CANADIAN jobs guru Ron McGowan claims that the careers advice provided by Scotland's universities and further education colleges is failing today's generation of graduates because it is out of touch with the 21st century workplace.
Speaking ahead of a speech to the National Student Enterprise Conference, to be held in Glasgow on Wednesday, McGowan said: "Careers departments are stuck in the past and insulated from the real world.
"Providing every graduate with tangible help to find work in today's workplace has to be part of the educational process.
But currently it isn't."
He said: "First, the senior administrators at universities and colleges need to recognise there is a lack of current workplace experience among their faculties and careers counsellors - and they need to do something about it right now.
"Secondly there needs to be an enterprise centre in all 57 HE and FE colleges in Scotland.
These should be staffed by people who are currently working in today's workplace, who would come in as contractors and consultants. And each needs to be properly funded and high profile."
McGowan, author of How To Find Work In The 21st Century, has already received some encouragement from enterprise minister Jim Wallace and has met civil servant Mark Batho, head of lifelong learning at the Scottish Executive. He said: "Many careers departments have failed to notice that the 'hire me and take care of me' mentality is dead.
"Today's graduates need to be much more entrepreneurial and sales-orientated than graduates were in the past. They cannot afford just to wait around in the hope of being offered a job."
He said undergraduates need to be taught to prepare marketing plans for themselves earlier in their university careers.
But Lynda Ali, director of Edinburgh University's careers service, said: "We already spend a great deal of time talking to employers and visiting employers.
"The people within careers services do come with a wide range of work experience, but the provision of careers guidance is a professional job."
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