When young people are choosing what subject to study at university, most of them hope they will find a great job upon graduation. In reality many fresh graduates fail to find work in their field and some are even forced to take up below graduate level jobs. In my opinion, the root of this problem lies in the outdated higher education system that should be modernised.
Traditional university education does not prepare students for their first job for a number of reasons. One of them is that many programmes are too theoretical. It means that highly educated graduates lack simple skills required for employment, for example the knowledge of IT software. Employers, therefore, prefer candidates with hands-on experience. Another reason is that universities offer too many courses in popular fields, such as business and law, and do not recruit enough students for engineering and science programmes. As a result, the UK labour market has an oversupply of law graduates and a deficit of engineers.
A reform of higher education could alleviate many of the problems but would require joint efforts from universities and the government. If universities worked closer with employers, they could teach students with practical skills that companies look for. Meanwhile, the government could develop guidelines on how many students universities should recruit in each subject in accordance with the market demand.
In conclusion, a likely reason why many graduates cannot find a job in their field is because university education might not have provided them with the right skill set or an in-demand profession. I think that universities and the govenrment could improve the situation by updating the content of the programmes and limiting the number of students in each subject in line with the market demand.