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Working for yourself (Winter 08/09)

Working for yourself

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Summary

Judith Peel, Senior Careers Adviser at Sheffield Hallam University, reports on the latest graduates in self-employment figures from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE)1.'

Universities are now called upon to play a key role in nurturing entrepreneurial skills in all graduates as well as ensuring that those who wish to start their own business are equipped to do so

Here Be Dragons? Enterprising Graduates in the Humanities2

Entrepreneurial capability is deemed appropriate to success in any employment context and initiatives in curriculum development and wider teaching and learning experiences aim not only to encourage entrepreneurial and creative attitudes, but also to develop those skills such as initiative, flexibility, leadership, problem solving, creativity, personal effectiveness and communication which are critical to success in any employment.

Pupils and students already introduced at school or college to initiatives such as 'Make your Mark' and annual involvement with Enterprise Week, will already have had some exposure to entrepreneurship. Research shows that, although such initiatives are in their infancy (Enterprise Week, for example, has only been running since 2004), young people are motivated to become self employed at some stage in their lives, thus adding viability to self employment being a potential career option3.

In March 2008, the Government White Paper, Enterprise: Unlocking the UK’s Talent4, announced in its new Enterprise Strategy how it will encourage further business start up and growth. Included in the numerous initiatives relating to the national perspective, considerable emphasis continues to be placed on support, experience and encouragement for young people. Recognising that 'Unlocking our nation's talent requires both broad enterprise knowledge and the specific skills to enable people to turn that knowledge into successful businesses’, a new national Enterprise Academy for the 16-19 age group - an initiative with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills - is to be launched and driven by entrepreneur Peter Jones.

For students in higher education, it is already the case that provision is evident in many higher education institutions via funded initiatives to encourage business start up and small business growth. Students and graduates from all disciplines who are interested in gaining insight, related skills or 'setting up' to work for themselves should seek out events, workshops, resources, specialist advice and even funding and incubation facilities available at their institution. Student Placements for Entrepreneurs in EDucation (SPEED, http://www.speedproject.ac.uk/) is one such initiative available in a growing number of institutions. Regional and national networks of provision also exist for students to take part or compete in, such as the Flying Start programme run by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) specifically for students and graduates (http://www.ncge.com/home.php). The White Paper previously referred to also announced the extension of the role of the NCGE, who have been tasked 'to inspire an enterprising approach among students and graduates alike, providing them with the quality enterprise and entrepreneurship education that will enable them to compete and succeed in a global environment'.

The NCGE will continue building and expanding networks, such as those recently forged with the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) with representative worldwide experts, in the production of a framework and report aimed primarily at higher education5.

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Graduates in self-employment

Self-employed graduates most commonly are working for themselves, setting up a business or utilising their skills to freelance. It should be recognised that data from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, collected six months after graduation and which forms the basis of the analysis reported below, has limitations in that six months is a very short period of time to have made the transition from university to becoming self employed.

The latest DLHE survey of 2007 graduates reveals that, six months after graduation:

  • 4,930 (3.3%) of the 151,275 UK-domiciled first degree graduates in employment were self employed or working freelance.
  • Amongst first degree self-employed graduates, 54.9% were males and 45.1% were females. Self-employed males accounted for 4.3% of all male first degree employed graduates compared with 2.5% for females.
  • Graduates from ethnic minorities were, on the whole, less likely than White graduates to be self-employed; 2.8% of these graduates in employment were self employed or freelancing, compared with 3.3% of White graduates.
  • A quarter (26.2%) of graduates in self-employment were based in London, followed by 12.5% in the South East and 8.7% in the North West. On the other hand, only 2.6% of self-employed graduates worked in the North East.
  • Although considerably lower in numbers, the foundation degree and HND routes of study showed slightly higher percentages of self employed engagement than the 3.3% figure for first degree graduates. Those responding in this category from foundation degrees showed 4.2% of those in employment to be self employed with HND almost the same at 4.3%. At HND level, the percentage of males in self-employment, at 4.4%, was almost the same as for females, at 4.2%, whilst at foundation degree level, the percentage of males in self-employment, at 6.3%, was double that for females, at 3.2%.

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Subjects of study

Table 1 shows the subject areas with the highest numbers of graduates in self-employment. Design studies accounted for 15.3% of the total number of self-employed graduates from 2007. This was followed by music (7.6%) and drama (6.5%).

Table 1. Subjects with highest numbers of graduates in self-employment
Subject AreaSelf-employed (as percentage of all graduates in self-employment)
Design Studies15.3 %
Music7.6 %
Drama6.5 %
Fine Art5.5%
Cinematics and Photography4.6 %
Computer Science3.9 %
Complementary Medicine3.5%
Media Studies3.2%
Business Studies2.9 %
Sports Sciences2.6 %
English Studies2.4 %
Psychology2.1 %
Other Subjects39.9 %
All Subjects100 %
Source: DLHE 2006/07

Looking at the number of self-employed within each subject area, over one third (36.5%) of complementary medicine graduates in employment six months after graduation were self-employed. Other subjects with high percentages of self employed graduates typically include music (19.3%), dance (14.9%) and fine art (14.4%).

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Industry sectors and types of work

Recreational, cultural and sporting activities accounted for more than a third (34.2%) of self-employed graduates working in the UK in 2007. These include the artistic, media and 'creative' sectors which traditionally occupy self employed roles and continue to do so with the growth in freelancing activity. This was followed by other business activities (14.1%), health and social work (9.8%), education (7.1%) and computer and related activities (5.8%).

Using the graduate job classifications system developed by Elias and Purcell for the Seven Years On project6, self employed graduates were twice as likely as employed graduates as a whole to be in 'graduate roles', and also more likely to be engaged in modern and niche graduate occupations.

Evidence in this survey clearly shows that the 'creative' areas of art, design and media continue to lead the field in terms of those working for themselves or setting up a business. Other groups are considered under-represented7, so it may be that the outcomes of these entrepreneurial education initiatives, awareness of increasing global markets including electronic delivery of services and products, along with profile raising television programmes such as Dragons' Den, will encourage many 'other discipline' graduates to consider and explore self employment as a careers option.

A vast array of resources exist to create awareness, inform and support self employment. These may be provided by specialist business start up services and initiatives targeting identified groups such as women, ethnic minorities, science and engineering, as well as regional initiatives and growth of 'social enterprise' in the UK8. Many of these can be found in university careers services, who may also offer advice and support on self employment.

1. This article first appeared in What Do Graduates Do?, HECSU/AGCAS/UCAS, November 2008. The PDF can be downloaded from http://www.hecsu.ac.uk/hecsu.rd/research_reports_290.htm

2. Here be Dragons? Enterprising Graduates in the Humanities. Corucher et al, Sept 2007. A Higher Education Academy report published by the Languages Linguistics Area Studies (LLAS).

3. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Global Report (2007). http://www.gemconsortium.org

4. Enterprise: Unlocking the UK’s Talent, Government White Paper, March 2008.

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/E/3/bud08_enterprise_524.pdf

5. Developing Entrepreneurial Graduates - Putting entrepreneurship at the centre of higher education. Report by CIHE, NESTA, NCGE. Sept 2008.

6. SOC (HE): A classification of occupations for studying the graduate labour market, Researching Graduate Careers Seven Years On research paper no.6, Peter Elias and Kate Purcell, March 2004. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/completed/7yrs2/rp6.pdf

7 .Understanding the Factors Influencing Graduate Entrepreneurship, Francis J Greene and George Saridakis, NCGE research report March 2007. http://www.ncge.com

8. According to the Cabinet Office of the Third Sector (http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector),

'social enterprises are businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners'