News Talks podcast: How is ‘employability’ reshaping UK degrees?

Universities are working ever more closely with business and industry to shape degrees in the UK, in order to meet skills needs and boost graduate employability.

This week on News Talks, we discuss the different ways in which this can manifest in degree programmes, from co-designed courses to work placements, and examine how far such work-integrated learning can go towards addressing key challenges such as rising graduate unemployment and growing questions over the value of a degree.

Campus editor Miranda Prynne is joined by THE reporter Juliette Rowsell to weigh up the potential pros and cons of proposals to get all UK undergraduates completing work placements as part of their courses and draw lessons from universities that have placed such work experience at the core of their offering.

They discuss what is driving this trend towards more career-focused degrees and how it might fit into the new Labour government agenda for devolution and for elevating vocational and technical training.