HE Careers Services & Diversity (Winter 03)

Summary

This article is a brief review of the report HE Careers Services and Diversity: how careers advisory services can enhance the employability of graduates from non-traditional backgrounds. Key findings from the report include:

There is a strong case against careers services targeting particular groups. Alternative ways are often used to reach out to students in need of extra support.
Integrating career planning and employability into the curriculum is seen by careers staff and students as the most effective way of reaching students.
Local employer networks are seen as the most effective way of communicating information between students, careers advisers and employers.

Introduction

This article focuses on the report HE Careers Services & Diversity: how careers advisory services can enhance the employability of graduates from non-traditional backgrounds, produced jointly by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU), the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) and the Centre for Research into Quality (1). The report takes its lead from the Harris Report (2) which identified the relative under-use of careers services by students from non-traditional backgrounds including:

mature students;
those from lower socio-economic backgrounds;
first generation undergraduates;
students from ethnic minorities;
students with disabilities.

Research shows that the jobs that students get following graduation are affected by age, ethnicity and socio-economic background even after taking into account other factors such as status of university, subject studied and geographical region of place of study. Improving careers services is seen as part of a strategy to enhance the employability of students and the responsiveness of universities to the needs of the economy.

Methodology

The research involved semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 304 careers staff, support staff and students looking at what careers services can do to enhance the employability of graduates who enter university from non-traditional backgrounds.

The report examines seven key areas of career services support:

Targeting and monitoring
Collaboration
Information and communications technology (ICT)
Advertising
First year support
Employers
Funding

Targeting and monitoring

Directing activities or support to specific disadvantaged groups or targeting is problematic. Students with a disability and those from an ethnic minority background are more likely to be targeted by career services whilst first-generation and working class students are rarely aimed at. The visibility of certain groups of students comes into play here as first generation and working class students are more difficult to identify.

Some careers staff target particular departments with a high proportion of non traditional students through teaching a careers module. In many post-1992 higher education institutions however there is a strong case for careers services not targeting these students since they "are the norm, they are not the exception" according to a student support officer in the North West. Some students, particularly those with disabilities also resent being seen as different. One approach to targeting, while avoiding causing offence, is for careers staff to go to inductions. Careers services staff often attend these gatherings where up to 80% of students are in attendance. Such a large captive audience means that most students will be reached and as one head of careers service said, "if they realise they want a job I think then they'll come forward."

The report points out that if careers advice is to be targeted effectively, services should ensure that there is greater collaboration with other departments within the institution, in particular widening participation and outreach officers. Registries should be able to help departments with data protection issues and provide useful lists of individuals.

Collaboration

Careers staff and students alike believe that integrating career planning and employability in the curriculum is the most effective way of reaching students. Embedding careers advice into the curriculum means that not only does it impact on all students but it also means that specific targeting of non-traditional students is not required. As a head of student services said, "You need some kind of curriculum policy. You need a higher profile service if the careers service is going to deliver that sort of element, it needs to be higher profile and seen as a genuine part of the student experience and not as something that is bolt on." Enhancing collaboration between careers services, students societies and the National Union of Students (NUS) is also seen to be vital.

Students believe that lecturers are the best people to provide specific careers advice - an approach advocating better links between the careers service and departments. However there is hostility from some academics, as a senior careers adviser from the North East commented, "[Academics] don't really respond... A lot of the time they are more interested in the teaching of the subject rather than getting [their students] into jobs. Which is a bit unfortunate really because I think if they were more career-minded it would work to the students' advantage a lot more."

Information and communications technology (ICT)

Some careers services use emails to reach particular students. Whilst some students said that blanket emails get lost amongst the junk emails they receive, those who receive emails from names they recognise find the service useful. The research also considers the use of a managed learning environment (MLE) for targeting particular students. MLEs would use students' record infrastructure so that every time students log on to the university's network they would receive a message about the range of services which address their personal needs.

Advertising

Posters, flyers, emails and stands in fairs and student unions are some of the most common advertising tools used to increase students' awareness of careers services. There is no consensus amongst students as to which advertising method is the most effective. Whilst some students advocate the use of emails or posters, others feel entirely different. One student from the South East said, "E-mails can often be ignored if they are not from known sources - so perhaps subject heading needs to be made clear, or have the 'sender' shown as Careers, rather than an unknown individual." However, dyslexic and visually-impaired students expressed a preference for material on tape. Careers services identified forging links between careers services and courses and word of mouth recommendations as particularly successful advertising methods.

First year support

Many careers services use induction talks to contact first year students. Although this approach has the advantage of being able to reach out to the majority of students as mentioned earlier, the success of these schemes is often seen as minimal compared with resources expended. It seems that careers support is still seen by many students and staff alike as part of the penultimate year of study. However, due to the rise in student debt careers services are increasingly seeing students earlier as many are looking for part-time jobs during term time.

Employers

Many students asked for careers services to forge more links with employers including employer presentations, careers fairs and opportunities for work experience. However the experiences of employers and careers services seem to be a mismatched. Whilst careers services expressed their frustration when trying to persuade employers to become more involved, employers said they had not been approached by careers services. Using local employer networks to encourage increased contact with employers is seen as the most effective way of communicating information. This is particularly true as many graduates are looking to remain in their local area following graduation.

Funding

Being able to sustain initiatives is the major issue for staff as they frequently expressed concern and frustration over opting for costly initiatives without any guarantee that they would last. Additional funds are desperately needed if the government is to encourage the increasing participation of non-traditional students in higher education.

Future developments

All interested parties should explore the ramifications of the major increase in foundation degrees given that the extra demand that these degrees are intended to meet is most likely to come from non-traditional students. Possible consequences for careers advisory services include:

careers services will need to adapt provision to meet the needs of foundation students and
adequate funding will be needed to meet the resourcing issues associated with these degrees.

Employers will also need to accept the worth of foundation degrees. This could be particularly problematic as many foundation degree students will be non-traditional and therefore already more likely to struggle when seeking employment.

References

1. HE Careers Services & Diversity: how careers advisory services can enhance the employability of graduates from non-traditional backgrounds, by Alistair Morey, Lee Harvey, James Willaims, Abril Saldana and Paula Mena with Sarah Watson and Morag MacDonald, HECSU/Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS)/Centre for Research into Quality, 2003.

2. Higher Education Careers Service Review (the Harris Report), Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 2001.

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