“My regimen was straightforward, boring, and anxiety-inducing. I used to get up early, clean, get ready for my part-time work, and then have breakfast while looking through LinkedIn for full-time employment options. My lunch breaks were spent doing additional job searching, even though my part-time work kept me occupied during the day. I used to cook for the evening and the next morning after returning home, as well as finish the rest of my responsibilities. Remembering her final three months in the UK, Nisha Arora* writes, “And guess what the remainder of my evening and night was about? Applying for full-time jobs that I discovered while scrolling through LinkedIn.
2019 saw the graduation of Nisha (name changed), who studied for a master’s in English literature in the UK. Her ambition of studying and settling down in the UK has turned into a nightmare when she discovers how difficult it is to get a job there. She chuckles, “I used to joke that trying to get a job in the UK would cause me anguish for the rest of my life. Several other Indian students who were pursuing degrees in the UK had to return home, like Nisha. They struggle to get a full-time work in the UK despite having spent over £10,000 on a Masters degree or more on an undergraduate degree.
Three out of ten graduates, according to information gathered by the Office for Students (OfS), struggle to find highly specialised employment. The UK government has also given the OfS instructions to make sure that programmes that don’t turn students into jobs are subject to harsher regulations.
Poor Education Results In Unemployment :
Prime Minister of the UK Rishi Sunak recently brought this to light as well. “Some of the top institutions in the world are located in the UK, and earning a degree may be quite gratifying. But too many young people are being sold a false fantasy and wind up doing a subpar course at the expense of the taxpayers with no guarantee of a respectable job at the end of it, he claimed. Additionally, Sunak has noted that too many students are being requested to sign up for foundation year, an extra year of study that serves as a path of transition for degrees with certain admission criteria. The maximum tuition for foundation year courses should be cut from £9,250 to £5,760 (about Rs. 6 lakh), according to a UK government recommendation.
“Young people from India are being sold fantasies of having a high employability in our nation, but those illusions simply do not exist anymore. According to Tripti Maheshwari, director and co-founder of Student Circus, a job search portal for international students in the UK, and a UK graduate, “we work with the majority of UK higher educational institutions to provide students with employability support, so it is not the quality of education that is preventing them from accessing gainful employment.”
“Even though the UK is known for being a sports-fanatic country,” explains Shrey Upadhyay, who earned his MSc in Business Management in Sport from De Montfort University, Leicester.
“I was an intern with a small sports coaching business in the UK, and while my employer appreciated my work, they were unable to give me a full-time position because they lack sponsorship rights. The only answer we could come up with was for me to work for them from India as a consultant,” he continued.
Students begin looking for employment as they near the finish of their degree. However, getting rejection emails is becoming typical. “I had a six-month extension visa, and my course was 18 months long. I submitted applications for over 200 positions, but I just received the normal automated response. It really affected me, and I started to wonder what I was doing wrong, but then a friend in HR told me that the companies weren’t hiring people for whom they needed to sponsor visas,” recalls Siddhi Dolas, who went on to earn an MA in Fashion Media Production, Communication and Media Studies from the London College of Fashion, University of Arts London.
Asserting Dolas’ assertion, Nisha* said, “I was looking for maybe 25–30 jobs based in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other areas. Imagine receiving rejections from several time zones, then. We are sorry to tell you was the first thing I read when I got up, and I did so again before bed.
It’s “light at the end of the tunnel.”
Some kids, nevertheless, have already begun to glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel. Akshat Vashistha of Jaipur received two offers after submitting almost 500 applications to employers and paying about Rs 45 lakh for a master’s degree in financial analysis and fund management from the University of Exeter. My education ends on September 1, and after applying to roughly 500 jobs and receiving rejection letters from the majority of them, I have received offers from two companies: Invesco, an investment management business, and JLL.
He said, “The process has been challenging since one starts to lose faith after getting so many rejections. In addition, the employment market is not very good because of the economic downturn. “I used to submit job applications on Indeed and LinkedIn. I occasionally got responses, but the most of the time I got nothing. Even if you receive an interview call, there are numerous rounds: a recorded interview, a team interview, a technical interview, a team interview with HR present, and then the call letter and offer. But if you keep trying, I think you’ll succeed in the end,” Akshat remarked.
Technical jargon: the demise of the aspirations of foreign pupils
Some people say that technical language and others say cost-cutting are the main factors that deter firms from recruiting overseas students. Speaking from personal experience, Siddhi noted that the fact that “it was right after COVID-19 and the economy was still recovering” caused many businesses to focus on cost-cutting and was one of the reasons she was unable to find employment in the UK. “I believe that one main reason why firms are hesitant to hire overseas students as full-time employees is that they believe the paperwork is too difficult. But in actuality, it’s not all that difficult. So the only thing standing in the way of this procedure, according to Shrey, is the technical language.
“One of the major gaps we notice in the employability environment for foreign students is the lack of employer understanding surrounding the ways they may collaborate with international graduates. For instance, the Graduate Route was created so that firms could work with overseas talent without having to sponsor them for two to three years. However, HEPI found that fewer than 3% of employers really used the approach. In contrast to the fact that there is a skills shortage in some industries, overseas graduates are having trouble integrating into the workforce, according to Tripti.
Students should search the public domain for the essential skills shortage list posted by the UK government, according to Suneet Singh Kochar, co-founder and CEO of Fateh Education. Instead of adhering to past patterns, Kochar recommended pupils to undertake their study and take into account current events. Because of the urgent skills shortage, there are many open vacancies. You still have to battle for them, but there are still chances. Examine the futuristic courses, advises the students. The globe, the UK, and India should all be observed in order to determine the direction of the economy, the future of the nation, and the nature of the demand. According to him, more AI specialists would be required if demand for AI increased.
Is a degree from the UK worthwhile?
What’s intriguing is that many of these students said that the experience was worth the money when asked whether they would do it again. “The knowledge I received and the experiences I had more than compensated for the cost of the course’s tuition. I have my reservations if I only consider the financial and employment aspects, but I wouldn’t argue that it wasn’t justified in any way, Shrey remarked.
Others, like Akshat and Siddhi, reflected warmly on their time spent in the UK and concurred that the experience they gained there was something they would not have obtained in India. It enables independence. You gain a worldwide perspective by interacting with individuals of other nationalities, and studying abroad, of course, opens you a world of career and personal prospects. The exposure you receive here is not something you would receive anywhere, according to Akshat.
The six month extension around Covid was a waste as I was trapped in the house the entire time and it wasn’t any good, Rittika Mittal, who earned her LLM in the UK, disagreed with others and claimed the money she spent on her degree didn’t seem to be worth it as “what I got was just exposure.”
*As reported in Times of India Name changed on request*
