As already mentioned, different types of organisation had differing skills priorities and views on the skills shown by new postgraduates. The main categories that emerged from the analysis were:
! SMEs
! large companies
! research based organisations, and
! academics.
Of these groups, only the academic category was exclusive, as there were SME research based organisations and large research based organisations.
3.3.1 Skills requirements of SMEs
SMEs (small and medium sized establishments) are defined as establishments with fewer than 250 employees and are not a subsidiary of a larger organisation. However, many of the organisations that we interviewed had fewer than 25 employees.
These very small firms are often university spin-offs and contain a high proportion of postgraduates. So despite their size they can account for a large proportion of the postgraduates recruited annually.
Most of these SMEs were involved in developing a new product or process, but some were involved in marketing products, while others offered consultancy or venture capital to other physics based companies. The size of these organisations, often without defined career structures, meant that less emphasis was put on team building and managing skills. Therefore, there was less emphasis on ‘team working’, ‘motivation and enthusiasm’,
‘managing own development’ and ‘leadership’. However, as these were often start-up companies there was greater emphasis on the commercial skills such as ‘communication’, ‘interpersonal skills’,
‘business awareness’ and ‘planning and organisation’. Despite these differences, the SMEs put as much emphasis as other organisations on the core doctoral level skill of ‘problem solving’.
Figure 3.2: Percentage of SME interviewees mentioning specific skills
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
The SMEs tend to require their technical staff to be very flexible and this appears to be a particular feature of physics postgraduates. Their training involves complex mathematics and often specific high-technology equipment that needs customised software. This often allows physicists to operate in a wide range of roles. The following comment from a company of 25 with six physics PhDs, illustrates this point:
‘We do employ a lot of PhDs, but the extra qualification is not really necessary. It shows a level of attainment and the ability to problem solve, but it isn’t really necessary for this job in this company. This is because the company is so small you have to be very flexible and there are so many things to do — not all of them are particularly physics orientated.’
3.3.2 Skills requirements of large companies
Large companies put greater emphasis on ‘team working’ and
‘computer literacy’ than average, and less on ‘initiative/
proactivity’ and ‘business awareness’. These organisations are much more likely to use their physics postgraduate recruits as part of large multi-functional teams. They are also much more likely to report that they believe they can teach new recruits business skills, so they put less emphasis on this in selection. The lower score on ‘initiative/proactivity’ may indicate a need for people to fit into large organisations and not rock the boat.
Despite the importance attached to team working, many large employers are unsure whether the postgraduate course is the
Figure 3.3: Percentage of large companies interviewees mentioning specific skills
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Source: IES/EPSRC survey of postgraduate physics employers
environment within which to teach it. For example, here are the comments of one large employer:
‘I don’t think you can teach teamwork. When they do a university course they are among their peers from the same discipline. Teamwork is about working together with people who are from other disciplines and that includes non-technical people like people in sales and marketing.’
3.3.3 Skills requirements for research
Research based organisations or ‘Technical and Consulting Services’ (TCS) are the traditional type of employer of postgraduate physicists. It is therefore worthwhile separating out this group for analysis. Surprisingly, as a whole this group puts less emphasis on problem solving. In many ways, it would be expected that these organisations would put more emphasis on this, but it appears that the emphasis is more on communicating the solution to the problem. The size and maturity of companies appear to be the important factor. The small companies are more likely to have a novel idea or problem they are addressing with the emphasis on problem solving. The larger or more mature companies are more likely to be applying existing knowledge, and here communication especially with other functions within the organisation and with clients become more important.
3.3.4 Skills requirements of academics
Perhaps the most interesting pattern of skill requirements comes from the academics. Admittedly, as the emphasis was on non-Figure 3.4: Percentage of TCS interviewees mentioning specific skills
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Communication Problem solving Team working Motivation and enthusiasm Initiative/proactivity Flexibility and adaptability Time management Managing own development Interpersonal skills Business awareness Computer literacy Customer orientation Leadership Planning and organisation Numeracy Risk taking/entrepreneurship
academic employment, relatively few academics were interviewed.
However, some quite striking divergences from the pattern of important skills amongst commercial organisations can be seen.
Academics put far greater emphasis on ‘problem solving’,
‘motivation and enthusiasm’, ‘Initiative/proactivity’ and
‘managing own development’. At the same time no academics mentioned ‘communication’, ‘team working’, or ‘interpersonal skills’. In many ways, the skills that are considered important are a critique of the culture within academic departments. That managing one’s own development should figure so highly is perhaps a worrying sign, given the existence of the concordat on researchers’ careers where the departments are meant to take greater responsibility. It is also revealing that the two important areas where employers complain that postgraduates are inadequate (‘communication’ and ‘team working) do not feature on the academics’ agenda.
Figure 3.5: Percentage of academic interviewees mentioning specific skills
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Communication Problem solving Team working Motivation and enthusiasm Initiative/proactivity Flexibility and adaptability Time management Managing own development Interpersonal skills Business awareness Computer literacy Customer orientation Leadership Planning and organisation Numeracy Risk taking/entrepreneurship
Source: IES/EPSRC survey of postgraduate physics employers