Scottish students have been known to fare better than the English when it comes to unemployment rates, with the highest rate of graduate employment in the UK (according to the Scottish Youth Employment Minister Angela Constance). More than 90% of Scottish students graduating in 2010-11 went onto employment or further study, with graduates from Scottish universities also reporting the highest average starting salary in the UK at £21,000.Yet Scottish university graduates have met difficulty when Jobcentre staff members in Scotland have told them to 'dumb down' their CVs to find work. The Jobcentre staff have claimed that their qualifications 'actually deterred employers' and advised them to 'leave degrees off their CVs altogether to secure "survival jobs"', The Telegraph reports. One 25-year-old law graduate told the CAS (Citizens Advice Scotland): 'At the [Jobcentre] group meetings we were encouraged to leave any degree off the CV to help us find more plentiful unskilled work. Nobody would employ me as a cleaner if I had a degree'. It is no wonder that the CAS has revealed that two-thirds of students questioned said they found the Jobcentre unhelpful in finding work for them and only a shockingly low 1% said it was helpful in finding graduate-level work. It is outrageous for places like the Scottish Jobcentre to make graduates feel like their qualifications and degrees are deterrents to possible future employers. As CAS chief executive Margaret Lynch states: 'Having been told a degree was the key to a successful and prosperous life, and having worked hard and sacrificed a lot to get one, many have become entrenched instead in a culture of unemployment or low wages and short-term contracts'. Graduates have been led to question whether their degree was worth the time, money and effort in their hopeless state of unemployment.NUS Scotland president Robin Parker has made a statement on the back of this, claiming: 'Getting a degree remains a huge advantage for getting a job and still very worthwhile more generally. It's those without qualifications or with low-level qualifications that will be worst off in this unemployment crisis'.
Kate, GRB Journalist
