The days of universities being ivory towers catering solely to the pursuit of academic, arcane and abstract knowledge are fading into history. Now the focus is increasingly on the workplace and employability — even for students taking non-vocational subjects.

The CBI said last year that universities should be doing more to teach students the basics in communication, punctuality and other “soft skills”. Since then the recession, and a deflated graduate jobs market, have fuelled the demand for universities to teach professional skills.

One institution at the vanguard of doing so is Liverpool John Moores University, which claims that it places work-related learning and skills development “at the heart of the university experience”. It runs a programme called World of Work, which will be available to all interested students from the autumn. This is already helping to boost students’ career prospects by offering classes in subjects such as professional and business ethics, finance, entrepreneurship and negotiation skills.

The programme was devised with input from the CBI, Shell, Sony, and Marks and Spencer, and an impressive array of business leaders sit on an employer advisory board to guide curriculum development. Terry Dray, director of the university’s new graduate development centre, said it had “listened to employers saying a degree isn’t enough”.

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He added: “All students are now being offered work-related learning as part of their course. These include masterclasses and guest lectures, or demonstrations of leading technology.”

The programme identified eight graduate skills, and Professor Michael Brown, the Vice-Chancellor, has asked all academic departments to ensure that these are taught and assessed as part of every student’s course. They include analysis and problem solving, team working, verbal and written communication, and numerical reasoning. The World of Work course aims to teach students to be self-aware, organised, and how to make things happen. Employers come to the university to conduct mock interviews. Its pilot has already helped 200 students.

Susan Anderson, the CBI’s head of education, said last year that more than a fifth of employers were dissatisfied with graduates’ basic skills, including communication and self-management. But a report that it published praised Liverpool John Moores and several other universities for their success in preparing students for employment.

These included Glasgow Caledonian University. It runs a project called Real WoRLD — Realising Work-Related Learning Diffusion. It aims to “integrate the spheres of employment and higher education” by working with employers to identify their needs.

Like Liverpool John Moores, it embeds work-related learning within the university’s academic courses, and has also set up a mentoring programme linking alumni and students. Sabine McKinnon, who manages the project, says on the university’s website: “We are responding to the market by developing students as independent learners who will be competent and confident in the workplace.”

The University of Hertfordshire also places a strong emphasis on the workplace, and won praise from the CBI.

In the CBI’s report, a spokesman for the university said: “Our employer groups inform the curriculum content, so that employability is built into the student’s time here. Employers and alumni teach within our curriculum and deliver extra sessions too. We offer career development support to Hertfordshire graduates throughout their working life, and that means our alumni help teach our students the necessary transferable skills and tell them why this agenda matters.”

CASE STUDY

Michael Stringfellow, 29, studied nautical sciences at Liverpool John Moores University and Fleetwood Nautical Campus.

It taught him how to be a Merchant Navy officer, and how to prepare himself for employment.

Mr Stringfellow, who has just finished his final degree exams, will graduate in July. He is waiting to hear the result of recent job applications, and is full of praise for the World of Work course.

“The aim is to give you something better than a degree, so you can get a job at the end of it,” he says. “It’s quite difficult out there at the moment.”

Mr Stringfellow formerly worked in a law firm accounts department, and decided to retrain. However he is unusual in not wanting to travel extensively after qualifying as a Merchant Navy officer.

“Normally you go to sea for the rest of your life,” he says. “The problem for me was I wanted to stay ashore, and the industry prefers experienced captains to fresh-out-of-college people.

“I needed to be distinctive compared with everyone else, and I felt World of Work gave me that. Normally I would have to do five or six years at sea before I could get a good job in the industry ashore.

“It taught me skills such as emotional intelligence, communication, and project management, and we practised interviews. They also spent weeks with me, working on my personal statement.”

Mr Stringfellow, who lives near Blackpool, has applied to become a lecturer at the nautical college where he studied, and for a job at a third party management company.

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