Widening Participation into Employment across the Student Lifecycle

1
INSIGHT INTO HIGHER
EDUCATION PRE-ENTRY GUIDANCE INFORMATION
DAY PRE-ENTRY GUIDANCE, DIVERSITY AND
EMPLOYABILITY MAKING THE CONNECTIONS PATRICIA
QUINN Sheffield Hallam University Careers
Employment Service

2
Presentation Content

• National agendas
• Widening participation and diversity more means
  different
• Transition into employment reaping the rewards?
• The employability agenda an holistic approach
• Career Management as the key
• The central role of individual guidance

3
NATIONAL AGENDA ENGLAND

• 50 participation by 2010
• HEFCE funding to support WP
• OFFA and access agreements
• Tuition fees
• Foundation degrees
• Curriculum reform Tomlinson
• Aim Higher
• LLLN

4
HEFCE Strategic Plan

• "Widening access and improving participation in
  HE.....will equip our citizens to operate
  productively within the global knowledge economy.
  It also offers social benefits, including better
  health, lower crime and a more tolerant and
  inclusive society"

5
NATIONAL AGENDAWALES

• Reaching Higher is the Welsh Assembly strategy
  for higher education to 2010.
• Key Targets
• Wales as Destination of First Choice
• The proportion of all Welsh domiciled full-time
  higher education students enrolled at UK higher
  education institutions (HEIs) who are studying at
  HEIs in Wales to increase from 60.1 in 2000/01
  to 66 by 2010/11.

6
HEFCW Strategic Plan

• Reaching Wider
• "delivering wider participation and access in
  support of social inclusion and economic
  upskilling"

7
MORE DIVERSE COHORTS

• Gender
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Disability

• International
• Socio-economic
• First generation
• Attainment

8
Impact on Higher Education

• Different student expectations
• Different engagement with learning and the
  'University experience'
• Different entry qualifications
• Different life experiences

9
Key facts Gender

• Young women 18 more likely to enter HE than
  young men
• Advantage more marked for young men living in
  most disadvantaged areas
• Widening Participation A rough guide for HE
  providers (2005) Action on Access

10
Key facts Disability

• An 18 year old with a disability or health
  problem is 40 less likely to enter HE as an 18
  year old without a disability or health problem
• Proportion of students declaring disabilities has
  increased by 50 in five years

11
Key facts Ethnicity

• 15 of all students
• More complex picture as variation between
  different minority groups
• better represented in post 92 HEIs and in
  vocational and professional subjects

12
Key facts Attainment

• Single most significant factor in social class
  division
• 43 of 18 year olds from higher socio-economic
  backgrounds gain 2 or more A levels against 19
  of those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
• 9 out of 10 of those with 2 A levels go on to HE
  by age 21 compared to 45 of those with
  vocational qualifications

13
Key facts Social Class

• Social class V unskilled participation rate has
  doubled since 1992 but increases across the board
  have left poorer students with the same market
  share.
• Those living in most advantaged 20 of areas five
  to six times more likely to enter HE than those
  in least advantaged areas

14
A level playing field?

• For a variety of factors, post 92 university
  students largely experience a different set of
  challenges to their entry into an increasingly
  stratified labour market
• Also impacting on placement opportunties,
  specifically the one year sandwich option

15
SHEFFIELD HALLAM PROFILE

• Gender F 50.1 M 49.9
• Age 18.4 over 21
• Local 35.6
• BME 12
• Lower socio-economic 33.9
• Disability 4.9
• Attainment 50.5 less than 240 UCAS points, 38
  voc quals or a mixture

16
Sheffield Hallam Destinations 2004

• fairly stable entry into employment 67
• 6 unemployed 10 BME
• 32 employed in Sheffield area, 43 in YH
• 38 employed in SMEs
• 16k median starting salary 18.5 national
  average

17
Does it do what it says on the tin?

• There is ...reason for concern about the personal
  well-being of a growing number who do not find
  that their investments in education are earning
  them the rewards they were taught to anticipate.
• Ivar Berg (1970) The Great Training Robbery

18
Reaping the rewards?

• Many people are investing time money and
  effort...enticed with claims of a substantial
  dividend in terms of earnings..........but this
  promise does not come with a guarantee. A
  university degree can do no more than permit
  entry into the competition for jobs ...rather
  than entry into the winners enclosure.
• Hesketh and Brown (2004)
• The Mismanagement of Talent

19
Research Findings

• Seven Years On Elias and Purcell (2005)
• most in graduate level work
• increased earning capacity
• job satisfaction
• HOWEVER
• cohort left in 1999
• limited analysis by specific groupings
• suggestion of supply outstripping demand Hesketh
  and Brown 2004

20
Research Findings

• Access to What (2002) Brennan et al
• Detailed report on factors determining graduate
  employability of c4,500 students with specific
  analysis on
• lower socio-economic background
• ethnicity
• age

21
Research Findings

• All the cohort experienced labour market
  disadvantages in part because of their HEI, their
  subject, their class of degree and their pre
  entry qualifications
• BUT
• socio-economic background, age and ethnicity had
  an effect on employment even when these other
  factors are controlled for.

22
Research Findings

• Concluded that going to a pre 1992 HEI provided
  advantages in the labour market to most graduates
  apart from women from lower socio economic
  backgrounds
• Intervening variables such as work experience
  but not too much extra curricular activities
  and early job search also appear associated with
  employment success.

23
Research Findings

• Early labour market experiences of graduates
  from disadvantaged families (Furlong and Cartmel
  2005)
• Movement into grad jobs slow but it did
  happen
• Most studied in pre 92 universities
• Had fewer good honours and lower entry
  qualifications
• Lower salaries and lower expectations

24
Research Findings

• Relatively unskilled jobs common at first
• High levels of debt hindered career planning and
  restricted job choice
• Less likely to feel socially confident or
  developed wider circles of friends
• More likely to study and subsequently work
  locally
• Fewer career management skills

25
The employer dimension

• Fewer post '92 students enter traditional
  graduate training schemes
• relatively small and elite sector of the
  graduate labour market
• majority of jobs in London and South East
• many demand high entry pre HE qualifications240
  -300 UCAS points
• employers target post 92 universities and miss
  out on the more diverse cohorts

26
Targeted recruitmentTimes Top 100 web audit 2004

• Preference expressed for YES NO
• degree class 62 38
• degree subject 54 46
• UCAS points/A levels 41 59
• Professional qualifications 19 81

27
Recruiters Guide to Courses and Campuses (2005)

• Allows for targeted recruitment good and bad
• Small concentration of universities primarily
  Russell Group attract highest proportion of high
  achieving graduates
• 56 of all grads get good honours SHU 55 so
  want less crude measure
• Look at UCAS points specifically A levels and
  make assumptive link between this and
  employability

28
and yet

• Graduates in the eyes of employers (2005) The
  Guardian /Work
• 79 agreed that academic results alone not the
  best indicator of employment potential
• 72 have concentrated on diversity recruitment in
  recent years but most construe this as BME
  students
• 73 target specific universities most pre 92
• 18 said that post 92's didn't produce lower
  quality graduates

29
The reality for many of our graduates

• Local/regional employment
• SME's
• Multiple job changing
• Initial non graduate work sometimes get trapped
• Debt hindering career planning
• Slow but steady improvement
• International students return home

30
What this means....

• More information on local regional opportunities
• Access to these vacancies
• Honesty and realism
• Advocacy on behalf of our clients challenging
  poor/inequitable practices
• Sound pre-entry advice and guidance and continued
  support beyond graduation

31
Pre entry Advice Uniworks

• Pre-entry guidance project with UoS
• Web based information on destinations
• Magazine to all local schools and colleges
• Over 800 graduate case studies
• Encouragement to engage with preparing for what
  comes next as early as possible
• Skills development encouraged
• Employer information and database

32
Empowering the Individual the development of
employability skills

• Enabling students to acquire the knowledge,
  personal and professional skills and encouraging
  the attitudes that will support their future
  development and employment. (Employability
  Working Group 2002)
• A set of achievements skills, understandings
  and personal attributes that make graduates
  more likely to gain employment and be successful
  in their chosen occupations...
  (Mantz Yorke 2003)

33
Employability not central to academic mission?

• There is a considerable degree of alignment
  between education for employability and good
  student learning (and the teaching, assessment
  curriculum that go with it) (Yorke Knight
  2003)

34
(No Transcript)
35
The SHEFFIELD HALLAM EMPLOYABILITY FRAMEWORK

• Progressive development of autonomy. 
• Skills development (intellectual subject
  professional Key Skills)
• Personal Development Planning (PDP).
• Inclusion of activities reflecting external
  environments 
• Reflection on the use of knowledge and skills
  between contexts
• The development of career management skills (CMS)
• Engagement with learning from work (LfW) 
• Additional features for appropriate courses 
• Preparation for professions 
• Engagement with enterprise

36
SHEFFIELD HALLAMS CETL VISION

• empowering and enabling all Sheffield Hallam
  students to enhance employability through the
  integrated embedding of appropriate opportunities
  in programmes
• developing an empowering employability culture
  using a cascading model benefiting large numbers
  of staff and students through the cumulative
  development of excellent programmes and
  widespread dissemination of practice
• progressively modifying the University's
  infrastructure and the embedding of employability
  enhancement in its culture, ensuring development
  beyond the lifetime of the funding

37
(No Transcript)
38
E3I Embedding Enhancing and Integrating
Employability

• Vision and values statement
• Quality Enhancement processes
• Course planning and validation
• PDP /Progress files
• LTA strategy
• LTI
• SSC

39
Model
Subject area
Employability development opportunities
HEI
pedagogy
Student
engagement

• employability attributes
• self-promotional skills
• willingness to develop

Extra-curricular experiences
reflection
External factors
Employability
articulation
Employer
Employment
Recruitment
Self-employ
Business plan
Market
40
employability attributes
willingness to develop and reflect
self-promotional skills
Holistic approach
embedded attribute development
work experience
recording/ reflect-ing on experience
enhanced central support
41
Employability and the Labour market Summary of
research
Employers want more and more
Mostly they are getting what they need but cost
and mass HE make it difficult
Higher education-employer links are getting better
Recruitment processes continue to be bizarre and
biased in many areas
Although there are lots of diversity initiatives,
non-traditional students continue to be
disadvantaged
Academic culture hasnt taken on employability
fully yet but there are lots of imaginative
developments
Employability concept is getting sorted out
(ESECT) but some clinging to FDRemployability
Institutions are getting more strategic,
integrated and holistic but still driven by
pockets of activity
42
CRITICAL graduate
C
R
I
T
I
C
A
L
43
CRITICAL graduate
Critical
Reflective
Intelligent
Transformative
Interactive
Communicative
Analytic
Lifelong learner
44
Model
Subject area
Employability development opportunities
HEI
pedagogy
Student
engagement

• employability attributes
• self-promotional skills
• willingness to develop

Extra-curricular experiences
reflection
External factors
Employability
articulation
Employer
Employment
Recruitment
Self-employ
Business plan
Market
45
Career management the key?

• Central to the articulation of the skills,
  attributes and experience
• Without effective career management skills
  students are 'all dressed up with nowhere to go'
• Integrated activities within key modules eg
  research v stand alone modules?

46
The need for individual guidance across the
lifecycle

• Life changing decisions
• Ever increasing range of possibilities
• Complexity of entry requirements
• Diverse potential destinations
• and....
• the research shows that guidance makes a
  difference Bemrose 2005

47
IMPACT

• Career Development Programme for groups
  under-represented in Higher Education/workplace
• Black or minority ethnic students
• Students with disabilities
• First generation students
• Mature students
• Women entering SET

48
Impact Provides

• 1-1 advice and support
• Workshop programme
• Mentoring Scheme
• Links to employers (employers' supporters club)
• On-going intensive personally tailored support
• Bespoke sessions, eg faith, gender
• To raise confidence and skills of people entering
  the job market

49
Impact Mentoring Scheme

• 6 months, ideally 4 X1 hour meetings
• Insight into a job role, career route,
  organisation
• Raise awareness of options
• Confirm career choice make informed choices
• Access to contacts
• Develop confidence and skills
• Strategies for job search and progression
• Alternative to a placement proves commitment,
  initiative and motivation
• Wide range of employers involved development
  opportunity for SHU staff

50
Integration we liked it so much we bought the
company!

• Integrated into mainstream service
• Identify students via initial guidance
• Referrals from colleagues
• Developing personalised plan
• Offering services
• Tracking student progress
• Inclusive offered to all
• Plans to offer at pre-entry stage from September
  2006

51
The role of the Careers Service

• Encourage the development of students'
  employability throughout their time at university
  specifically through
• the development of career management skills
  within the curriculum
• individual careers guidance and coaching
• providing access to employment
  opportunities
• employer liaison including advocacy
• multi-media careers resources
  web/VLE/PDP/resource centre

52
(No Transcript)
53
SUMMARY

• Pre entry guidance vital to close the feedback
  loop
• institution wide course based integration of
  employability activities
• strong individualised guidance support continuing
  beyond graduation
• employer buy in

54
(No Transcript)
55
(No Transcript)