Graduate Careers Australia
The Graduate Grapevine - Number 2, December 2005
Seven Years at the Top – an Interview at the University of Manchester (Part Two)
In Part One of ‘Seven Years at the Top – an Interview at the University of Manchester’ we met Terry Dray, Deputy Director within the Careers and Employability Division at the University of Manchester, which has won the ‘Best Career Service in the UK’ Award for the last seven years. In Part Two Cindy Tilbrook (GCA Executive Director) and Terry continue their fascinating discussion.
Cindy: What attracts new students to the university? Why would they come specifically to Manchester?
Terry: We have developed an excellent reputation for academic standards, and this is obviously attractive to postgraduate and research students, as well as undergraduates. But we also have an excellent record of achievement in respect of outcomes for our graduates, and their employability after graduation is obviously a key attraction, not only for our local students. For example, we have recently launched a booklet called The ManchesterFactor, which is intended to help us build relationships with graduate recruiters in China, and we are constantly working to enhance our relationships with employers both locally and across the globe. We are conducting research into the Chinese graduate market, and I recently visited Hong Kong and China to meet with a range of graduate recruiters. Many international students expect to enhance their employability if they study at Manchester – it is our job to ensure that we are able to provide them with exemplary information, advice and guidance.
Cindy: What are some of the other innovative ideas for attracting employers to the university?
Terry: We take a very strategic approach to graduate recruiters based around:
- Profile: working with them to develop the most appropriate profile on campus
- Presence: what actual presence do they want on campus
- Differentiation: how we can help the employer differentiate their offer to students when they are competing with many other organisations who are eager to attract graduate talent.
We allocate a Key Account Management team to the main employers, so that they can deal with the same core of people at all times. We also try to deal, as far as possible, with the strategic decision makers from the employers, not just with the graduate recruiters.
We run nine major national career fairs each year (our Events and Marketing Team looks after these), and also spend a lot of time in understanding the employment market and developing innovative ideas to attract employers. For example, we have a biennial ‘Target Manchester’ event, where we invite 70-100 of the top graduate recruiters to the university to discuss how the Career Service can better meet their needs. We also run an annual residential course for graduate recruiters called ‘Recruiting the Best’. This course traditionally attracts people who are new to graduate recruitment.
Cindy: But these types of events require considerable financial, as well as human resources. How has this level of financial resourcing been obtained?
Terry: That’s a good question, and not necessarily an easy one to answer. A lot of the development of the Service has been possible by securing external funding, we earn considerable income from our events and the provision of specific services to employers and we also regularly secure funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF). We also work hard internally in these areas and maintain very close links with the Registrar. We have also been fortunate in that we have, to date, been given a certain amount of freedom to manage our own resources.
Cindy: So I guess that brings me back to my earlier question – what differentiates this Career Service from others and has led it to be the top-ranked Career Service for such a long period?
Terry: I believe it is a result of our overall approach and the various initiatives we take. With a dedicated management team, we can take a high-level strategic approach to the service. We are constantly looking at what we do, the services we provide and how we can improve and innovate.
As a starting point, our range of events and programs is considerable. For example, we have:
- Mentoring programs with over 400 students a year going through four different programs (including two which are equity focussed).
- CMS (Career Management Skills) modules running across 27 different disciplines (such an Engineering, Law, Maths, etc.). All of these modules are credit-bearing, and half of the contact hours in the modules are conducted by partners from industry.
- We focus on achieving IT and Website excellence. For example, we won £10,000 from ExxonMobil recently to exploit the potential of wireless access ICT to allow our consultants to become ‘mobile’ and conduct guidance interviews peripatetically around the university and not just in our centres. This involves each consultant using a hand-held computer to access electronic summaries of guidance to inform each remote conversation with each student. Each student also has an electronic careers account where their careers record, including an account of each guidance conversation, can be viewed. This is truly innovative and has the potential of taking well-informed guidance closer to the student.
- We have focussed upon equality and diversity initiatives, such as an annual ethnic diversity recruitment fair for our black and Asian students, the establishment of www.blackandasiangrad.com – a unique career development site for black and Asian students and graduates in the UK and the ‘INTERACT’ mentoring program for students with disabilities, etc.
But there are also other higher-level factors that help:
- Our graduates are regarded as highly employable, and we are fortunate in that many graduate recruiters target us, rather than us having to seek them out.
- We focus on income generation and the maintenance of excellent physical resources, and take quite a business-like and commercial approach to running the service.
- We have a very firm commitment to the economic performance of the region. For example, we conduct a number of projects of benefit to the entire region, not just our university.
Cindy: This seems unusual. What’s an example of such a project?
Terry: We operate ‘North West Students and Graduates Online’, which is an e-vacancy service for all university students in the region. This is based on a recognition and acceptance that some of the other universities are not as well resourced as we are, and that we can provide benefit to the area and attract more employers if we proactively promote the region and its students, as well as those from our own university.
The government has funded a number of these projects through the North West Development Agency. But this type of money doesn’t just ‘arrive’ at the service – you have to be proactive, and actively seek out the funding to conduct these types of projects. Our success in this area is demonstrated by our current team of 15 people who work on these types of projects at the current time.
Cindy: Terry, this has been a fascinating look at a great Career Service. Thanks for your hospitality, and I hope we can see you in Australia again in the near future.
Terry: I really enjoyed my visit to Australia for the NAGCAS conference last year, and would love to visit again.
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