Graduate starts to scrape a living at the lowest level (5)
I believe the answer is:
basal
'at the lowest level' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'graduate starts to scrape a living' is the wordplay.
'graduate' becomes 'ba'.
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
'living' becomes 'l' (this might be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
The initial letter of 'scrape' is 's'.
'ba'+'s'+'a'+'l'='BASAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for basal that I've seen before include "Fundamental" , "forming a foundation" , "bottom layer perhaps" , "At the lowest level" .)