One of the West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership's priorities is developing a framework to increase the number of people with higher level skills in the workforce, particularly in the private sector.
The Learning and Skills Council, Advantage West Midlands and Foundation Degree Forward agreed to fund a study to be undertaken by the Observatory, which will inform further work to develop this framework.
Key findings
The key findings of our graduate retention study (PDF, 324KB) were published on 3 July 2008. We also published a synthesis report (PDF, 405KB) on 14 October 2008.
University Challenge
We have also provided evidence based on the project findings—together with other published data from the Office for National Statistics, Higher Education Statistics Agency and Aimhigher—to inform Advantage West Midlands and the Higher Education Funding Council for England in implementing the government’s University Challenge initiative in the West Midlands.
University Challenge aims to support investment in higher education at a local level and our analysis highlights the ‘market failures’ within the region that the initiative needs to address.
Download our analysis for University Challenge (PDF, 538KB).
Background to our research
The West Midlands Economic Strategy Consultation Draft (PDF, 1 MB) identified the utilisation of graduates as a key component in growing the region's economy:
"The West Midlands must compete more effectively on the basis of its skills, ingenuity and know-how. A further 160,000 people with graduate level skills need to be employed or self-employed in the West Midlands, particularly in the private sector.
The region needs to encourage greater numbers of the graduates produced by our universities to stay and work in the West Midlands and to stimulate a stronger flow of graduate level skills from within the workforce.
There is evidence to suggest that the region doesn’t currently make best use of the graduates it does retain and the skills they have; there is a noticeable presence of graduates in relatively low value added sectors such as hospitality, rather than in sectors such as manufacturing that need to increase the value-added components of their activity."
West Midlands Economic Strategy 2007
The West Midlands Higher Education Association was asked to design a study that would fill those gaps and inform relevant interventions to encourage a greater take up of graduate level employment in the West Midlands region.
A steering group with representatives of the region's Higher Education Institutions was established to scope out the research needed. This project is based on that scoping exercise.
We managed the project, together with synthesis of the findings and production of a final report. The research elements were outsourced to an external contractor.
The research process consisted of:
- Desk research: Collection and analysis of secondary data from a range of sources.
- Primary research: Quantitative and qualitative research with graduates and employers to explore the issues affecting the utilisation of graduates in the West Midlands economy.
Project objectives
The project seeked to explore the issues surrounding the utilisation of graduates in the West Midlands labour market. Specifically, we wished to understand issues affecting the attraction, retention and employment of graduates.
We produced robust quantitative data enabling detailed analysis to be undertaken, and generalisations to be made from the findings. In addition, qualitative data provided in-depth information to complement the quantitative findings.
The project researched both graduates and employers in the region in order to gain a thorough insight into:
- How graduates are utilised in the region.
- The factors affecting graduates and employers' choices.
- What could be done in future to attract, retain and utilise graduates better in the workforce.