Changing the Narrative for Recent HR Graduate
We are proud and excited to announce that in July 2022, PactLeadership launched its very first Volunteer HR Project program and after a few weeks of active recruiting and completing the onboarding process, we are glad to kickstart the project. The purpose of this volunteer HR project is mainly to bridge the gap identified through research, i.e. the lack of HR work experience that newly qualified/certified HR graduates do not have.
In addition, to provide ongoing HR projects to newly qualified HR professionals equipping them with practical workplace scenarios to apply their HR knowledge and in exchange gain experience, HR soft skills & expertise needed in paid HR roles. According to (NACE Job Outlook 2017) 91% of employers prefer their candidates to have work experience, and 65% of them prefer their candidates to have relevant work experience. The project is a response to the frustration and pain seen and expressed by many newly qualified and certified HR graduates. Who after paying a lot of money in student loans for university/ college study. A four-part article shared by SHRM (see the link to references in the footnote), indicates that students/college grads lack both soft and hard skills required to carry out work effectively in the workplace. According to the interview response of Eric Frazer, a doctor of psychology who teaches at the Yale School of Medicine. He stated that in his conversations with Millennial and Generation Z students in college and recent graduates, "I hear that the institutions put a real emphasis on maintaining academic rigor and the traditional college experience, but they're lagging in the application of that knowledge," Unfortunately, this is the reality of many graduates that are being churned out in thousands from university with many of them lacking the necessary skills for the workplace. These students step into the job market with the stark truth that they are in competition with candidates who don’t necessarily have the advanced HR qualifications that they have. And you find a situation where an HR candidate with a Bachelors' & Master's degree, who based on what he or she is taught in graduate school is meant to apply to strategic roles to influence the people strategies in organizations. But, sadly, the opposite is the reality as many HR graduates realize that the dilemma they are confronted with, is to have had some sort of prior HR experience since this gives greater leverage over qualification. And, sadly, these graduates are left to apply for low-level, & low-income paying admin roles that do not require advanced qualifications. And graduates are ‘schooled’ by those ahead, they’re told “this is the path to kickstart your HR career The response of highly qualified candidates who applied to this volunteer HR support project role within hours of posting on LinkedIn was astonishing. In less than 15 days, 30 applications had been submitted. This candidate statistics is a pointer that something needs to be done especially by Colleges that offer these highly expensive professional degrees. PactLeadershipHR is excited to have launched this HR project and be part of those changing the narratives for certified HR graduates/professionals and equipping them with relevant work and HR hard and soft skills, productivity masterclass training and HR foundation building blocks that are pertinent to the advancement of their HR career We are therefore glad to welcome our new Cohort 1 (recent MSC and BA graduates) who have successfully met the project criteria, we look forward to many more excellence-driven and experienced HR cohorts that this volunteer program will produce in the future. And we have no doubt that at the end of their 16 weeks HR project, our new cohort of volunteers would have gained new HR skills & work experience in the area of HR recruitment.
References:
https://zety.com/blog/hr-statistics
