{"text":[[{"start":7.855,"text":"British universities have pledged to give all undergraduates work experience within a decade, as higher education seeks to address employer concerns about the work readiness of young people and a growing focus on technical skills."}],[{"start":21.1,"text":"More than 1mn students a year will ultimately be offered workplace experience ranging from short spells of job shadowing to year-long industry placements, the umbrella body Universities UK said on Thursday."}],[{"start":34.64,"text":"Students’ readiness for the world of work and the value of a degree have come under increasing scrutiny, with research finding recently that the financial return of a university education is one-third lower than previously estimated."}],[{"start":47.186,"text":"At the same time, ministers have increasingly focused on non-graduate technical education and dropped a target of sending half of young people to university while shifting political focus to the roughly 981,000 people aged between 16 and 24 who are not in education, employment or training."}],[{"start":66.82,"text":"UUK said the offer to students would cover half of undergraduates by 2030 and all those at British universities by 2035, working alongside the trade group the British Chambers of Commerce."}],[{"start":79.16,"text":"Professor Malcolm Press, UUK president, said students were increasingly concerned about securing a job and that helping them after graduation was now a “core part” of universities’ work."}],[{"start":89.673,"text":"Businesses were clear that universities should do “more to help students gain workplace experience” at a time when the economy was struggling and jobs were being reshaped by AI, Press added, predicting “peer pressure” among vice-chancellors would see more institutions focused on work experience."}],[{"start":107.798,"text":"The proposals raised questions over the capacity of employers and universities to deliver the pledge for students against a backdrop of existing government pressure for secondary schools to provide pupils with work experience, and limited apprenticeships and career apprenticeships currently available."}],[{"start":126.66,"text":"Professor Duncan Ivison, who leads the University of Manchester, which this year pledged to offer all students work experience, said such programmes would be “a big part of the future of the sector”."}],[{"start":136.14,"text":"“Students are telling us they want to look to put their learning into context,” he said. “They may be passionate about particle physics or medieval history, but we need to be able to translate those skills into a labour market that is transforming itself.”"}],[{"start":148.58,"text":"But Nick Hillman, head of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank, cautioned that two-thirds of students already worked to support themselves and called for greater clarity on the nature of work experience, whether it would be paid and how far it might displace academic work."}],[{"start":168.094,"text":"Students on non-technical degrees often receive little or no workplace preparation, leading to complaints from employers that graduates are unprepared for the world of work."}],[{"start":179.184,"text":"A poll of 500 companies by UUK found only one-third said that graduates had the skills they expected, with frequent complaints about punctuality, communication and resilience."}],[{"start":190.66,"text":"Shevaun Haviland, BCC director-general, said ensuring businesses had “better access to graduates with the right technical and practical skills” would be a “crucial part of unlocking economic growth”."}],[{"start":203.076,"text":"The plan also recommended that universities in Britain’s regions set up “one-stop shops” for local businesses to discuss employment opportunities, with small firms struggling at present to build “meaningful” relationships with higher education institutions."}],[{"start":217.415,"text":"Jonathan Black, head of the Careers Service at the University of Oxford, said more action was required as graduates increasingly struggled to find high-quality work but that scaling up would require additional resources."}],[{"start":230.9,"text":"“We need university work-related learning as soon as we possibly can,” he said."}],[{"start":240.82,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789035129_6261.mp3"}