Economy needs workers not more graduates, say peers

THERE are too many biology and history graduates and not enough people with vocational skills joining the workforce, peers say in a critical report.

The House of Lords economic affairs committee has called for an overhaul of the “deeply unfair” higher and further education system.

The UK has a “skills mismatch” and “there are particular shortages of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills at technician level, but an oversupply in other areas, such as biological science graduates”, said the National Audit Office.

As a result, “the oversupply of some graduate-level skills, and the undersupply of technician-level skills, could result in graduates occupying technician-level roles for which they are overqualified and under-skilled”, says a report published today.

The problem has been caused by a student funding system that is “too heavily skewed” towards full-time degrees. The “unbalanced” system is therefore “not providing the skills employers in the UK need”, peers said, calling for its “immediate reform”.

Up to half of graduates do not have a graduate-level job, said the report, which cites estimates by the Chartered Institute for Professional Development and the Office for National Statistics.”

It published evidence from Birmingham-based businesses, which said: “There’s an oversupply of history graduates and an undersupply of ‘geeks’. There’s insufficient high quality technical people. We’re having to employ massive numbers of humanities graduates to do customer service jobs. ♦Graduates have been warned not to post “selfies” of themselves with their diplomas online in a bid to stop a surge in the trade of fake certificates. More than 20 universities now offer digital certificates that cannot be faked after forgeries rose by around 30 per cent last year, selling online for up to £220, according to The Times.