Industry Consultation / Who

Talk to the people who did not hire your graduates

They hold the information the supportive ones do not.

The employers on an advisory committee are, by selection, favourably disposed. They took graduates, they had a reasonable experience, and they agreed to give time. Their view is worth having and it is systematically biased toward the course working.

The employers who considered your graduates and hired somebody else, or who took one and did not come back, know precisely what was wrong. That information is not available anywhere else and it requires asking somebody who has no reason to be helpful, which is why it almost never happens.

The approach that works is narrow and honest: we would like ten minutes to understand why our graduates were not the right fit, and we are not selling anything. A useful proportion of people will answer that, particularly if the question is specific.

The same logic applies to former students. Graduates a year into work know what the course did not prepare them for, in specific terms, and they are easy to reach and rarely asked once they have left.

There is a further group with unusually good information, which is the recruiters and labour hire firms placing people in the field. They see many employers, know precisely which qualifications and attributes are asked for, and have no stake in flattering anybody's curriculum. They are rarely approached and are usually willing to talk.