In the old days the university life was easier, ahd you didn't need to worry about
finding a job. You spent your time chatting late into the night with new-found
friends in coffee bars. You played your heart out on the football pitches and
cricket fields, or paraded across the stage as a leading light of the university
dramatic society. Whatever you interest, university life catered for it. And you would
usually keep up with the work, too, by doing the required reading and dash off
the week's essay at the last minute. The only thing you didn't find time for was
thinking about what came afterwards, at the end of the three exciting years. But you
didn't need to, because whatever you chosen career, the companies were all lining
up to offer you a job.
That was what it was like in the old days as a university students in the U.K. But
things had changed. A study Britain's major multinational companies reveals that
even with a top degree, graduates can't no longer walk into the top jobs. The
number of universities has inceased by 40 percent in the last two decades, and
over 50 percent of young perple go on to high education. So with an abundance
of graduates, a good degree has become vital in the search for a job. Conpetition
is tough, and students today spending more time than ever preparing for the
final exam, or working to pay off debts.
But that's just the problem. In the opinions of managers from more than 200
Brithsh companies, students are spending more time studying, or worrying about
making ends meet. Instead, they should find time to join clubs and aquire basic
skills related to teamworks and making presentations. The managers also say that
they are prepared to leave jobs unfilled ratheer than appoint graduates without
the necessary skills to get ahead of the grobal market.
But what can done about the problem? The solution, the managers belive, is to
include social skills into degree course; and some universities are taking the
advice. At the university of Sounthampton, for example, history students need to
do a 12-week project--frequently related to the local context--working in the
teams of six or seven. This include making a presentation, writing a group tesis,
and carrying out a public service. This sevice might invole teaching schoolchildren
or making a radio programme about a topic.
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