JULY is the month of graduations at our universities. We are cultivating some extraordinarily innovative, creative individuals across all sectors.
Keeping them in the region as they begin their careers and become established will undoubtedly help to improve the prospects for the North East economy.
In my business school we incorporate practice-based management as an important part of undergraduate degree programmes. The effect of first-hand, practical experience of business opens opportunities for the students and increases their understanding of the pace and priorities of working life.
From September we will also offer employability modules for all business and management students. These directly address the so-called ‘missing link’ between graduate success and employability.
When you work in a student-centred region like the North East, with five large universities, it is easy to forget that each student is producing something new and fresh as part of their studies.
If any of you visited the region’s student graduate shows you will have seen how they all fizz with originality, skill and ideas. We live in a genuinely creative region. To keep that innovative streak alive we need to keep the best graduates here, and engage the next generation in the excitement of learning skills old and new.
In many ways I feel that it’s time to go back to the future, to a time when local companies would visit campuses before student graduation to interview and employ the best as interns and graduate trainees. The tradition is retained by larger national companies across the UK and US, but not by North East companies at North East universities.
Research has shown that there is a clear connection between the ability of a city to attract talented workers and its rate of growth of high technology employment. The cities, regions and nations that will thrive in the 21st Century are those that are able to attract and retain creative business talent. Innovative thinking creates momentum in all sectors – from the newest technologies to the most traditional industries.
The region’s economic strength relies on unlocking the potential of its talented people from school years to post-retirement. Our business school graduates brim with the skills, energy and enthusiasm to deliver real impact.
What better way to shape tomorrow’s Sunderland than to have fresh graduates shape the future success of our organisations, industry and creativity?
Dr Sonal Minocha is associate dean, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Sunderland
