrial Strategy. Where employers want to develop new kinds of skills training, such as Degree Apprenticeships, we work with providers to make this possible.

How we use evidence to inform policy

The Shadbolt review examined why Computer Science graduates have the poorest employment outcomes of all subjects despite employer demand for digital skills at higher level.

The Wakeham review identified potential problems with the pipeline of employable STEM graduates.

Graduates in non-graduate occupations

This report by the Warwick Institute for Employment Research highlights that non-graduate employment can provide graduates with an opportunity to gain valuable work experience before moving into graduate-level roles.

However, the extent to which it provides a stepping-stone is influenced by a range of factors, including the graduate’s background, where and what they studied and when they enter the jobs market.