PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Writing recently in the Times, Lord Wharton - the chairman of the Office for Students which regulates higher education in England - suggested that there was a need to protect students from “poor courses which offer few real benefits”.  Whilst not naming university creative degrees as the target of this campaign, it is clear that it is these courses that, excuse the pun, are firmly in the spotlight when it comes to this dangerous new policy of having politicians choose which degrees students should take. However, you have to wonder about whether those criticising these courses have ever considered the fact that the creative industries is one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors, generating over £116 billion for the economy and employing 2.1 million people.  They must also have little knowledge regarding the success of Apple, currently the most valuable company in the world at £260 billion, which is a result of the way it has combined technology with art with British designer Sir...

  With employment at a record high of nearly 33 million in the UK, competition for jobs amongst graduates has increased significantly.  Whilst the number of graduate vacancies was the same as the number of available graduates in the workplace twenty years ago, it has been estimated that now there are over eighty applicants per job vacancy. As a result, employers will take it as a given that graduates will have the technical qualifications necessary for a job position as an engineer, lawyer, nurse, accountant or social worker. Instead, they are looking for applicants who also have the range of transferable softer skills that make them ready for the workplace from day one. A recent study by the publishers Pearson suggests that these employability skills are becoming more important although only 13 per cent of human resource (HR) managers stated that their graduates were fully prepared for employment with areas such as leadership, negotiation and strategy being missing.  Wit...

As this column discussed last week, access to skills is one of the key concerns of many employers in the UK when it comes to improving the future effectiveness of their businesses. For example, the CBI has noted that low levels of skills is one of the biggest perceived threats to the competitiveness of the UK economy whilst the Institute of Directors has stated that in a post Brexit World, access to skills will be vital to helping achieve the future prosperity of the nation. Nowhere is the development of work-related skills more important than within our education system and yet employers often complain that schools are not preparing their pupils for the world of work and have little contact with the businesses in their area. To fill this gap, the serial entrepreneur and investor Sherry Couto decided to establish a new educational charity that would be dedicated to improving the life chances and employability of young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. ...

As discussed in this column back in October, Wales has become a member of the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP) , which is being led by one of the top universities in the World, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA. But why would a group from Wales and a range of other countries want to work with academics to develop a more enterprising approach to economic development? Part of the answer lies in a report that examines the economic impact of MIT’s alumni. It shows that the university’s graduates launched 30,200 active companies, employing roughly 4.6 million people and currently generating annual revenues of around £1.3 trillion. In fact, if MIT was a country, it would be the ninth most successful in the world between Russia and India. But the report also shows that this trend is accelerating with more and more graduates from MIT (and who could probably secure a job in any organisation in the World) taking the leap to start their ow...

As many studies have shown, one of the most important factors in developing a more entrepreneurial economy is the integration of enterprise into the curriculum of schools, colleges and universities. One of the best examples of how this has worked well internationally is to be found in Denmark where, during the last decade, the Danish government has developed a range of initiatives to strengthen entrepreneurship education across the country. As a result, entrepreneurship is in the process of being fully integrated into teaching in the Danish education system with positive results in a number of areas. For example, pupils who have participated in entrepreneurship education in Denmark have higher ambitions for jobs and education than non-participants, and entrepreneurship education has a positive effect on pupils’ intentions to start up their own business. In addition, more pupils are leaders and initiators of spare time activities after they have received entrepreneurship educ...

Last week saw the beginning of the summer holidays for thousands of children across Wales. But with the workforce changing considerably over the last twenty years and both parents working, this six-week break to become a large financial burden on hard-pressed families. In fact, a recent survey showed that parents will spend an average of £1200, to keep their youngsters entertained during the six week break. This not only includes the cost of day trips during the holidays but also includes additional childcare whilst parents are working. In fact, this amount would be higher if nearly two thirds of parents did not turn to grandparents or friends for help. And whilst the papers are full of “free things to do with your kids” articles, the inevitability is that most families will end up paying for activities over the next few weeks. Sensing a commercial opportunity, various summer camp type activities have sprung up over the last few years in the UK. Following the US model, where ...