The CBI commissioned VT Research (now Babcock Research) to undertake qualitative work to explore employability skills issues with recent graduates working within large blue-chip companies, to contribute to the CBI’s high profile Stronger Together: Businesses and Universities in Turbulent Times – A report from the CBI Higher Education Task Force’.

http://highereducation.cbi.org.uk/uploaded/CBI_HE_taskforce_report.pdf

The CBI Higher Education Taskforce aimed to improve collaboration between the Higher Education sector, business and government to give students the best chance of success, fully utilise the capabilities of the HE sector to equip the workforce and to enable partnerships between businesses and HE to succeed. The importance of the ‘student voice’ was recognised, and a retrospective view was felt to be most informative (i.e. graduates approximately one year into employment).

Focus groups provided perfect fora for confident, eloquent graduates to discuss employability skills issues. Within a group situation, there was scope for exchange of views and experiences, and debate of areas of difference. Recruiting participants from recent graduate intakes of a wide range of CBI partner organisations meant that participants did not know each other, therefore were largely unconcerned about revealing their views and previous experiences. A topic guide was designed based on our succinct literature review of employability issues and policy, and stimulus materials were used for the groups to rank employability skills.

Focus group exploration of previous personal experience and opinions is one of the most common and flexible forms of qualitative research, allowing in-depth exploration of participants’ views and experiences. A wide range of recruitment techniques and purposive sampling schemes can be used to arrange groups of c.8-15 individuals with specific characteristics to debate issues. The relatively small numbers of people required makes co-ordination manageable, and provides participants with a balance between the comfort of being part of a group, and having the opportunity to vocalise opinions.

The common link between participants in these focus groups was their recent graduation and employment by blue-chip companies, but various differences such as industrial sector, job role, and previous university established discussion stimulus. Our researchers chaired discussions, based on topic guides and stimulus materials designed for the client, ensuring that everyone participated, all pertinent employability issues were covered and that difficult topics were explored in depth.

Our report provided qualitative data to inform the CBI’s high profile ‘Stronger Together’ report. Graduates’ own words are included in this important policy report, and findings from the focus groups, alongside other research conducted by the CBI, informed recommendations and business commitments in the report, especially relating to the importance of work experience, internships and the development of employability skills for students.