Science graduates struggling to find work, despite 'skills shortage'

London – Over half of graduates who leave university with a degree in engineering are working within the field six months later, according to a report from the University of Birmingham being presented to the British Educational Research Association’s annual conference.

The study titled “Who is studying science? The impact of widening participation policies on the social composition of UK undergraduate science programmes” appears to undermine claims that the country’s businesses are facing a shortage of well-qualified people with science and technology degrees.

Some 20% end up in graduate jobs not related to their degree, while a further 24% find work in sections of the economy not requiring a higher education qualification, such as sales, according to professor Emma Smith, the University of Birmingham academic who compiled the figures.

“It is astonishing, in the light of claims of science graduate shortages, that so few new graduates go into related employment,” said Smith, noting how concerns about a shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates have been widely publicised in recent years.

The research cites a 2008 survey from the employers’ group the CBI saying one third of businesses reported shortages, with 42% saying they lacked appropriate skills. Reported shortages were particularly high among female graduates.

In 2009, the Council for Industry and Higher Education, a partnership between leading companies and vice-chancellors advocating to improve the UK’s knowledge-based economy, said:

“We cannot stress too forcibly our concern at the critical shortage of graduates and postgraduates with STEM capabilities,” commented Smith.

However, Smith analysed figures from the Higher Education Statistical Agency based on a survey of what graduates were doing six months after finishing university.

For engineering science, the latest figures, from 2009, showed that 46.4% of graduates were working in fields directly related to their degree, such as engineering itself (38%) or engineering-related IT (5%).

The paper focused on engineering, but separate data for 2008 from the same annual survey suggest the rate of physics and chemistry graduates taking up work in related fields within six months of graduating is around 55%.

Smith said the high numbers of engineering graduates taking jobs not requiring graduate-level qualifications - 12% were working in sales and five per cent in “elementary administration and service” - suggested there was not a ready supply of engineering jobs for all of them.

“Just under a quarter of newly-qualified engineers report every year that they are working in what are considered to be non-graduate jobs, including unskilled and routine employment, such as being cashiers and waiters. Around 10% are in general management and a further 10% are classified as ’other’,” she said. “The figures suggest it is not easy or automatic for qualified engineers to get related employment in the UK, despite the purported shortages.

“Perhaps, because of recent initiatives, there seem to be too many people studying science for the labour market to cope with, or perhaps graduates are no longer of sufficient quality.
“It is more likely, however, that all of these scientists are without relevant employment every year because the shortage thesis is wrong and there are no jobs waiting for all of them, or because they are ’dropping out’ having learned that they do not enjoy their subject areas.”

Professor Smith highlights huge efforts in recent decades to increase the supply of science graduates, including previous research from 2004 which revealed there had been more than 470 separate projects to attract more young people into STEM subjects. But she argues that what is needed now is more research into the real demand of UK STEM businesses for new recruits.

The research has also shown that attempts to get more young people from poorer homes to study science degrees have had only limited success, with the physical sciences in particular remaining largely the preserve of white students whose parents are in the professions or management. It also finds that the proportion of women accepted for physics and engineering degrees has barely changed in the last 25 years.

Smith added that some employers could be right in complaining that some science graduates were not of sufficient quality. Yet engineering degrees tended to require fairly high A-level grades, and university courses were also often accredited by professional organisations, so should be ensuring standards.