Graduate Business Start-ups Project Report - The Institute for ...

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1. Introduction This Guide has been produced with funding from the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), under the Graduate Business Start-Up theme of the 1997 Higher Education and Employment prospectus. It aims to set out for Careers Services in higher education: ! examples of the provision for business and enterprise skills, within and without the higher education curriculum, which have been developed over recent years ! sources of information for students and careers services ! the range of postgraduate provision It refers to findings from the companion survey undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) for DfEE and published recently in the report, ‘Graduates mean Business’ (Tackey and Perryman 1999). Inter alia, this examined the provision available to graduates interested in starting their own business, through both higher education careers services and other agencies, asked them to reflect on their own experiences and produced evidence for the characteristics of those who were successful in establishing their own enterprise. Self employment, as an immediate or subsequent destination for graduates, has enjoyed a higher profile over the last few years. This is the result of various factors including: ! introduction of policies by government to encourage the establishment of small businesses ! swings in the volume of unemployment experienced by new and recent graduates ! increase in freelance working and ‘portfolio’ careers especially in buoyant sectors of the economy eg creative arts, media, Information Technology. This has brought fresh challenges to some higher education Careers Services, notably those with a significant proportion of students on art, design and computing courses. In some institutions between 10% and 15% of their graduates may work freelance or for their own business within a couple of years after completing their studies. As a result some students are seeking to explore the implications of working in this way before Graduate Business Start-ups: Project Report 23
graduation, while others return to higher education Careers Services in the hope of accessing information about this option. However, interest in self employment remains patchy across higher education and only 1% of graduates are recorded as working this way in the First Destination Survey produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and reflecting the position on 31 December of the year of graduation. This is reflected in the findings of the survey undertaken by IES into existing practice by higher education Careers Services. Because their students express comparatively little interest in self employment, many services target hard pressed resources at areas of greater demand. In only a few institutions has there been extensive provision of information and advice about this option. The Good Practice Guide seeks to make careers services throughout higher education aware of some of these developments and to offer advice to those services who wish to expand provision with limited resources. It is clear both from the results of the research undertaken by IES and from other surveys that many graduates, interested in self employment, find difficulty in accessing appropriate support, information and advice. We hope that our colleagues will find the contents of the Good Practice Guide helpful in enabling them to cater more satisfactorily for these graduates within finite resources. We work in very different institutions — one a university founded in the Sixties, the other, a federation of five colleges, specialising in art, communication and design. Although we have approached this task from different perspectives, we have a common aim. We are keen to ensure that those of our graduates who wish to set up their own business — whether on leaving college or subsequently — can do so successfully. We have both striven to improve provision for students interested in this option and see the Good Practice Guide as a way of exploring ideas and extending knowledge amongst colleagues. We would like to thank our colleagues from the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) for their assistance in compiling this Guide. Their contributions of time, both to this exercise and the completion of the IES Survey, expertise in commenting on the draft contents, and encouragement, have been much appreciated. Carolyn Morris Selina Springbett July 1999 24 Graduate Business Start-ups: Project Report
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