Phoenix, August 2021 – The Technology Enhanced Careers Service

ISSUE 163 AUGUST 2021

THE TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED CAREERS SERVICE

Becoming a digitally-led service

Using pedagogy in online delivery

Aligning digital careers education with contemporary workforce needs

Practitioner views: using digital technology before and after the pandemic

Phoenix is the AGCAS journal

august 2021 CONTENTS THE TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED CAREERS SERVICE RACE EQUALITY

05

ENHANCING PRACTITIONERS'

15

ADDED VALUE: USING

25

FROM STEEP LEARNING CURVE

DIGITAL CONFIDENCE: BECOMING

PEDAGOGY IN ONLINE

TO WALKING THE TALK: AGCAS

A DIGITALLY-LED SERVICE

DELIVERY

TRAINING’S RAPID RESPONSE

King’s College London

Cambridge University

TO LOCKDOWN(S) AND BEYOND

07

INCREASING SCALE AND REACH

17

AGCAS

ADJUSTING, ADAPTING AND

IN THE CURRICULUM: ONLINE

ADOPTING: RESHAPING

EMPLOYABILITY COURSES

PROVISION USING NEW

University of Birmingham

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

27

IN A GLOBAL CLASSROOM

University of Chester 08

Nottingham University

VIRTUAL VISITS: AN EFFECTIVE WAY OF

ENGAGING LARGE GROUPS

Business School 19

RECREATING A PHYSICAL

ENGAGING LEARNERS?

DROP-IN SERVICE IN A

Open University

VIRTUAL WORLD

29

THINKING DIGITALLY: STUDENT ENGAGEMENT STATS SPEAK

Nottingham Trent University

FOR THEMSELVES 09

BLENDED LEARNING: INNOVATION FOR CAREERS

University of Bradford 21

NO MORE FREE PENS: WHEN

AND ENTERPRISE EDUCATION

A FLAGSHIP CONFERENCE

University of Hertfordshire

GOES VIRTUAL Robert Gordon University

11

EDUCATION WITH CONTEMPORARY WORKFORCE NEEDS Lancaster University

13

CREATING ENGAGING DIGITAL CONTENT: LET’S GET TECHNICAL! University of Exeter

ALL EYES ON THE DIGITAL: GOING SOCIAL University of the Arts London

FUTURE-FOCUSED: ALIGNING DIGITAL CAREERS

30

23

WORKING AS A CAREERS PROFESSIONAL IN A VIRTUAL WORLD: WHAT NEXT? Stephen Smith, University of Strathclyde

31

ZOOM: A BAPTISM OF FIRE!

EMPCAST: MAKING A NOISE

39

University of Strathclyde

33

47

ONLINE CAREER REFLECTION

Nottingham Trent University

University of Oxford

DIGITAL DELIVERY: SKILLS 41

CAREER WEAVER: SUPPORTING

ABOUT EMPLOYABILITY

EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY:

49

DEVELOPMENT FOR STUDENTS

EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT

SUPPORTING STUDENTS TO

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE:

BE CAREER SMART

ADOPTING CUSTOMER

University of Reading

RELATIONSHIP

AND STAFF Newcastle University

MANAGEMENT 35

DIGITAL GRADEX: REAPING THE 43

Nottingham Trent University

FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY:

BENEFITS OF SHIFTING TO AN THE VALUE OF IP EDUCATION ONLINE PORTAL IN A VIRTUAL SPACE

51

University of Staffordshire University of the Arts London

ENSURING YOUR EVENT IS VIRTUALLY UNMISSABLE Royal Holloway, University of

37

DIGITAL PATHWAYS: A NEW

45

London

PRACTITIONER VIEWS:

APPROACH TO DELIVERING

USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

IAG

DURING AND AFTER THE

University of Sheffield

PANDEMIC

52

DIGITAL CAREERS PLANNING FOR PHYSICISTS

Tom Staunton, University of

University of York

Derby

PLUS

53

55

CAREER CONVERSATIONS:

57

RESEARCH INSIGHTS:

STUDENT CONCERNS,

SUPPORTING STUDENTS

PRACTITIONER APPROACHES

THROUGH THE PANDEMIC

AND PROFESSIONAL

AND BEYOND

CHALLENGES

JISC and Prospects services

RESEARCHER'S DIGEST Technology in careers and employability work

Phoenix is the digital journal of AGCAS, the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services. It is published three times a year.

To find out more about AGCAS,

message from the

see www.agcas.org.uk

Created in-house by AGCAS, based on an original design by Marcom www.mar-com.net

PHOENIX EDITORIAL

EDITOR In this issue of Phoenix, you can read how AGCAS members have harnessed technology to reshape provision and enhance the delivery of high-quality careers and employability support to students and graduates.

GROUP In response to the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, as part of the

Jenny Hammond Liverpool John Moores University

broader sector-wide pivot to online teaching and learning, university careers services were forced to inhabit an unfamiliar world of exclusive virtual delivery.

Even during this initial period of rapid response, AGCAS members did far more than simply seek to replicate face-to-face delivery in an online setting.

Suzie Bullock University of Leeds

Ever since then, university careers services have built on the foundations of the opportunities unearthed during those early weeks of the pandemic, continued to evolve digital careers provision, and found new ways to engage online with students, graduates, institutional colleagues and employer partners.

Ellen Shobrook University of Birmingham

Over the next few pages, we profile how AGCAS members have adopted new technology, or adapted existing use of technology, to enhance and enrich a wide range of activities. Online delivery has enabled creativity and

Mary Macfarlane

innovation, sparked smarter ways of delivering interventions that would have

Leeds Beckett University

been logistically impossible to offer face-to-face, increased the scale and reach of careers and employability in the curriculum, provided advances in services’ operational efficiency, enhanced the student experience, improved

Kate Robertson

stakeholder engagement locally, nationally and globally, and helped careers

University of Aberdeen

teams to feel better connected.

For many, it has been quite the journey towards digital enhancement and not

Emma Hill

without its challenges along the way: a steep learning curve, a culture shift, a

Edinburgh Napier University

tipping point, a baptism of fire. Navigating the shift to online provision has pushed traditional stakeholder boundaries to new limits, demanded a whole new way of thinking, called for experimentation with unfamiliar tools, required

Sarah Brown

a willingness to be brave. But, for the most part, the change has been

University College Dublin

disruptive in a positive way, even when things haven’t gone to plan.

As one article cites: “Technology will never replace great teachers but

Catherine Ansell-Jones University of Sussex

technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational”. In this issue, you can read how careers and employability professionals are being supported to become digitally-confident practitioners in a world where digital delivery is now viewed as a key component of careers education. There are contributions

Laura Scott University of Birmingham

offering tips for creating engaging digital content, delivering successful events online, and incorporating pedagogy into the design and virtual delivery of careers programmes.

Lisa McWilliams Keele University

For many, collaboration has been key to success, with articles reflecting on the benefits of working with learning technologists, education developers, academic tutors, digital media experts and digital education enthusiasts. Working collaboratively in this way, drawing on the expertise and advice of colleagues from across the institution, has helped to rapidly reshape careers and employability provision whilst also further upskilling careers professionals in the use of a dizzying array of online tools, learning platforms, social apps, interactive media and digital solutions.

In this increasingly virtual world in which we now live – with all its advantages – AGCAS members still recognise the benefits of a hybrid approach and the value of the blended learning offer. While some activities have worked better online, digital poverty still risks leaving some students and graduates behind. There remains the need for in-person interactivity, to preserve the human element within meaningful engagement.

With a return to campus on the horizon, albeit a different type of ‘return’, university careers services are shaping future provision in response to students’ post-pandemic preferences, feedback and needs: increased flexibility in synchronous/asynchronous delivery and a mix of on-campus and virtual support. This is why it feels timely to be sharing, in this issue of Phoenix, the findings from two recent research projects, which reflect on practitioners’ views of working as a careers professional in an increasingly virtual world, the use of digital technology during and after the pandemic, and what university careers services can learn from developing hybrid delivery models. The research findings highlight the need for ongoing training and professional development opportunities for careers practitioners in the use of digital technology. Similarly, other articles in this issue call for the continued sharing of best practice that builds on the experiences of remote delivery during and beyond the pandemic, to ensure the future success and reach of blended careers education – and in order to keep pace with further developments in the digital world.

Digital careers delivery is here to stay – not as an add-on to traditional in-person provision but as a key component of careers education. As one contributor writes, this is not the time to look backwards: “if we revert to pre-pandemic delivery, we will be doing our students a disservice”.

I hope you enjoy this issue. Thank you to the Phoenix Editorial Group for supporting its production and to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to it. I wanted to give a particular shout-out to the author for whom this is their first article to be published in Phoenix after 36 years as an AGCAS member.

Gemma Green, Editor

PAGE 4

enhancing practitioners' digital confidence: BECOMING A DIGITALLY-LED SERVICE

JANE MADDISON, Careers Consultant, and BEN

STRATEGIC DIRECTION

BROWN, Careers Education Assistant Learning In autumn 2020, the Careers Digital Team developed its first

Technologist, at King’s Careers & Employability, provide an insight into the work of the Careers

Careers Digital Education Strategy, which sets out practical actions to enable us to become a digitally-led service.

Digital Team and its aim to create digitally-confident Student engagement targets for our VLE (Careers Moodle), which

practitioners with the skillset to be digital careers educators.

has existed for a number of years, and steps for achieving these involving the entire service were set, along with actions to gain student input. Central to achieving our strategic success has been ensuring the wider team is fully supported and trained in digital careers education and online learning design approaches. As of May 2021, we have had 20,700 self-enrolled students on our Careers Moodle.

A step-by-step guide aims to The Careers Digital Team oversees King’s Careers &

establish consistency in how

Employability’s online learning and digital provision, including our virtual learning environment (VLE), and is responsible for our

we present digital content

(developing) digital education strategy and supporting colleagues in creating digital content. Our aim is to bring together a richer, more intuitive environment for self-directed careers

CONTENT HUB

education to ensure consistency across our digital resources.

One of the key outputs from the strategy has been the creation of

We are a cross-team of digital education enthusiasts, with careers consultant, student engagement and internship team representatives. With the exception of our Careers Education Assistant Learning Technologist, no team member has a purely digital remit.

the Careers Digital Content Hub for careers staff, which brings together: information on how to best engage students in digital careers education learning design resources on making careers education accessible for diverse

To deliver a fully flexible, accessible digital careers service that

audiences and learning needs

meets the demands and needs of students across the world, we have taken several practical actions.

A central part of the hub are the Digital Content Creation Editorial Guidelines, a step-by-step guide that aims to establish consistency in how we present our digital content. Through outlining best practice and actions, the guide ensures that all staff have the

PAGE 5

information and resources needed to be digital careers educators.

DROP-INDIGITAL ADVICECONTENT HUB CAREERS

Careers consultants were asked to undertake specific training in online learning, provided by the university, before we moved on to

A key consideration in offering support for careers staff in digital

a deeper examination of careers education learning design for

delivery is accommodating different levels of understanding and

online environments. We developed a new Careers Learning

different projects. For this reason, a one-size-fits-all training session

Design Template for the Careers Consultant Team, which is centred

in digital skills would fail to deliver. The team therefore provides

around using effective techniques in careers education beyond

support through bi-weekly, hour-long drop-in advice sessions,

traditional face-to-face work.

which we have run for over a year, and which allow for the sharing of ideas, immediate IT solutions and project advice. Alongside these sessions, the team also provides tailored training on

WIDER REACH

requested topics such as using the VLE, recording presentations, and supported software.

Over the last year, our most popular e-learning course - on exploring your interests, strengths and values - has been attempted 621 times by 433 unique users. So far, students have been given the choice to either undertake the course online or as a face-toface workshop. Offering an online version allows us to expand our reach to a greater number of students and maximise our staffing resources. In addition, one of the most popular pages on the Moodle is a section containing information on discovering internships, which has been accessed by nearly 1,200 users.

We see digital delivery not as an add-on to traditional in-person PROJECT CONSULTANCY

In addition to supporting the team to develop their skillset for digital

delivery, but as a key component of careers education

delivery, we also provide consultancy on their projects. At project concept stage colleagues are encouraged to book a meeting to discuss how their project fits with existing content. We offer advice on the pedagogical approach, layout and style options. We also explore how to maximise learning gain in a virtual setting and how to make dynamic content, discussing options for delivering learning objectives, whether through video, written content, podcast or other

By providing accessible and engaging digital content we reach students who may be prevented from engaging with us because of location or schedule. A blended approach offers students the chance to maximise their careers learning and build their understanding of careers topics either before or after synchronous workshops, events, and one-to-ones.

interactive media.

This support has extended to providing advice to our Employer

KEY COMPONENT

Engagement Team in creating Moodle pages to support events, deliver virtual fairs, and ensure our existing collection of careers resources is tied into their programme. Our involvement has allowed for asynchronous resources to be developed from synchronous events - we repurpose video content, edit and integrate it.

Our goal is to be a digitally-led service. We see digital delivery not as an add-on to traditional in-person delivery but as a key component of careers education. We have learnt that time needs to be ring-fenced for developing digital content or the capacity is consumed by other aspects of our roles.

Collaboration is vital to develop ideas and build confidence. The cross-team approach allows for different perspectives and

CAREERS CONSULTANT TRAINING

expertise to be shared and reinforces the message that digital is not the domain of one specific part of the service - it's part of

To support the building of expertise and sharing of practice

everyone’s role.

amongst our careers consultants, we ran a series of workshops over the course of the year. These gave us the opportunity to take a critical look at our approach to synchronous careers education delivery and surface questions and ideas.

jane.maddison@kcl.ac.uk ben.brown@kcl.ac.uk

PAGE 6

increasing scale and reach in the curriculum:

The project became more urgent with Covid-19 and the pivot to online learning

ONLINE EMPLOYABILITY COURSES

Careers Network at the University of Birmingham developed a suite of short online courses for 2020-21, which were used by over 3,000 students in their pilot year.

MATT EDWARDS, Employability and Enterprise Learning Development Consultant, outlines the development of the project and reflects on what has been learned so far.

At the University of Birmingham we have a well-established

ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS

programme of support for academics to embed employabilityand enterprise-focused activities within their teaching. Looking for ways to increase the reach of our activities, we developed a suite of Micro-Employability Courses (MECs) to be embedded in undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. Each MEC is an asynchronous online course focused on a discrete employability-related topic and takes learners up to four hours to complete.

As off-the-shelf courses within the university’s VLE, the MECs have provided a flexible solution to embedding employability within the curriculum. The project became more urgent with Covid-19 and the pivot to online learning: between October 2020 and May 2021, the new MECs were rolled out in each of the university’s five academic colleges, embedded in over 20 modules, and used by over 3,300 students.

Rollout across multiple programmes and at different levels of study,

COMPLEMENTING CURRICULA

however, means that their content is not tailored to each discipline.

We have, therefore, worked with schools to provide wraparound

Using funding from the university’s Education Enhancement Fund, materials to contextualise the courses appropriately for their we worked with a learning technologist to design the courses and programmes, and for different years of study. And while ensure they incorporated best practice in the pedagogy of digital asynchronous courses have advantages, such as enabling students education. In collaboration with our academic and employer to learn at their own pace, they also have their limitations in that partners, we created five asynchronous online courses, which they require self-discipline from learners to engage with the include Creating a Professional Profile, Managing Group material fully. This issue has been mitigated where the MECs have Dynamics, and Speculative Approaches for Placements. Each been used in a blended way in preparation for synchronous course is comprised of written, video, and interactive content, and teaching. concludes with a short assessment.

Consultation with academics ensured that the MECs were both relevant to the professional development needs of our students and enabled us to identify which topics would best complement the university’s curricula. This meant that we could be confident that the courses met the needs of, and were attractive to, academic colleagues wishing to include employability-focused activities within their teaching, and that there would be the

NEW CONTEXTS Next steps are to analyse how learners have engaged with the online materials in more depth, and to consider whether the contexts in which the MECs have been used has impacted on how learners have interacted with them. We will also explore other ways the courses can be used, inside and outside the curriculum.

potential for them to be used at scale.

Regardless of how the project develops in the future, our new The courses have supported teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, and have been included as both optional and compulsory elements of modules. In addition to being used within

MECs have undoubtedly significantly increased the scale and reach of our in-curriculum work this year, and have made an important contribution to the university’s pivot to online learning.

degree programmes, the MECs have been incorporated within a number of co- and extra-curricular activities, mainly focused on enrichment. The courses have been embedded in modules as both

M.J.Edwards@bham.ac.uk

discrete standalone elements and as blended learning activities in preparation for synchronous teaching on a related topic.

PAGE 7

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn

TESTING THE CONCEPT To test the concept, a virtual visit to Bletchley Park Museum in

virtual visits: AN EFFECTIVE WAY OF ENGAGING

Milton Keynes was organised for returning Computing and Communications students. Bletchley Park, where the allied forces decrypted messages during the second world war, is often credited as being the birthplace of modern computing. After consulting with OU computing tutors Christine Gardner and Janet Hughes, who were also working on the project, it was decided that Stage 2 Computing students would attend. Many learners were interested in cryptography and all had completed modules

LEARNERS?

which reference Bletchley Park and its relevance to modern computing.

Excellent collaboration with Bletchley Park resulted in the project being delivered during the pandemic. The team from The OU worked closely with the Bletchley Park learning manager, Tom Briggs, to ensure the visit linked to previous module content. Tom was also a guest presenter alongside Christine Gardner. The focal point of the interactive webcast was a live Enigma machine

DAVID CONWAY, Careers and Employability

demonstration.

Consultant (Learning and Teaching) at the Open University, considers how live virtual insight visits can enhance the student experience.

PARTICIPANT REACH Results from the project were highly encouraging. The virtual visit had 164 participants, of which 101 were students. Over 40% of

The benefits of insight visits and field trips are widely accepted students identified as being in the lowest 50% of the index of and well documented. In pre-pandemic times, being able to offer multiple deprivation. Nearly 65% lived over two hours' traveling such experiences has been relatively easy for ‘brick’ universities. distance from Bletchley Park. Student survey data found that 54% For the Open University (OU), however, with approximately would find it difficult to visit the museum in person; while 100% 170,000 distance learners studying around the world, many of now want to visit in person and 100% would participate in a whom typically combine study with other commitments (such as relevant future virtual visit. employment and caring responsibilities), traditional insight visits and field trips are inaccessible for many learners and unviable to organise. Furthermore, approximately 20% of OU students are

MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT

disabled and an increasing number of students are seeking to use their qualification to change career. As everyone who works in

Student feedback that outlined how some learners felt the visit did

careers knows, gaining relevant experience alongside study is a

not enhance their student experience has shown me that

vital component in career change.

meaningful audience engagement opportunities are likely to be the most important factor in live virtual visits.

ENABLING INTERACTION

To address this, The OU always seeks to be innovative and test new concepts such as virtual internships, virtual careers fairs, fieldcasts and labcasts. OU fieldcasts use on-screen interactive widgets, such as polls and wordles, which allow participants to

Building upon knowledge gained from this project, I am presently planning to deliver a live interactive webcast that simulates a cyber attack. Learning from the Bletchley Park virtual visit has led me to consider audience engagement points with media developers prior to considering the content of this webcast.

collaborate with others in the audience, interact with other guests and influence decisions. Students are also able to interact with each other and presenters through a chat box.

It is hoped this approach will enhance the student experience, better expose learners to real world situations and provide collaborative opportunities that emphasise social learning and the

After considering the purposes of traditional insight visits, it

development of soft skills.

became clear to me that it could be possible to deliver a live virtual version with many of the same benefits. Ensuring live

david.conway1@open.ac.uk

delivery was particularly important as this would encourage social learning and the sense of being part of a learning

Connect with David on LinkedIn

community. While pre-recorded insight visits are useful, their passive nature means that social learning can be hard to achieve.

Watch the project video

PAGE 8

Our new menu of blended learning activities could be tailored to meet the needs of all courses. Without having to deliver face-to-

blended learning: INNOVATION FOR CAREERS AND ENTERPRISE EDUCATION

face sessions each time, these sessions offered scaled-up provision and were tailored to where the students were within the Careers Registration journey.

Several staff were concerned that having a centralised menu of content would mean that delivery wouldn’t feel relevant enough to the various academic schools. To ensure this isn’t the case we have created a core set of content that is relevant to everyone, leaving the advisers more time to add extra value by focusing on individualised content. Instead of attending multiple one-hour sessions to deliver the same CV workshop, they now offer preprepared blended learning content for the academic to embed.

They can then join the session for 20 minutes to provide bespoke information for that programme and answer any questions the students might have.

WHAT STUDENTS WANT JUDITH BAINES, former Head of Service, and ANNA LEVETT, Acting Head, outline how the Careers and Employment Service at the University

In a recent survey, students fed back that, post-pandemic, they want increased flexibility and a mix of on-campus and virtual learning. Consequently, we were presented with the opportunity to build upon the work of the last year to help us achieve our

of Hertfordshire has developed a new blended

vision.

learning offer to support the delivery of careers and enterprise activities in an increasing virtual world.

Using our Careers Registration model, content has been developed to fit with the Explore, Focus, Apply and Develop stages, therefore ensuring students can select the appropriate stage and content to fit with where they are in terms of their career

Over recent years we have scaled up our provision to meet

planning.

increased demand. With a high number of commuter students and a commitment from the university to offer flexibility to learners, we needed to think differently to ensure students and graduates could access what they needed, whenever they had the time. The vison for the service has been for it to be scalable, targeted and embedded but it seemed we still had a way to go to achieve this.

Our data shows us that, on average, students watch 17 minutes of recorded content before switching off. We are now recording shorter, bite-sized sessions which can be included in synchronous sessions or watched via our website. Statistics also show that 12.00 am is a popular time to access our website, so we have also revisited our recorded content and have edited it into shorter

Previously, our aim was for staff to deliver in as many modules as

chunks that can be accessed online 24/7.

possible. However, perhaps as a reflection of our success in this area, we were no longer able to keep up with demand. We found that we had to be selective about how we supported teaching and this led to some difficult conversations with academics who were not used to us saying no to requests.

Students fed back that, postpandemic, they wanted

VIRTUAL CURRICULUM DELIVERY

increased flexibility and a mix LEARNING

The university has been developing a new policy centred on blended learning so we have been encouraged to think about how we can continue down this path. While delivering appointments virtually and running webinars wasn’t new to our team, working virtually in the curriculum was. Due to the pandemic, the proposed changes that were in existing plans were accelerated and new ways of working quickly adopted.

PAGE 9 PAGE 10

of on-campus and virtual learning

GETTING ACADEMICS ON BOARD

Some teaching staff have embraced the easy-access,

Some teaching staff have embraced the easy-access, readymade resources. For others, it is a culture shift. Moving away from face-to-face, live delivery to a more permanent model of blended learning requires a new way of thinking. Managers from our

ready-made resources. For others, it's a culture shift

service presented at an Education and Student Experience Committee to share our new approach. Sharing best practice at our Teaching and Learning Conference also hopefully helped to bring people on board. Our advisers will continue to work with colleagues in the schools to support the rollout of the new offer and tweak content as required to ensure its relevance.

Using Abintegro Programme Manager, we can easily produce engagement reports for academics and clone and tweak content to

BESPOKE PORTALS

match the needs of all programmes. Students can be given tasks to complete as and when, before coming together as a group to

To support the increased use of digital provision we have re-

discuss the topic or to ask questions. We have also invested in

developed our online platforms to align with Careers Registration

Abintegro CV scanner and online video software so that feedback

stages. We offer three bespoke portals for undergraduates,

is available around the clock and pressure is taken off

finalists and recent graduates, and for international Master’s

appointments and marking for assessment. Students can then self-

students, with the aim of meeting their individual needs. This has

and peer review using the checklists we have developed. We will

enabled us to tailor content and highlight popular resources for

still offer synchronous sessions, but these will primarily focus on

each group. We have also launched Handshake, a new portal to

bringing employers into the curriculum.

encourage the development of networks between students and employers, to help us deliver high-quality virtual employer fairs and events.

PILOT MODULE It is our hope that the experiences of the last year and the formal Through a pilot module with the School of Humanities, we embedded an online programme based on career resilience. This

introduction of blended learning will lead to innovative and smarter ways of working within the service.

was well received as we were able to provide the tutor with engagement statistics and it has now become a core feature of the programme. Having tested the use of these programmes and the new recorded content, we are now developing a menu of blended learning activities that academics can use to embed careers and

a.levett@herts.ac.uk Connect with Anna on LinkedIn Connect with Judith on LinkedIn

enterprise content in their modules.

PAGE 10 PAGE 10

We are reflecting on digital careers education

future-focused: ALIGNING DIGITAL

with a key question: will recent module changes be permanent?

CAREERS EDUCATION Looking beyond 2021, we are reflecting on digital careers

WITH CONTEMPORARY

education with a key question posed internally: will recent module

WORKFORCE NEEDS

intend to align our technology-enhanced careers education with

changes be permanent? Here, we share insights into how we

contemporary workforce needs, digital recruitment practices, and to address perceived early-talent skill gaps, post-COVID-19.

BUSINESS SIMULATION

Published in March 2021, the Institute for Student Employers (ISE) Student Development Survey suggests that early talent recruiters perceive graduates to have skills gaps. These include career management (24%), commercial awareness (16%), business

JO HOBBS, Careers and Placements Consultant at

appropriate communication (15%) and an ability to work remotely (11%). To help bring these skills to the fore, the Department of

Lancaster University and MATTHEW HOWARD, Undergraduate Careers Manager at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), highlight

Accounting and Finance and LUMS Careers have co-delivered two compulsory, credit-bearing employability modules for several years. The modules' aims are to provide students with a toolkit for their professional careers, and to create opportunities to network

the importance of equipping students with the

with graduate employers.

necessary digital skills for a post-Covid world.

Using Edumundo software, a three-day e-business game simulation

Since the implementation of a UK national lockdown in March 2020, careers practitioners located within both Student Education Services and Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), have successfully accelerated the technology-enhancement of all

was developed, which was attended by over 600 students. The simulation offered students the chance to manage their own fictional multinational company and develop skills including leadership, commercial awareness, and negotiation.

career education programmes, creatively curated using Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Abintegro, Moodle and the e-business simulation package Edumundo.

Students were required to make operational decisions in line with their chosen strategy to outperform their competitors in various market segments, with each student taking on a key role within the business venture. Integration with Microsoft Teams facilitated the

In response to COVID-19, employers pivoted to virtual seamless building of remote global teamwork dynamics as students recruitment methods, including online assessment centres and found themselves located across multiple time zones, encouraging video interviews. In turn, this led to the development of new debate and agreement of priorities, prior to delivering employability assessments and learning materials to prepare asynchronous presentations. students whilst retaining the DOTS Model (Law and Watts, 1977) at the centre of careers module design.

Furthermore, severe labour market disruption has led to renewed

HYBRID FUTURES

careers education focus on transition skills, emerging job markets,

Just over 10% of employers surveyed by ISE felt that graduates did

and preparation for contemporary remote or hybrid working

not have the ability to work remotely and were concerned about

practices, which are now core to our career development

graduates’ ability to manage work-based relationships in a socially

learning programmes.

distanced workplace. This becomes a more pressing concern due to research conducted by the BBC (May 2021), which found that 43 of the UK’s 50 biggest employers planned to offer hybrid office working beyond the pandemic.

PAGE 11 PAGE 10

In online placement module classes, we focused on upskilling

DIFFERENTIATED OFFER

students to work remotely yet collaboratively. We hone online communication etiquette during breakout room activities, and

Whilst academic departments may feel pressure to return to

encourage the use of polling and file-sharing amongst students to

traditional styles of teaching, we have an opportunity to

facilitate group engagement. During these classes, students have

differentiate our career development learning offer and drive up

also learnt how to use collaborative online tools for groupwork,

engagement. However, we face challenges associated with

such as Padlet, Jam Board and MS Whiteboard, which lend

running hybrid versions, including the possible persistence of Zoom

themselves to teamworking practices for future hybrid office

fatigue (although, if academic modules revert to traditional

settings.

delivery, this can hopefully be mitigated). Moreover, aligning online delivery with any face-to-face provision will require additional staff resources to plan and deliver effectively.

We focused on upskilling Over the summer of 2021, we have refreshed our undergraduate

students to work remotely yet collaboratively

CONTEMPORARY RECRUITMENT

careers learning objectives, ensuring alignment with the Career Development Institute (CDI) Framework (May 2021), and addressing the perceived digital skills gap identified by the ISE.

CRUCIAL ROLE

ISE polling in April 2021 revealed that most employer respondents

As 21st century higher education careers professionals, we have a

predicted that their assessment centre activities from September

crucial role to play in preparing graduates for the post-COVID-19

2021 would continue to be either fully online or blended.

world of work, supported by creative use of technology,

Therefore, familiarising students with online group tasks is

engagement with employers and LMI, and the embedding of

imperative. This has been embedded in our modules via business

employability within degrees mapped against QAA subject

simulations and online groupwork during live classes. Relatedly, the

benchmarks.

ISE Student Development Survey 2021 found that 8% of employers surveyed thought that graduates lacked the necessary presentation

We have made great progress with our digital careers provision

skills. We addressed this with placement module assessments,

over the past year and do not intend to look backwards. If we

where students submit online presentations, gaining digital

revert to pre-pandemic delivery, we will be doing our students a

presentation skills relevant to virtual assessment centre activities and

disservice in terms of equipping them with necessary digital skills for

hybrid office working.

contemporary recruitment and working practices.

Working in partnership with Abintegro, we have piloted the use of Interview 360, an AI-powered training tool, to streamline modular delivery and align with the rise of video interviews across early

m.j.howard@lancaster.ac.uk j.hobbs@lancaster.ac.uk

talent recruitment. In 2020/21, over 1,000 curated practice video interviews were undertaken as a formative assessment within

Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn Connect with Jo on LinkedIn

Accounting and Finance. Students received AI feedback on their communication skills, impact, and delivery.

PAGE 12

TOP TIPS

creating engaging digital content: LET'S GET TECHNICAL!

01 Strive for technology-enabled pedagogy, not pedagogy-enabled technology. By prioritising learning outcomes and assessment of learning, you can make choices about technological options that will meet your goals. Don’t allow the technology to dictate the way content is delivered, or what students learn. The AGCAS Curriculum Design Task Group created a toolkit with strong examples of using pedagogy in careers work. Your institution’s

CLAIRE GUY, Employability and Careers Consultant at the University of Exeter's Career Zone, shares tips for

learning or teaching quality department will also have some fabulous resources for you to delve into. This might mean that you end up with a range of different media on a range of different platforms.

creating brilliantly engaging online teaching and learning materials.

AGCAS members are highly competent professionals. As skilled

02

helpers we use our social skills artfully to influence, persuade and

Once you are clear about what you want students to learn, start

advocate. We are researchers juggling abstract concepts. We

investigating the wealth of apps and tools available to you. Aim

are creative problem solvers, thinkers who are firmly outside of

for multiple forms of media that will inspire engagement. Search

the box. Holland would have struggled to classify us with a single

for digital teaching blogs that review different apps. We

RIASEC code. I’d guess that ‘realistic’ (preference for working

particularly like Thinglink, Padlet, Mentimeter and SWAY. Be sure

with things, such as tools and machines rather than with ideas,

to check for compatibility with your learning platform. Compare

data, and people) was not a core trait for a careers professional

free versus paid accounts. Your choices might need service or

though. Or, at least, not before COVID-19.

institutional-level consideration in terms of subscriptions, and check that they comply with GDPR and your university’s data

At Exeter we have, like many other institutions, shifted a huge

policies.

amount of our existing support to a virtual space. We have also taken the opportunity to innovate, to engage with students in new ways. We have created asynchronous educational experiences that would have been logistically impossible to offer face-to-face;

03 When it comes to content, looks do matter. Take time over the

increasing the employability of international students before aesthetics and you will keep your audience coming back for leaving their home countries to begin their studies, for example. more. Luckily, there are tonnes of beautiful images and video clips that are free to use and without copyright issues (search online for Morphing into educational engineers and content creators, however, has not been without bumps in the road.

PAGE 13

Creative Commons). Why not use an app like Canva to edit and add text to your images?

04

08

Be brave with videos – here’s your chance to get creative and

It is likely that you will be directing students to multiple platforms to

have fun! Think about the videos you have seen in all areas of your

access your digital offerings. This is where branding becomes

life. What do you find engaging? There is a plethora of editing

important to help reassure students that they are in the right place.

programmes and many are very easy to use. Your laptop or phone

How will learners recognise your brand? What central look and

probably have built-in software that you can use, such as Microsoft

feel will join your content together?

Video Editor. Why not film yourself in different places? Stand up. Sit down. Wear different outfits. String a series of images together (make your own on Canva). Add a voice over. Add music. The only limit is your imagination.

09 Make the most of artificial intelligence (AI). This might be in the

05

form of chatbots, CV checkers or automated interview

Make sure your content is accessible. This means getting to grips

success in student satisfaction by working with AI at Exeter.

programmes. Try to understand the data. Your AI can produce faster and more robust automated responses. We have had huge

with captions. Some apps and video programmes will create captions for you (Teams, for example). With others, you will need to write and upload yourself (such as Kapwing). When planning your video, write a script and keep it handy. This is far less timeconsuming than creating captions after your recording. Remember to provide a text alternative for infographics and complete the Alt Text field for images.

06 Get ready to deal with technical issues. Now you have created videos, sound files, polls and quizzes – how will students view them? Via a website? A YouTube channel? Abintegro? Will your interactivities embed into your platform? What about storage?

Different types of content may need to be stored in different

10 Seek out inspiration for your content, even from unusual places.

Professionals in other spheres such as baking or dog-training are creating brilliant content! What ideas can you repurpose?

11 Most importantly, you don’t need to be a technical wizard to do this. Nor should you do it alone! There is a vast amount of expertise within your service and your wider institutional team.

Up-skill together. At Exeter, we have really enjoyed working across teams.

places.

07 Beware of putting your content in places that are password

Finally, don’t be threatened by these changes. As George Couras said: “Technology will never replace great teachers but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational”.

protected or single sign-on. This probably won’t be an issue for current students, but institutional passwords may restrict access for

Embracing digital content is still great careers education. Go forth

other audiences such as offer holders and graduates. If you want

and create!

to reach learners in other countries check for viewing restrictions, like the China firewall, which will block many sites including

C.C.Guy@exeter.ac.uk

YouTube.

Connect with Claire on LinkedIn

Technology will never replace great teachers but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational

PAGE 14

added value: USING PEDAGOGY IN ONLINE DELIVERY

EMILY PACKER and LUCY ROMIJN, Careers Consultants at the University of Cambridge, share how the use of pedagogy has invigorated the design and virtual delivery of a core careers

CORE THEMES We arranged our programme into core themes and set outcomes for clients that were actionable. This enabled us to promote live and asynchronous materials in clearly branded packages, accessible to clients at the point of need.

education programme.

Pathways we identified were:

career planning building your network getting recruitment ready postgraduate study

Until 2020, our careers education programme was delivered in

Constructive alignment is core to the integrity of the programme

face-to-face workshops. The pandemic accelerated plans to

design and ensures clients interact with materials and workshops

operate a digital-first approach with our core programme, Career

with an experiential approach. The result is a framework of

Essentials, taking priority.

delivery where each task meets the aim of the session, and each session meets the aim of the strand topic – ultimately leading back

Our clients associate quality with in-person interactions in a

to the aims of the service.

physical space. While the pandemic presented an opportunity to reshape our provision, we recognised the need to maintain its

Making outcomes clear, setting appropriate tasks, making space

quality and integrity. We focused on access to high-quality, on-

for reflection and utilising technology to elevate interactions has

demand resources, ensuring time spent with the careers service

kept our clients at the heart of our virtual delivery.

was interactive, student-led and not just broadcasting information.

COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT TAKING A STEP BACK We created a collaborative environment by using active tasks, This change was disruptive in a positive way, encouraging us to take a step back and reflect. We assembled a working group of careers consultants with teaching experience or a motivated

live polls, live chat, breakout rooms, peer assessment, flippedclassroom, jigsaw group tasks, and time sensitive group work, with complex problem solving.

interest in pedagogy to redevelop our programmes. We put the client at the centre, considering their needs and how we could provide focus to common yet complex themes. Implementing a pedagogical framework ensured an interactive, high quality and cohesive programme with multiple entry points.

PAGE 15

Simultaneously, we aligned our feedback questions with the core aims of the Career Essentials programme to assess impact across the series.

As a result, across ten programmes we achieved a 97% success rate with clients stating they felt informed, their skills had

NEXT STEPS

developed, and they were able to take further action as a result of

Our approach enabled us to focus on the Career Essentials

attending a skills development session in the autumn and Lent term

programme and prioritise delivery methods for high impact. In

(2020 – 2021). Nearly 65% of candidates directly mentioned

doing so, we learned that a blended programme of careers

making use of asynchronous or written guides following their

education is effective when packaged clearly, designed to

session, with an additional 36% stating they would take reflective

respond to non-linear learning paths and regularly promoted.

action or speak to an adviser.

Creating opportunities to obtain feedback, revise and develop the programme are key to ensuring the programme is enabling clients to achieve their intended outcomes.

EXAMPLES OF PRACTICE Specific examples of practice employ pedagogy in a range of ways to maintain inegrity in session design that utilises technology and virtual delivery.

TOP TIPS FOR DEVELOPING A BLENDED CAREERS EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Mirroring the shift of employers to virtual assessment centres, we designed our Succeeding at Assessment Centres workshop as an experiential learning experience. We prioritised the elements that

Use the prompts below to help you evaluate what you’re doing and what you want to achieve:

cannot be practised by a client alone and focussed on interaction, time sensitive group tasks and interpersonal, presentation and analysis skills. Replicating the visceral nature of assessment maximises the clients’ time in the live space. We provided guidance to be used in their own time, using reflection, goal

How much do you know about what students are getting out of your current provision? What does this information tell you?

setting and supplementary materials to support personal knowledge and development.

What do you want your audience to know, do and feel after engaging with the programme, and its

The flipped classroom approach also allows the practitioner to maximise their time with a client. We looked at practical tasks to

individual components? What actions are you taking to measure this?

establish the client’s interests before the session. One example of this is where we asked our clients to watch short videos, such as interacting with employers in a virtual world, and make a note of questions they have. We then use the live session to answer those

How much are you doing to facilitate learning?

How much are the students doing? How can you tip

questions and expand on prominent topics. Using upvoting on

the balance to ensure the students are actively

Q&A functions supports this approach – removing the ‘chalk and

engaged?

talk’ of working through a presentation before hearing anything from the client.

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT YOU We also use compulsory pre-session questionnaires, which let us establish client need, common questions and check their current knowledge. This informs session design and enables us to meet our audience ‘where they are’. It can be particularly useful in

Reach out to educational developer teams in institution

supporting employers with a focus when preparing for sessions.

The AGCAS Technology Enhanced Learning training course is a great introduction to Our asynchronous materials have been segmented and make use of supplementary materials that interact with the film. An example of this action-orientated learning is in our How to Pick a Career series, which prompts viewers to pause the video, reflect,

pedagogically-informed approaches to using different technologies to enhance learning, rather than using it for the sake of it.

complete provided skills audits and offers stimuli to act.

We prioritised the elements that can not be practised by

emilypacker@careers.cam.ac.uk lucyromijn@careers.cam.ac.uk www.careers.cam.ac.uk

a client alone

PAGE 16

adjusting, adapting and adopting RESHAPING PROVISION USING NEW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

SALLY HARDING, Employer Engagement

ONLINE SOLUTIONS

Manager, and REBECCA NETHERCOTT, Career Overnight, students and graduates lost the face-to-face

Consultant Team Leader, outline how the University of Chester adapted their processes, procedures and delivery methods in reponse to

opportunities that allowed them to practise in-person interviews and assessment centres. With employers switching their recruitment processes to a digital format, finding online solutions to prepare our users was crucial.

COVID-19. Embracing new technologies has enhanced the delivery of the virtual assessment experience for students and graduates.

Over the past few months, we have adopted a variety of digital technologies to create a virtual assessment experience and to enhance the delivery of our careers, education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) provision. We refer to this mixed approach of both face-to-face delivery and virtual teaching and learning as 'the Chester Blend'.

MOCK ASSESSMENT

In partnership with Smart Resourcing Solutions (SRS) we delivered COVID-19 has pushed organisations from every sector over the

a series of virtual mock assessment centres to students from

technology tipping point, speeding up the adoption of new digital

Inspiring Futures, an exclusive programme of additional careers

technologies by several years. For the higher education sector

related support as part of the university's Access and Participation

and its many stakeholders - students, graduates, employers and

Plan (APP). Here, students navigate typical graduate recruitment

staff - there is a broad recognition that many of the changes

procedures, participating in online assessment centre activities,

brought about in response to the pandemic are here to stay.

with the added benefit of gaining a Level 3 AQA accreditation in Employability Skills.

STARK REALITY

Despite initial concerns about engaging students in the virtual space, by providing personalised reassurance and support,

When the first lockdown occurred, we were thrown into an students participated fully in the online experience. Student uncertain and challenging world. Not only did our regular feedback indicated that they found the experience valuable. routines of travelling to work disappear, the physical working space was also removed. We had only recently started our journey with webinars and Skype for appointments; what was once seen as an emotive discussion topic suddenly became a stark reality. We had to change and quickly!

More than 100 final year undergraduates, studying a retail management module at the University of Chester’s Business School, took part in a virtual assessment centre embedded in the curriculum. This assessment involved 21 groups of students

The first few weeks of working remotely felt like starting a new job - setting up new workspaces, re-developing our relationships, responding to netiquette norms, establishing new meeting routines and creating new social rituals - all while learning new systems and processes to support our stakeholders appropriately. It required a re-think, a positive mindset and adjustments to be made by all.

PAGE 17

demonstrating their retail management knowledge, with a panel of retail and recruitment specialists working alongside academics.

The day involved a series of challenges, to test students’ understanding of contemporary and strategic retailing principles.

Students critically analysed a well-known retailer, presented their research to the expert panel, answered individual interview questions and participated in an observed group exercise.

REALISTIC EXPERIENCE

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

As well as providing assessment centre experiences, we wanted

Adjusting and adopting new digital technologies has enabled us to

to offer a personalised, online interview experience to support

shape the services we offer to our stakeholders, now and in the

students applying for jobs, placements and internships. Our

future. Shifting to a virtual world has resulted in numerous benefits,

partnership with Shortlist.Me ensures all students and graduates

not least the ability to extend our reach across all university sites as

can gain realistic experience by practising timed, online

well as across the globe. Digital citizenship is a key strategic driver

interviews. Shortlist.Me has been embedded into academic

as part of the Chester Blend, which is not only shaping our CEIAG

modules: it is part of the interview preparation in the Developing

content and curriculum but defining how we deliver our support to

Professional Practice module in the Department of Music, Media

students and graduates. We will continue to use the digital

and Performance and forms part of summative assessment in the

technologies we have drawn on to date while exploring our

Professional Marketer module in the Business School.

capacity to utilise more.

COVID-19 has brought about digital disruption for many. As a

“We are excited to see the students of the

careers service, we have had to plan for an academic year with a

University of Chester benefit from our platform

difference. Emerging combinations of talent and technology have

and be successful in the prospective changes within interviews and employment” Jenna Huckle, Shortlist.Me

delivered definitive advances in operational efficiency as well as the student and graduate experience. As a result, we have seen a large increase in the number of students engaging with all of our activities.

Using Graduates First software, we have helped students develop

Shaping our contribution to the Chester Blend will ensure that we

their ability with psychometric and online tests. Through our online

continue to offer opportunities and experiences remotely,

careers training video library, provision of career workshops and

anywhere in the world. Our continued commitment to the delivery

virtual employer Q&A events, we have offered students and

of digital/virtual CEIAG, through our blended approach, will

graduates an insight into the virtual recruitment landscape,

enable us to successfully prepare our students and graduates for

helping them to develop the skills needed to thrive during

their next steps, whatever the workplace looks like for them in the

assessment experiences.

future, and in what will likely be our new normal.

We have also adapted the delivery of our annual careers fair, Careers Fest. COVID-19 encouraged us to move from our traditional, on-campus event to a two-day, virtual ‘festival of careers’ with themed zones - alumni, equality and diversity, sustainability - as well as an employer gallery to complement the university’s new Citizen Student Strategy. sally.harding@chester.ac.uk r.nethercott@chester.ac.uk

Emerging combinations of talent and technology have delivered advances in operational

Connect with Sally on LinkedIn Connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn

@chestercareers

efficiency PAGE 18

recreating a physical drop-in service IN A VIRTUAL WORLD

JACQUALINE COOKSEY, Employability Engagement Manager, discusses how Nottingham Trent University (NTU) recreated their existing drop-in advice service online, giving students a comparable experience to what they have come to expect from in-person on-campus services.

PAGE 19

It is difficult to argue why we

The drop-in service at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is one of our most utilised offerings, seeing an average of 145 unique

should go back to the old ways

students per week. But how do you recreate such a service online when it was running five days a week over five campuses with a

of working

no booking policy? It turns out the solution is simpler than you think.

The big test for the new service was during our termly Student Feedback Week, where we received our first reviews of the

EXISTING TECHNOLOGY

service. Users were asked to complete feedback after their Live Chat or drop-in experience and to rate different aspects of the

In our search for a solution, we quickly found that, despite the fact

service.

there are plentiful appointment booking systems and chat functionalities within the higher education market, no one system

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 100% of

enabled a fully connected, seamless experience without extensive

respondents commenting they would recommend the online drop-

development work. It was then we realised – the solution was

in service to others, and 100% of respondents saying they would

there in the software we already had.

use Live Chat again. Many comments focused on the ability to be seen instantly and the ease of sharing documents and talk to an

Prior to the pandemic we had begun exploring new technology

adviser.

and were early adopters of Abintegro’s new Live Chat module, which we had been using for just a few weeks. Originally trialled

A huge benefit to our users is that they now receive parity of offer;

to handle the mid-afternoon rush of queries, within two days Live

three of our five campuses now receive more support due to

Chat had become our reception and triage service and booked

increased drop-in hours and have access to the full roster of

appointments became our only way of ‘seeing’ students and

advisers and consultants. The team have spoken of feeling better

graduates.

connected to each other and more confident in handling different queries - and colleagues are now a quick Teams message away

To replicate the drop-in service, we decided to keep Live Chat as

for those more unusual queries.

the gateway to speaking to an adviser or consultant. Students would be triaged by a member of our reception team and, depending on their request, they would be signed in via a SharePoint document. Using a Microsoft Teams site split into different shift channels, a notification would be sent to advisers who would then call the student via Teams or Skype. As no new technology or systems would need to be purchased there was, in theory, no additional cost to develop the online drop-in service.

THE FUTURE For many of us, the pandemic has sped up a process of utilising technology in our careers guidance practice; it is difficult to argue why we should go back to the old ways of working. At NTU, we have seen real benefits to having an online service - from reaching new students to better provision - and are keen to carry on finding new ways to work with users.

EVALUATING THE BENEFITS

Maintaining 24/7 assistance has long been on our wish list of developments and we will soon be launching our first student-

For the first few weeks, the new service was much quieter than in pre-pandemic days, starting with around 20 students visiting drop-in per day. This gradually increased to anywhere between 40-70 users attending per day. For staff and users, the process took some time to get used to, with additional workshops and training sessions on building confidence with Microsoft Teams

facing out-of-hours chatbot called Robin. We have worked with a company called ICS to develop this with the hope that the bot will be able to answer basic employability-related queries so staff can concentrate on providing advice and guidance. With growing international graduate cohorts requiring support in different time zones, the bot can also provide support when we are unable to.

added to our usual roster of events.

There is still a long way to go with technology in careers. While technology will never replace a person, it can certainly help make things that bit easier.

Within two days, Live Chat had become our reception jacqualine.cooksey@ntu.ac.uk

and triage service

Connect with Jacqualine on LinkedIn

@NTUemp

PAGE 20

no more free pens: WHEN A FLAGSHIP CONFERENCE GOES VIRTUAL

STREAMS OF WORK When designing the conference, it was apparent that simply replicating the in-person event would not work, nor would it provide the longevity needed to support students across six

RACHEL PUGH, Employer Engagement and Placement

months. It was also essential that it supported students and alumni’s mental and physical well-being.

Consultant at Robert Gordon University (RGU), highlights the impact and increase in engagement from

The Employer Engagement team met with colleagues from support

running a fully digital event. What are the lessons

and academic departments, employers, and the student union

learned from taking semester two’s biggest event

executive to collaborate. The plan was simple: four streams

online, and what will be the key goal for longevity?

covering careers, employers, innovation and entrepreneurship, and further study - all requiring unique imagery and the meeting of individual aims for each department. However, the delivery

The lure of a free pen or pizza has drawn many students to employer engagement events in the past. The What’s Next?

needed to be through the same medium of lightning talks, case studies, live engagement sessions, and skills development.

conference, our flagship event for RGU's employability department, was initially designed as a one-day immersive experience. We supported students to explore different streams of employment and further study, with fringe activities for CV development, LinkedIn advice, and even headshots alongside

To ensure streams developed distinctly, each stream was given a named lead, external to the employability implementation team.

Employers also had their own case managers and internal departments had a separate lead.

other freebies from employers' stands.

The conference has seen significant development and growth over the last three years, which led to it being timetabled on our academic calendar. Like all employability services, the challenge of 2020/21 was to move our event online, while maintaining its impact and visibility for our students - who were facing their own unique challenges brought on by the pandemic - all without offering free pens.

PUSHING BOUNDARIES

The main challenge was pushing traditional stakeholder boundaries. For the new content designer, seamlessly merging asynchronous and synchronous learning and interactions in a professional manner while departing from the traditional teaching framework was a challenging balancing act.

Asynchronous employer engagement was not a widely adopted

It was apparent that simply replicating the in-person event

practice - only 21% of employers actively delivered online before March 2020 - nor was it rated as an effective means of engagement (Evaluating The Effectiveness of Employer Engagement, AGCAS). However, we proved that when it is

would not work

delivered in an easily accessible manner, engagement increases eight-fold.

PAGE 21

VIDEO FOCUS

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Videos were the focal point of the conference. Supporting

The virtual conference allowed for diverse engagement with

departments and external organisations provided ten-minute

employers who were no longer required to travel hundreds of

talks, case studies (both recorded and written), and 30-second

miles to participate. Employers could record content at a time

clips. These videos ranged from inspirational messages by

suited to them and could also use the content for their own

managing directors and recognised figures through to practical

purposes. Costs were reduced: no need for buffets or hundreds of

techniques for video interviews, effective communication, and

printed event programs or promotional materials. The nature of

even a skills video on teamwork involving an interesting analogy

the conference also prevented employers from giving away

about chickens, thanks to the fascinating work of Professor Muir

freebies, which are often plastic-based and accompanied by

(2016).

even more printed literature.

The learning and teaching videos were further supported via

The adage of ‘build it and they will come’ still holds. An

RGU's interactive learning platform, provided by Abintegro. The

interactive environment, meeting the university's teaching and

shorter videos totalled more than four and a half hours of pre-

excellence framework in a professional model, provides the

recorded content. To ensure future use, the videos were edited

impact and individuality a virtual event needs to be successful.

with neutral branding and music and were uploaded to YouTube.

Transcribing all the videos is time-consuming, making software

This included any promotional videos shared via social media.

solutions for producing captions vital. All the virtual information

Video promotion reached a far larger audience and encouraged

can be stored and utilised in various ways (given the appropriate

greater interaction than any static image post.

permissions), saving resources in future and ensuring a longerterm impact.

Synchronous sessions elevated the conference further, with live presentations and networking events taking place throughout the

The successful virtual delivery of this conference sets a precedent:

week. In total, the conference included 18 live sessions, spanning

delivering virtually is a must. Where appropriate, it should be

a total of 22 hours.

supported with live in-person activity to add value and human interactivity to further captivate a student audience. After all, they are not just there for the free pens.

Videos were transcribed and accessible to students within 24 hours of the live session. As with the prerecorded content, we hosted the videos on the individual streams and a specially curated page. By recording the sessions, and making them

r.pugh@rgu.ac.uk

accessible during and after the conference, engagement numbers nearly doubled - proving there is demand for impactful content

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn

that is accessible and readily available.

PAGE 22

ADAPTING ONLINE More than three quarters of participants reported that they had successfully moved all their graduate support and services online.

Where respondents had noted that services hadn’t been adapted it

working as a careers professional in a virtual world: WHAT NEXT?

was because they were deemed to be less effective in an online setting. Services across universities in Scotland adapted in different ways using different technology platforms or online resources; the overall response from participants to online delivery was very positive.

Over 90% expect their employer to have either more flexible or agile working practices in place

FLEXIBLE WORKING STEPHEN SMITH, Careers and Employability Consultant at the University of Strathclyde, shares preliminary findings from his research study on the impact of a global pandemic (COVID-19) on the

Four fifths of respondents had worked completely remotely while one fifth had worked both remotely and in the office. Looking forward to working life once the pandemic is over, a large majority (77%) of participants stated that they expect to have a more flexible

delivery of careers, information, advice and

approach to work with a mix of working in the office and remotely.

guidance (CIAG) to graduates. Stephen is

Thirteen percent said they would expect informal arrangements to

undertaking this research as part of the MSc Career

be made with managers regarding working hours and location.

Therefore, we can see that over 90% expect their employer to have

Guidance and Development Dissertation top-up module at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) under the supervision of Dr. Marjorie McCrory.

At the time of carrying out my research, careers professionals had been working in the new normal of the home office for over a year. The main focus of this study is how we as careers professionals have adapted, how we have worked and how our perceptions of information, advice and guidance (IAG) have (or have not) changed. The survey questions were specifically targeted to graduate support and services.

GRADUATE SUPPORT All 31 participants who took part in this research project provide support for graduates. Participants represented 11 universities across Scotland. While 90% of respondents said they had introduced new marketing initiatives to promote their services to graduates, nearly half felt they were not confident that graduates were aware they could access services following completion of their studies. Interestingly though, nearly two thirds of respondents felt requests for support from graduates had increased, while just under a third felt they were more or less the same.

PAGE 23

either more flexible or agile working practices in place.

The pandemic has shown a case for continued blended delivery going forward, with many noting with surprise how effective it has been

REFLECTIONS

While this study had a limited sample size, the preliminary findings show that careers services across Scotland support graduates.

Nearly all aspects of service delivery have been adapted for graduates to access via a remote, online service; those elements of service delivery that haven’t been adapted were deemed to not be as effective in an online format.

PERCEPTIONS OF IAG

Most careers professionals worked from home during the pandemic, while some had time in the office. In the future, participants expect

Most careers professionals said that they have provided careers information and advice online for quite some time; they have

their employer to allow a more flexible approach to work with a mixture of office and remote working.

always been in favour of this as it provides information in more accessible ways. While opinions on this have not changed, many felt the pandemic forced them to get better at using more online tools and technology. This has, in turn, made them more confident.

Most services have provided online information and advice for quite some time, although the pandemic has encouraged them to provide more and to try out new tools to develop this further. However, there has been a significant change in perceptions of delivering guidance

On the flip side, careers professionals were sceptical about providing guidance remotely pre-pandemic but, overwhelmingly, this view has since changed. Some suggested the pandemic has

remotely. While some still feel in-person guidance is preferred, the perceived barriers to delivering remote or virtual guidance have diminished due to the pandemic.

shown a case for continued blended delivery going forward, with many noting with surprise how effective it has been. There were many positive comments, including breaking down barriers where graduates would not be able to attend on campus, individuals feeling more comfortable in their own environments, and an increase in engagement with a reduction in no-shows.

We all know CPD is important in our area of work. With many noting an increase in demand from graduates (potentially students too), it is refreshing that, even while in the throes of moving all services online, many practitioners still found time for CPD and feel more confident in supporting graduates as a result.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Is there anything more we can do One of the survey questions asked how career professionals’ own understanding of the impact of the pandemic on the graduate labour market influenced what they are doing to support

to improve awareness of the support available?

graduates, so it was important to see if participants felt they had the time to participate in continuous professional development (CPD) activities. More than half of the participants felt they had spent more time on CPD, with just under a quarter stating they had spent more or less the same amount of time. The remaining respondents felt they had either spent less time or they simply did not have time for CPD. Those who stated they had spent more (or

However, not all careers professionals are confident that graduates are aware they can access their services. With continuous new marketing initiatives and the creation of new materials to support graduates, is there anything more we can do to improve awareness of the support available?

roughly the same amount of) time on CPD activities clearly stated that by doing so they felt they were in a better position to support

stephen.m.smith@strath.ac.uk

graduates.

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn

@stephencareers

PAGE 24

from steep learning curve to walking the talk: AGCAS TRAINING'S RAPID RESPONSE TO LOCKDOWN(S) AND BEYOND MUNDEEP PANAYI, Career Development Manager at De Montfort University, and trainer on the AGCAS Employability Advice course, shares her experience of transitioning to remote delivery:

Lockdown was announced the week I was going to deliver a residential training course for AGCAS. The plug was suddenly pulled. When AGCAS HQ suggested remote delivery, my immediate reaction

ERICA IMHOF, AGCAS Professional Development

was to give it a go. I worked with my co-trainer on

Manager, celebrates the AGCAS trainers who rose

mapping out how we could deliver a two-day

triumphantly to the challenge of rapidly converting

residential course virtually in the space of two months.

tried-and-tested, in-person courses to virtuallydelivered sessions and continue to evolve and expand

How? A combination of factors, starting first with the learning outcomes we needed to meet. Then, taking

the AGCAS training portfolio.

each section of the course, chunking it up and reflecting on how it could be delivered online, as well as trying

In March 2020, when the first lockdown commenced, AGCAS had a dozen training courses scheduled for the remainder of the 19/20 academic year. Within four months, we had delivered eight of them online, the rest requiring a little more time to convert.

It’s been a steep learning curve; the pandemic has forced tech

to ensure an informal virtual space was created for peer-to-peer learning and sharing of good practice.

We also looked at what we could flip and frontload, which could be accessed as pre-course tasks to help reduce screen fatigue.

upskilling upon all of us.

My key takeaways? Keep things simple, ‘less is more’ Collaborating with the AGCAS Learning Director and a host of

and technology can definitely be your friend.

AGCAS trainers, we have:

Created learning resources for trainers – established a Moodle Resource for Trainers utilising materials from the Designing and Delivering Peer Training course.

Facilitated best practice sharing – launched the All-Trainer Summit to share experiences and best practice, and

I commend the facilitators for such excellent virtual facilitation. I felt I got just as much as the

established an AGCAS Trainers MS Teams Channel to

residential, the frequent use of breakout rooms

encourage mutual support.

was excellent. Also using mentimeter for real time polls was great too. I'm sure it was quite

Upskilled trainers in tech – set up a Trainer Sandbox in Moodle VLE; hosted regular Zoom Meeting Playarounds to familiarise trainers with the platform; and organised a series

difficult to deliver virtually but I really felt the group got the learning and knowledge we needed

of Tech Lunch Munch micro webinars (recorded and released for the wider membership, to rave reviews).

Challenges of Careers Work in HE (July 2020)

PAGE 25

100% homeworker LAURA BRAMMAR, Senior Careers

DAVID WINTER, AGCAS Learning Director and Head

Consultant at The Careers Group, University of

of Research and Organisational Development at The

London, and trainer on the AGCAS/Warwick CEIGHE

Careers Group, University of London, shares his aims:

module, Technology Enhanced Careers and Employability Learning: Technology E-learning and the

Accessibility and affordability mean that online

Web, talks tech upskilling:

learning is here to stay, and we want to continue to build on what we have learnt over the last several

The digital space itself is a skill enhancement for our

months to ensure that AGCAS online learning is of the

clients, our students: they are using their digital literacy

highest possible standard.

skills to engage with the session.

In the rush to convert in-person to online we’ve only Equally, it’s not only students gaining digital skill

scratched the surface in utilising the flexibility of online

enhancement central to the 4IR, but also us as

delivery to create learning that can be interwoven with

practitioners. It’s vital that we, as a sector, keep our

work-based application.

own skills refreshed and updated. Remote delivery enables us to do this.

Our AGCAS trainers have been amazing, but there’s more learning for them too. One of the main

Discussions such as these with peers and colleagues

challenges I want us to tackle over the next year is

have been a highlight of delivering the AGCAS

how you can go some way to recreating online the

Technology course. Indeed, my co-trainer Lynne

vitally important informal peer learning that just

Johnson, Learning and Professional Development

happens when you have participants in the same

Manager from The Open University, and I noticed a

physical space. This might require even more of a

significant increase in digital skills and remote working

mindset shift in how we approach designing and

confidence displayed by attendees. I look forward to

delivering AGCAS learning.

learning more from my peers as we explore this space together with all our stakeholders.

All AGCAS training courses were delivered online during the 20/21 academic year. Some several times over. Not only that, we are expanding our portfolio with a new talent acquisition and

We are continually adapting and improving online programmes in response to trainer experience and feedback from participants

recruitment course, a suite of employer engagement training and more in the pipeline for 2021/22.

via the learning evaluations. This multi-faceted approach, based on peer support and continuous learning, is leading to increased confidence, knowledge and awareness of both trainers and members around virtual learning.

With lower prices and easier access for online AGCAS learning, we have experienced a 35% increase in the number of participants compared to last year. Attendees are from diverse institutions across the UK and further afield, with international members increasingly able to tap into and enrich this fantastic professional network of learning.

It’s not the same as in-person. To some that’s a negative, but to

Networking with peers was extremely

others it means accessing training and making connections they

effective. Despite being virtual the event

would otherwise not have been able to.

offered the opportunity not only to build a team/collaborative experience through the case study but the flexibility of the event

What next? For stability, the AGCAS Board have decided that all AGCAS training will take place virtually again for 2021/22.

allowed for a wider group discussion and

And longer term? Watch this space for the future of AGCAS

understanding of our individual activities or

training. And, if you’re interested in training for AGCAS, please

shared experiences

get in touch.

Employability and Career Development Learning (April 2021)

erica.imhof@agcas.org.uk

PAGE 26

engaging large groups IN A GLOBAL CLASSROOM

TERESA CORCORAN and SALLY CLEERE, Postgraduate Careers Consultants working at Nottingham University Business School, outline how they utilised digital innovations to transform a career development module into an online offering Following each live session, students were able to build on their

with a global reach.

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) support MSc

learning by viewing bite-sized videos, additional resources and completing assignments and quizzes for each unit.

students through a comprehensive career development module called the Accelerated Career Leader Programme (ACLP). It

VIRTUAL BADGES

enrols over 1,000 students each year and boasts a broad international demographic with students from over 60 countries.

The programme offers support for career planning, networking, making applications, recruitment testing, online assessment centres, interview skills, presentation skills and much more.

To motivate and reward students for completing these activities, we introduced virtual badges, which also provided a way for them to track their progress and share their achievements via LinkedIn. At the end of the programme the number of badges achieved provides an overall ranking for their participation resulting in a gold, silver or bronze award backed up by a

PLANNING AND TOOLS

certificate.

The pandemic brought with it a range of obstacles for the ACLP. The virtual badges were created in Moodle utilising the We now faced the challenge of providing the entire module automated module completion tracking facility. This allowed online and ensuring scope for interactivity and global provision. tracking of views of the bite-sized videos, quizzes and assignment The interactive elements of the course always received positive completions. Students could work through the unit and, once student feedback, so we wanted to ensure this continued in a completed, gain their badge automatically. Some of the units virtual setting. Due to the group size and student cohort, we required feedback, which we provided within agreed timescales; sought advice from learning technology specialists, explaining the others required students to self-reflect and create individual action specific needs of our culturally diverse and geographically remote plans. The popularity of the virtual badges is clear – over 800 students, to understand the options for running the ACLP using badges have been achieved by students so far and student tools that could be accessed by all. feedback has been extremely positive.

The programme was made clear and easy to navigate by creating 11 weekly units using Moodle, with one-hour synchronous teaching sessions delivered in MS Teams to

"The

ability

to

upload

badges

to

LinkedIn

after

completing each stage of the ACLP has been an

introduce each topic. We used a range of tools to engage students including Teams polls, chat, breakout groups and channels, as well as Kahoot, Padlet and Mentimeter.

invaluable way to differentiate my profile in such a competitive graduate job market" MSc Human Resources student

PAGE 27

QUIZ KINGS AND QUEENS Kahoot quizzes were arguably students’ favourite activity and allowed us to see their personalities come across as they competed to be on the leader board. In one unit we based a

Be brave in your online delivery

whole session around the quiz, checking student knowledge of the subject. Afterwards, we provided information about the topic, which led to discussion with students and provision of useful resources for further development.

COMFORT ZONE We stretched ourselves beyond our comfort zones in order to

"The NUBS Postgraduate Careers team has made

facilitate interactivity in an online setting with a large global

online learning an absolute joy through the

cohort.

integration of Kahoot quizzes. As a selfproclaimed Queen of Kahoot Quizzes, I would sit behind my screen ecstatic about moving up the

The technical glitches we experienced at the start of the programme could be stressful at times. However, we were determined not to provide a static teaching experience.

leader board" MSc Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Management student

Ultimately, the positive feedback from students made the difficulties experienced worthwhile.

Using Mentimeter and Teams polls encouraged students to share

We encourage you to be brave in your online delivery and to

their views and perspectives on a range of topics. This software

experiment with new tools for your online provision. Even if things

enabled us to quickly check knowledge levels and gain student

don’t work out perfectly the first time, you will learn so much - and

feedback but also helped to ensure we were pitching the session

so will your students.

at the right level and providing relevant insights.

DIGITAL DISCUSSIONS

Breakout groups were our way of replicating classroom group work activities. We encouraged students to turn on cameras and

Teresa.corcoran@nottingham.ac.uk

sally.cleere@nottingham.ac.uk Connect with Teresa on LinkedIn

microphones for this, which did favour the extrovert and those students engaged well. However, we noticed disengagement

Connect with Sally on LinkedIn

from some students. When we sought feedback, a lack of

@TeresaCareers

confidence in their English language speaking abilities was the

@SallyCleere

main reason – something we will factor in for the future.

PAGE 28

thinking digitally: POSITIVE COLLABORATION

STUDENT

The success of our online offer has also been due to a joined-up approach between our internal teams across the service. An

ENGAGEMENT STATS

example of this was our first virtual Careers Fair in May 2020.

Such was its popularity, we saw a near 30% rise in bookings for

SPEAK FOR

our second virtual fair the following November. Through positive collaboration between our employer team, information team and

THEMSELVES

career consultants, the number of employers wanting to engage virtually continues to increase. But, more significantly, our students now network much more confidently with employers in a virtual

ALEX PROCTOR, Career Consultant at the

environment and have requested more online sessions delivered jointly with employers.

University of Bradford, outlines how training staff on the use of online platforms has enabled students' successful transition to blended learning.

Academics have seen how online delivery significantly raises the profile of the As lockdown became imminent, the University of Bradford quickly

employability agenda

instituted online delivery training sessions for staff. For the CEIAG team, this meant focusing on staff development to provide an online service, especially the use of technology to deliver webinars. With nominated careers consultants taking an effective

FLEXIBILITY AND ORIGINALITY

lead on training, the Careers and Employability Service ran a Summer Webinar Programme to record levels. In fact, attendance increased by over 200%.

Students responded exceptionally well to blended learning. As our lockdown statistics demonstrate, student engagement with our online delivery increased dramatically. This was due to the flexibility and originality of our online delivery, as well as students

ACTIVE LEAD

taking the opportunity to develop their digital creativity skills.

Moreover, our CEIAG team integrated blended learning into mainstream university events. We took an active lead in our

While we will continue to provide face-to-face services, we will

University Activities Week in collaboration with the Student Union,

respond to our student engagement statistics by growing our

Library Services and Counselling, as well as promoting our online

blended approach further, even after our return to campus.

opportunities through increased social media communications.

Students and, perhaps more importantly, staff have begun to

Our careers Instagram following increased by over 147% and

‘think’ digitally. Our faculties are pressing ahead with integrating

LinkedIn connections by over 416%.

interactive platforms (such as Build My Career and Graduates First) into their modules, as academics have seen how online

Perhaps the biggest use of technology has been in conjunction

delivery significantly raises the profile of the employability

with employers and alumni. We have always played a key role in

agenda.

the School of Management's Entrepreneurship and Employability module. Initially, we were concerned how this would work given

We achieved success through dedicating resources and building

that the module's focal point is face-to-face mock interviews.

in time during the working week to train and update staff on

However, we ensured staff training needs were met and were

technology. Despite a potential return to campus, the importance

able to run the module online very successfully. Employers and

of staff training and development in using digital technology will

alumni took an active lead, delivering more than 360 mock

remain crucial in delivering a blended learning approach.

interviews, with each student receiving tailored feedback through our video interview platform. Academics, careers practitioners and, most importantly, students, all recognised the benefit of video interviews, especially as they now play a significant part in recruitment. We plan to continue with this activity.

A.J.Proctor2@bradford.ac.uk

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn

PAGE 29

all eyes on the digital: GOING SOCIAL

KYLE GIBBENS, Assistant Employability Adviser at the University of the Arts London (UAL), outlines how using Instagram for communication and marketing over the past year has enhanced service efficiency.

We are a team of three within a wider careers department that delivers extracurricular support to students at UAL. In the summer

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

of 2020, we identified that the way we deliver our services

We are aware that, for many careers services, using Instagram as

needed to adapt to ensure our support was still visible and safely

a student communication tool isn’t new. For us, it has prompted

accessible to our student body during extended periods of

conversations within the department about how we engage with

isolation and shifts to digital living. It needed to be manageable

students now and in the future. While creating new content and

for us to deliver consistently at a time when we had been

trying to respond to in-depth queries in a confined text space or

experiencing mass queries from expectedly worried students.

short video takes time, it’s a good way for us to promote our other services in those instances, like online events and workshops. We

GAINING TRACTION

acknowledge that there will be some followers who are not students or graduates of UAL, and we’re okay with that.

Our department has had an Instagram account for some time, largely used as an effective event marketing tool. We had

If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that we want our

previously tried setting up a live chat function through the

content to be as accessible as possible, and not just in times of

university website, but it never gained traction with students. We

isolation. Whilst digital content doesn't necessarily translate to

had come to realise that if we wanted to connect digitally with our

access for all, having a social platform as an additional offer to

students, we needed to meet them in spaces where they already

share knowledge is a step in the right direction. Our engagement

had a presence. So, where better than social media? This fitted

numbers surpass those we could achieve in physical spaces or

well with UAL’s strategy, one strand of which is Transformative

did achieve through previous digital channels. We are mindful of

Education, which encourages staff to be flexible with our modes

intellectual property (IP) and work closely with our department’s

of teaching delivery.

IP team to ensure we understand and practice what we preach when it comes to valuing and sharing other people’s work.

Instagram felt like the best fit due to its visual posting and dialogue opportunities. We started hosting weekly ‘Ask Me Anything’ stories, to grow a consistent online space where followers can

EVOLVING WITH THE TIMES

come to engage with us. Every Tuesday in term time between 10am and 6pm, we publicly answer followers’ questions related to careers or employability-based issues, to share solutions, learning and promote different ways of thinking. We engage with 500+ followers per week during term time through these stories alone. We are collaborating more with other departments and networks to deliver shared content that helps meet the needs of our diverse student body on topics such as mental health and trans awareness.

We will soon be launching a series of short videos via IGTV featuring students we recruited to record content at home. They reflect on their experiences so far, of graduating or preparing to graduate and applying for jobs. We hope that other students connect with these shared peer experiences. We will also be building on our collaborations with other departments such as Disability Services with a series of stories, posts and interviews related to employability during Mental Health Awareness Week.

We have discussed other social apps to host group discussions, but Instagram is working for us at the moment. If and when

Instagram felt like the best fit due to its visual posting and

another platform comes along that we recognise our students engage with more, we will evolve with the times to further grow our shared network of students and industry professionals.

dialogue opportunities @careers_employability

PAGE 30

Zoom: A BAPTISM OF FIRE!

GILL COWAN, External Development Co-

SET UP AND TESTING

ordinator at the University of Strathclyde, outlines We learnt as we went; testing breakout rooms to host small

the challenges and successes of using Zoom to host campus fairs, and how the experience brought a whole new meaning to the phrase Keep

groups and moving people in and out of them. Usually, our fairs and employer events are managed primarily by the Employer Engagement Team, with support from our colleagues in the Careers Information Team (CIT). In the new, virtual events world

Calm and Carry On.

When the pandemic hit, our main priority was to ensure that our service to students and employers wasn’t compromised. As we had to move everything online so swiftly, there wasn’t much time in the first few weeks to be particularly proactive about future events. Our first semester fairs still seemed a long way off and there were other, more pressing, priorities. As the months passed,

their expertise and support were invaluable.

CIT created Qualtrics surveys to send to students to help ensure that employers had reasonably well attended sessions. They also worked with us to produce spreadsheets for Information Services, to give them an idea of the numbers attending and access to student emails if something went wrong. CIT also sent out event links and surveyed attendees for feedback.

with no sign of social distancing being lifted, we knew we would have to make a decision. Cancelling was not an option!

However, no amount of preparation and testing prepared us for what would happen on the day.

SEEKING SOLUTIONS

SYSTEM UPDATE

Various discussions were taking place across the university about using online event platforms, but it soon became clear that a

The annual Law Fair was our first Zoom event. The day before, we

solution wasn’t imminent. Fortunately, Strathclyde had invested in

held a practice session with all the firms. We explained how to

a corporate Zoom package just before the pandemic started,

share screens for presentations, the process for opening breakout

though very few of us were familiar with it.

rooms, and how to switch students between sessions. We felt prepared and confident.

As we started to use Zoom regularly, we began to investigate its potential to host our fairs. This decision was largely driven by a

On the day, we had 20 firms attending and 200 students arrived

lack of budget and the need to deliver our events on schedule.

for the first session. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to us, Zoom had

With fantastic support from the university’s Information Services

been updated the night before and the system for allocating the

team, and after lots of discussion and trial runs with colleagues,

breakout rooms had changed. None of the students or employers

we became increasingly confident that Zoom could do the job.

were able to see the option to go to breakout rooms, so we had to manually move all 220 exhibitors and students into them.

Needless to say, the fair had a slightly delayed start!

PAGE 31

The feeling of absolute terror we experienced that morning will not easily be forgotten. It was like being on live TV without an autocue, trying to explain the situation and stay calm for a full 30

Our model for running Zoom

minutes. Meanwhile, desperate text messages – with language most unbecoming of the Careers Service – were flying back and

events has been adopted by

forth between the team. Once we had identified the problem, however, we were soon back on track for the rest of the morning and afternoon sessions. Despite the pretty disastrous start, the rest of the event went very smoothly.

colleagues in the wider university

The feeling of absolute terror we experienced that morning

ZOOMING INTO THE FUTURE We worked extremely hard to deliver these events and learnt a lot

will not easily be forgotten

in the process. Developing a suite of supporting documents for exhibitors and students, and running our practice sessions for employers, really paid off. Although it’s not as slick as bespoke

COVERING ALL BASES

events software, employers and students alike agreed that Zoom is a great way to start conversations and engage online.

Next, we hosted the Pharmacy Fair with our colleagues from the Careers Service at Robert Gordon University. A joint fair meant Our model for running Zoom events has been adopted by hosting external students in addition to our own. After our colleagues in the wider university, and the Careers Service has experience with the Law Fair, we felt that we had all the bases already decided to host campus fairs and a series of ad hoc covered – or so we thought! events on Zoom during 2021.

With the event running from our homes, we had the inevitable The University of Strathclyde has five key values: to be bold, interruptions of parcel deliveries, children and pets, but the pièce collaborative, ambitious, people-oriented and innovative. I can de résistance came from our IS manager, whose poor dog began honestly say that we hit every one of these values – either vomiting on the carpet just as everyone was gathering for the first intentionally or otherwise – throughout this process. session. Once again, some very descriptive text messages flew back and forth!

Our final event was the Technology Fair in November. By this

gillian.cowan@strath.ac.uk

time, we were all relatively comfortable using Zoom, and the fair went really well. We had some great banter between students and exhibitors when we brought them out of the breakout rooms.

This is where Zoom has been really successful.

PAGE 32

digital delivery: SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF

PARTNER SUPPORT We started with 150 students from different degree programmes, and study levels, and placed them into five sector streams reflecting their area of interest: business and management; marketing, media and arts; public sector and law; STEM; and entrepreneurial development (new for 2020/21).

SARAH BEECH, Employability and WP Projects Manager at Newcastle University, reports how the

The programme is supported by a growing number of partner

university’s Career Insights programme moved online.

organisations each year, including the BBC, Enterprise Rent-a-

With help from HELEN LIDDLE, University Partnerships Manager at SRS Recruitment and Employability

Car, Womble Bond Dickinson, Civil Service Fast Stream, Accenture, KPMG and Hallmark. In normal times, we would take our students to company headquarters around the country and

Experts, careers service staff were able to test their

even overseas. This year, all our partners welcomed the chance to

skills at delivering an online assessment centre and

continue engaging with our students and adapted their workshops

provide students with the opportunity to practise

to be deliverable online.

before encountering the real thing.

UPSKILLING STAFF Since its inception in 2015/16, Newcastle University’s Career

A new activity for this year’s cohort involved recreating an

Insights programme has been the institution’s extracurricular

employer’s digital assessment centre with SRS. While students had

employability support programme for undergraduate students

the opportunity to learn and practise three online exercises, we

from under-represented groups. The programme connects

saw an opportunity for our own staff to learn and practice using a

students with employers from a range of sectors, exposes them to

digital assessment platform.

different career paths, helps them explore their options and provides opportunities to enhance their enterprise and

Training and support for assessors was provided through various

employability skills through experiential learning.

means. A demo platform was created with the same criteria as the live event, enabling assessors to practise in advance. Assessors

Graduate Outcomes data from 2017/18 highlighted that 4% fewer graduates from under-represented groups had positive

were issued with easy-to-follow instructions and timelines about logistics and technical requirements. Video tutorials were created

outcomes when compared with the rest of the undergraduate

on how to navigate the platform and facilitate online sessions.

student body at Newcastle. The university is committed to

Best practice was shared on how to support students to perform at

addressing this gap and continues to invest in the expansion of the

their best in a virtual environment. A final assessor briefing was

Career Insights programme. A recent longitudinal survey of

held on the day of the event to bring the team together and allow

previous participants revealed that 97% of programme alumni

them the opportunity to share their experience of assessing in a

were employed or in further study as of April 2021,

virtual environment.

demonstrating the positive influence the programme has on graduate outcomes. It was therefore imperative that Career

Following this training, 17 assessors completed 180 personalised

Insights continued as a digital option during the pandemic.

digital feedback reports for 60 students, highlighting what they did well and what they could do better going forward.

PAGE 33

Online delivery enabled us to be creative and innovative with the format of the programme

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT Despite our concerns about the pressures students were facing and the attractiveness of a digital approach, we saw a 57% increase in applications, compared to the previous year’s inperson delivery, which revealed the demand for support.

Career Insights participants have been positive and engaged with the digital approach, evidenced by our final survey which saw

ASSESSOR FEEDBACK

97% of participants confirming that they would recommend participating to their peers.

“While providing feedback and engaging with students online is something I do day-to-day, this experience enabled me to practise wording feedback in a constructive, helpful and

INNOVATION Online delivery enabled us to be creative and innovative with the

encouraging way, which students reacted very

format of the programme, an opportunity that brought about

positively to”

many benefits:

Ruta, Student Employment Assistant Removing geographic limitations enabled us to work digitally

"Taking part in this experience as an assessor re-emphasised the importance of helping students develop digital recruitment experience and the importance of providing feedback as

with companies across the country and world.

Recording live online sessions allowed commuter students, or those with caring responsibilities, who normally can’t take part in extracurricular activities, to participate and catch up at convenient times.

the students found it so valuable”

Online sessions, not bound by room capacity, were made

Laura, Enterprise Adviser available to the entire Career Insights cohort instead of just being promoted to sector participants (30). This gave students the opportunity to hear about career options across all sector streams.

STUDENT FEEDBACK

Zoom breakout rooms provided a new, efficient format for speed networking between students and company

“The Career Insights programme has allowed

representatives.

my confidence to grow in group discussions and

Online delivery encouraged participants to develop their

when presenting ideas to others. Overall, the

digital capabilities in a way that in-person iterations of the

biggest thing I will take away is the confidence

programme had not previously supported.

to get involved in new things as I have gained We have learned a lot over the last year and will be utilising our

new skills and experiences that will help new digital skills, as well as participant feedback, in planning next

towards my future career"

year’s programme.

“I will take away the knowledge that even when facing difficult circumstances, it is still possible to achieve your goals"

sarah.beech@ncl.ac.uk

helenliddle@smart-resourcing-solutions.com

PAGE 34

digital GradEX: REAPING THE BENEFITS OF SHIFTING TO AN ONLINE PORTAL

CHERYL WILLIAMS, Student and Graduate

The format allows students to talk to employers about their strengths and a subject they are passionate about. This builds

Employability Manager at Staffordshire University, outlines how moving their annual headline career

students' confidence, expands their networks and, crucially, develops their ability to articulate their learning and skills.

event online enhanced student engagement, strengthened employer partnerships and further

DIGITAL REVAMP

aligned the curriculum with employer needs.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit midway through our 2020 preparations we knew we needed to innovate to ensure we didn't For 21 years GradEX, Staffordshire University’s headline graduate exhibition, has provided an opportunity for final year students to showcase the exciting and innovative work they have produced to a range of alumni, employers and industry experts.

With over 500 visitors on campus, it has continued to be a fantastic, bustling celebration of our students’ achievements, which provides the opportunity for students to expand their

lose an essential platform for our students. Unable to emulate the physical event due to lockdown, our challenge was to make the exhibition fully digital, whilst ensuring it remained engaging for students and of value to those participating. The answer was to revamp our previously simple online catalogue to create an interactive portal that allowed global industry experts to interact with our highly passionate and talented students.

professional networks and potentially gain job offers.

The revamped portal offered students the opportunity to share their final year project as well as information about themselves,

FOSTERING SELF-BELIEF

As a widening participation university, we strive to go above and beyond to ensure our students are equipped for future success.

Operating in the 15th most deprived local authority in the country, and with 55% of students commuting to university, we

such as their goals, skills, employment aspirations, and current status. This was then shared with our extensive contacts in industry and our alumni partners. Although at the beginning we were genuinely concerned that we would lose the heart of this brilliant event online, the portal proved a huge success.

find that one of the biggest challenges our students face is a lack of social capital. Many of our students don’t have access to a professional network that can provide that first opportunity or an environment that can foster self-belief and aspiration. GradEX tackles this challenge by flipping the traditional concept of a careers fair on its head.

PAGE 35 PAGE 10

On the first day of release the portal was accessed over 14,000 times. During a three-month period it was accessed by over 46,500 unique users across 63 different countries, including the US, China, Brazil and South Africa.

We see the event playing a part in aligning curriculum and employer needs Using the portal's specific analytics we could see how students were interacting with industry experts. In addition to the crucial sharing of expertise, students were offered roles, work shadowing, and work experience opportunities. Student engagement rose by

BIGGER AND BETTER

27%. Parameters such as distance, time and other barriers associated with attending a physical event were negated.

The imposed need for digital delivery in 2020 highlighted how powerful a tool the GradEX portal is to showcase our graduate talent. Building on last year’s global success, GradEX21 will be

PROFILE RAISING

bigger and better than ever, welcoming showcases from final year students attending our international partner institutions for the

On 7 June 2020, and throughout the summer months, Digital GradEX opened to all employers looking to recruit from a diverse pool of final year students. Each one of our talented students had the opportunity to be contacted through the GradEX portal. To help narrow down the employers’ candidate search, entries included:

first time. What’s more, as we transition out of lockdown, we are keen to have a face-to-face element on campus. GradEX will continue in the short to medium term to be a digital showcase but, if the lifting of restrictions allows, will also include a standalone inperson celebration event where a selected number of entrants from each category will be invited to showcase their projects on

an overview of the student’s final year project

campus to some key industry partners.

a personal introduction, which summarised the student’s employment status, skills and goals, and what they can offer a potential employer links to CVs, e-portfolios and LinkedIn accounts the student’s industries of interest and ideal location to work in

Looking to the future, we foresee the event playing a part in aligning curriculum and employer needs by potentially incorporating categories set by our close industry partners. This will allow students to submit work and projects aligned to relevant contemporary issues.

The online portal, and exposure to industry professionals who acted as judges, has raised the profile of the university and opened up avenues for potential work experience opportunities and projects that could be incorporated into the curriculum.

The future for the event is looking positive and we are continuously looking at ways we can build on what we have learned and provide a platform to collaborate with key partners for the benefit of all involved.

Parameters such as distance, time and other barriers

C.Williams@staffs.ac.uk

associated with attending a

www.staffs.ac.uk/gradex

physical event were negated PAGE 36 PAGE 10

We wanted students to be able to resolve simple

digital pathways:

queries themselves, when it

A NEW APPROACH

suited them

TO DELIVERING IAG

Until recently, The University of Sheffield offered a fairly traditional approach to careers appointments whereby students could book online and then visit the Careers Service to meet with staff.

In February 2020, we decided to adapt this process and allow students greater flexibility by being able to drop-in to the service at any time to speak with a staff member. Simple answers and signposting resolved most questions, while students with more complex queries were triaged into a longer appointment.

This new approach was going well. We found that instead of just speaking to one student, we were often speaking to their friends too, many of whom also joined in with the conversation. We were engaging with more students, with the same staffing resource.

However, in March 2020, when we were thrown into working from home, our revamped drop-in approach just could not work.

We had to return to pre-bookable online appointments. These became incredibly popular and, occasionally, there weren’t

STEPHEN DAVIE, Information Systems Manager

enough to meet demand.

at The University of Sheffield, outlines their new We also found that many students were booking appointments to

'digital first' approach using the pathways feature in TARGETconnect. Pathways enables a 24/7 service and ensures students attend appointments

discuss simple queries. Students often arrived unprepared and hadn’t looked at the wealth of resources available online. Both staff and students were struggling to make the most of appointments, which were also taking up valuable staffing

better prepared, allowing staff to focus on core issues.

PAGE 37

resources.

TRYING SOMETHING NEW STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK When planning for the 2020-21 academic year we noted that, over six months, we had changed our approach to information, advice and guidance (IAG) three times. If there was ever a time to stick to what we know works, then this was it. However, we were determined to make the most of the new way of working and introduce a digital first approach.

“As Career Teams have transitioned to ‘digital first’ delivery over the last 12 months, we have seen the usage of TARGETconnect’s pathways functionality skyrocket. It has been fantastic working with Sheffield’s careers team as they pioneer new and exciting uses for the

We wanted students to be able to resolve simple queries

functionality, from helping students prepare their

themselves, when it suited them. We were confident that we could try something new and, if it wasn’t a success, we felt that our users would be understanding.

CV through to development journeys to build employability skills” Ben Titford, GTI

PATHWAYS So,we took the plunge and decided to use the pathways feature in Target Connect to its full potential and digitise our offer. Over

“I particularly like the CV pathway. The prerecorded webinars are really useful and I used the sample technical CV to help me before my

the summer, we created ten new pathways covering our most

appointment. I’ve also used the assessment

common queries, including:

centre pathway due to enjoying these resources” Student

"I'm not sure what I want to do. I want advice on how to work it out"

“We are helping those students that truly need

"I’d like help with my CV and/or covering letter"

help and we are spending less time on simple

"I'm an international student with queries about working in the UK" "I'm a researcher thinking about my career options"

queries, which students can usually resolve themselves.”

Staff

These pathways guide students through a number of resources, such as web articles, on demand videos, and exercises such as short online courses and CV checking software.

THE FUTURE Over the coming months, we will review and update the

Upon completion, students can book an appointment if they still

pathways as necessary. We also plan to utilise the career

feel a meeting is needed. If not, they can still benefit from using

discovery articles in TARGETConnect as opposed to using

our online resources, which they can review and complete in their

external resources. This will help to keep students within the

own time. This has made a large proportion of our service and

platform and improve the user experience.

resources available 24/7.

As we slowly start to return to campus we plan to reintroduce an in-person drop-in appointment system. However, as the digital

REINVESTING RESOURCES

pathways and IAG triage have been such a success, we will be sticking with this approach for the foreseeable future. We will

By May 2021, over 4,500 pathways have been undertaken by students. Our CV pathway is the most popular with over 1,300

continue to evaluate how students engage with us and experience our services.

users. A significant benefit of students resolving their own queries is that we have been able to reduce the number of appointments we offer.

Our new approach has given us the opportunity to help students become better informed and prepare them for appointments, enabling staff to focus on the real challenges. While it may not be

As there was less demand, we have been able to reinvest staff time into creating multiple new initiatives, including a week-long

the time to commit to digital first forever, it has certainly worked very well for us to date.

health care sector event and several placement schemes. These initiatives will help a large number of students, rather than just those who would have attended a traditional one-to-one careers appointment.

s.davie@sheffield.ac.uk

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn

PAGE 38

KEEPING IT REAL (REEL?) A few staff put themselves forward as presenters, with experience including TV, theatre, radio and podcasting (and a few others

empcast: MAKING A NOISE ABOUT

who just really enjoy talking).

We are client-focused at NTU, so wanted to create something that would appeal to our diverse student and graduate population. To this end, it was important that we did not just make the podcast that we wanted, so canvassed some of our student employability champions and younger members of our team

EMPLOYABILITY

(which includes current and recent students). We decided to emphasise conversation, engagement and storytelling, rather than simply teaching students how to get a job.

BUSTING MYTHS To create a podcast, a good producer is far more important than fancy technology. You also need enthusiasm, great guests, a bit of planning and a little TLC. Recording is easy – just set up a meeting on MS Teams, click the red button and that’s about it! The really hard work happens before and after the recording. We employed

RISH BARUAH, previously Careers Consultant at

Henriette Stokes (aka Producer Henrie), initially as a graduate intern and now a part-time member of staff. Henrie does sterling

Nottingham Trent University (NTU), introduces empcast, NTU's employability podcast, which was originally designed to involve students and graduates in conversations about job hunting, self-

work contacting the guests beforehand to discuss topics and themes, writing scripts and structures, and producing and editing the podcasts.

WHO ACTUALLY LISTENS?

employment and the effects of the pandemic on the graduate labour market. [With additional

As of March this year, we have surpassed 1,000 listens, which isn’t bad in just a few months. Just as importantly, we have had some

contributions by SETH JENNINGS, Employability Adviser, and HENRIETTE STOKES, Podcast

great comments: “It makes you feel like you are not alone and that there is help in the university available if needed.”

Producer] Our aim is to embed empcast into the student and graduate employability experience, eventually integrating the podcast into Let’s take it as read that we have all moved heaven and earth to keep providing services to our students. As employability staff, students are the lifeblood of our day-to-day activity; we know

our delivery strategy. In the meantime, the podcast gets publicised via staff and student communications, and is even embedded in a VLE widget for many courses.

that since the switch to online learning, higher education institutions have faced significant challenges around engagement.

We decided to emphasise ENHANCING OUR OFFER

conversation, engagement

At Nottingham Trent University (NTU), we quickly harnessed technology to deliver a full range of employability services when Covid-19 hit. Amongst other things, we adopted live chat triage, an online drop-in service, and synchronous/asynchronous delivery of curriculum-based and extracurricular sessions via Teams. However, this was more or less replicating the face-toface delivery that was no longer possible. We wanted to enhance our offer and decided to try podcasting, creating a digital resource that didn’t involve staring at a screen. That’s how empcast was born.

PAGE 39

and storytelling

FUTURE EPISODES EMPCAST GUESTS TO DATE

Forthcoming episodes will feature students talking about their experiences around disability, non-traditional education, and other perceived barriers relating to NTU’s Success For All (WP) agenda.

Amongst others, we have heard from: We have already planned a student-led Let’s Talk About… series.

We are also toying with the idea of live podcasts, tying in with A ceramics graduate who rushed home from Australia as flagship events, such as our jobs fairs, and exploring ideas for lockdown hit, and set up a business selling illustrations via content related to specific subject areas.

Instagram.

This has been a really enjoyable experiment, and it has been a An MSc Business graduate who volunteered with a delight to find a new way of engaging with our students and Nottingham tech start-up, and is now their Chief Growth graduates at a time of high career anxiety. We are truly excited Officer (despite being based in the US). about the potential for podcasting to become integrated into our delivery strategy.

A broadcast journalist sharing her tips for online interviews and a career in radio.

An economics graduate who has started her own thriving

seth.jennings@ntu.ac.uk

business, and has been nominated for multiple categories in the 2021 Innovation Awards.

anchor.fm/empcast

@careersrish

It has been a delight to find a new way of engaging with our students and graduates at a time of high career anxiety

PAGE 40

As well as this, most of our structured careers initiatives aim to target students at an earlier stage in their degree. Given these challenges, and that at the time the use of technology within the careers service was also limited, funding was sourced to create

embracing technology:

the RDGgrad programme.

This programme aimed to raise the ambitions, skills and ability of

SUPPORTING

students whilst tracking their overall job search status. Ultimately, we hoped that this would lead to students making more informed

STUDENTS TO BE CAREER SMART

decisions earlier in the graduate recruitment cycle.

BEYOND THE USUAL REACH To achieve the large-scale movement in career thinking that we wanted, we knew that we had to embrace technology.

Specifically, the kind of technology that targeted students well beyond the usual reach of those engaging with the careers service.

The University of Reading has a team focused on the development

DANIEL MITCHELL, Careers Consultant at the

of online courses and, since 2013, has attracted more than one million users to its academic courses. With their support, and in

University of Reading, outlines how efforts to embrace technology is helping to move the career thinking of students forward so that they are more prepared to face the challenges of the graduate recruitment process. Here, he reflects on the positive impact of Career Smart, one of the

collaboration with the careers service at the Henley Business School, we decided to develop our own online course, Career Smart.

Hosted on the FutureLearn platform, creating an online course ensured that our content was accessible 24/7 and was new and enticing to our target audience. Students were in complete control of their learning, being able to choose how and when to engage

initiatives that forms part of the award-winning

with the course, which they could work through at their own pace.

RDGgrad programme.

SHIFT IN THINKING Our RDGgrad programme encourages final year undergraduates The course is made up of four parts, starting with an introduction to engage with careers. Having launched three years ago, to the graduate recruitment timeline before the focus shifts to what student engagement has now increased by 217% and we have students want from a job, the applications process and then developed a wide range of bespoke activities and initiatives to action planning for the future. Within the course, students hear support our students as they enter the world of recruitment. from members of the careers service, graduate employers and alumni whilst engaging with a range of activities and digital In June 2020, our efforts were awarded the AGCAS Supporting content, including online tools, podcasts, videos and webinars.

Student and Graduate Employability Award, being recognised as a “bold and ambitious” project. But all this started by identifying a larger issue within the student body, so I’ll start from the beginning.

To support students with this shift in thinking, Career Smart opens during the summer before they start their final year. Given this timescale, we were able to target our efforts around making improvements in three further areas:

2018 THROWBACK 1. Increasing student confidence when taking next steps after In the 2017-18 academic year, we registered less than 1,800 hours of engagement with students who were about to graduate.

There were concerns that students were leaving their career decisions too late and that a good proportion were missing out on, and ultimately not prepared for, the earliest graduate recruitment deadlines.

PAGE 41

university 2. Growing student knowledge of how the graduate recruitment process works 3. Ensuring students feel ready and more prepared to apply for graduate jobs.

PROBLEM SOLVED? " At the beginning, I had no knowledge nor confidence with anything relating to life after university. This course has completely changed

With Career Smart, we have created an innovative techenhanced initiative that has not only helped us on our way to moving students' career thinking forward but has also allowed us

that and now, instead of feeling nervous, I feel to integrate new technology within our practice.

ready to tackle graduate applications head on, knowing what to expect and how to prepare" Student

We are now preparing for our biggest intake of the course this summer, with more than 1,000 students expected to join us. This would represent 33% of our finalist population and shows how far we have come in three years. Looking forward, we will be

AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

focusing our efforts on how to address the following issues:

Skip forward to 2021 - Career Smart has now run twice. In year

Driving forward participation, ensuring all students have

two, more than 750 students took part, recording over 2,250

access to the content

hours of learning. Participants logged more than 3,000 comments

Encouraging full engagement with the course, aiming for an

and 100% of course completers agreed that they would

increased completion rate

recommend Career Smart to a friend.

Improving take up with students from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Students taking the course complete a pre- and post- survey with the data highlighting that there is significant growth in each of our three identified areas of improvement. These trends are also

THE HUMAN ELEMENT

supported by our Careers Registration data, which indicates that students completing the course are more likely to be both

Career Smart shows how technology can be used to resolve

narrowing down their career options and pursuing graduate

issues, but one important point has remained clear throughout.

opportunities at an earlier stage.

The success of this form of guidance still relies on the ‘human’ element, demonstrated by the interactions on the course and

Our guidance has also evolved in response to this new

through the increased number of participants seeking a one-to-

technology, with our careers consultants supporting students

one guidance appointment after completion of Career Smart.

throughout the course. This has included responding to comments and questions but also by addressing concerns and encouraging

Investing in and embracing technology should not be seen as a

students to clarify their thoughts further.

replacement to one-to-one guidance but instead an important partnership to achieve success by working together.

Career Smart shows how technology can be used to

d.mitchell@reading.ac.uk

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn

resolve issues

PAGE 42

from idea to industry: THE VALUE OF IP EDUCATION IN A VIRTUAL SPACE

IP aligns with our ROXANNE PETERS, IP Education Specialist at the

commitment to support our

University of the Arts London, outlines the conception, design and launch of an e-learning creative rights resource, which aims to support students and graduates to consider intellectual property when

students and graduates to develop their creative professional identity

creating, managing and sharing content.

Educators and creatives adjusted rapidly to new ways to connect digitally in 2020, whilst continuing to support creative practice – from exchanging ideas, planning final showcases and building relationships with industry.

CONNECT AND REFLECT Collaborating in ever more interdisciplinary and global spaces, it is important that students and graduates feel confident when negotiating job opportunities, working on shared initiatives or starting a business from the ground up.

Intellectual property (IP) plays a vital role in developing our creative students’ future selves. An understanding of its value will help ensure their voices are heard, their skills are respected and their contribution to society is recognised.

I am responsible for helping creatives recognise the value of their IP and respect the rights of others within their practice and in industry. Based in the Careers and Employability Team, IP aligns with our commitment to support students and graduates to

Within education, IP is still largely reserved for those pursuing a legal career or those starting a business. The value of IP within a university context is often solely measured by commercial knowledge exchange outputs; it has rarely been considered within a creative, practice-led space that encourages critical thinking and human-centred approaches for real-world scenarios.

develop their creative professional identity. Like other areas of professional development, understanding the role of IP is a vital life skill but is not a mandatory focus of the curriculum. In an emerging field of creative education, I aim to demystify IP in a relational way. I am informed by how our creatives think and what motivates them to self-reflect to develop their identity.

One of the biggest challenges I face is how to reach 20,000

IP plays a vital role in

international students across 230 courses working in interdisciplinary ways. My sessions range from discipline-specific

developing our creative students' future selves

topics, such as gaming design and fashion psychology, to wider sessions on creative enterprise and projects championing women in leadership.

PAGE 43

Recurring themes emerge such as recognising the difference

ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING

between inspiration and imitation, what to think about when collaborating and co-creating and how to navigate the challenges of sharing work on social media.

While the module is still in its infancy, beyond being a standalone e-learning resource it has already become the cornerstone of our IP education offer.

DYNAMIC AND DIGITAL

The primary challenges we face are:

One silver lining of remote working is that it encouraged me to reflect on potential opportunities for e-learning and how I might draw on my experiences to date, taking into account the way I engage with creatives as well as how our IP education is driven by practice.

how to measure the impact of IP education when it affects individuals at different touchpoints how to compete with pre-existing commitments in the curriculum understanding the best time to engage with students and staff

With a strict three-month deadline and a blank page, I was tasked with creating an online IP education resource. I was keen

during the academic year and once creative students graduate.

to work with people with a shared vision and complementary experience. Central to this decision was thinking about our users

We have already identified areas to develop, such as:

and how we might best connect with them. It therefore proved invaluable to work with a UAL graduate to help provide insights into how to approach engagement, tone of voice and draw on real-life peer stories.

a tool to support staff and embed it into curriculum design a basis to develop future modules such as IP and ethical engagement, IP and creative enterprise a digital space to bring shared thinking and communities of

We worked with an e-learning developer using software that reflects UAL’s commitment to experiential and inclusive teaching and learning. We also encouraged feedback from students and

practice together a model to encourage best practice and recognition of IP education sector-wide.

staff before launch.

IP thinking and healthy ethical INCLUSIVE AND VISIBLE

engagement are central to When we started scoping and visualising the module, I had three primary aims: to keep it simple, to make it relatable and to ensure

sustainable professional

its accessibilty. Drawing on my practice-led experience, I had a clear vision of what to create to appeal to both synchronous and

practice

asynchronous teaching and learning (the module can be used alongside live sessions).

At a time when it is easier than ever to create, communicate and collaborate in a digital space, there has never been a more vital The core of my methodology and basis of the module centres on time to position IP education at the heart of the curriculum and into five interconnected areas: creative practice.

Creating

We have a tangible offer, but now the work really begins. We will continue to seek effective ways to engage with all

Protecting

stakeholders in a digital space. Our aim is to empower students and colleagues to feel confident in the responsibility they have,

Managing and the decisions they make, where IP thinking and healthy Using

ethical engagement are central to sustainable professional practice.

Sharing

© Roxanne Peters, 2021

We used the software to combine IP principles with relevant

r.peters@arts.ac.uk

examples, creating interactive elements incorporating graduate experiences (soundbites and videos), scenario-based questions

@roxrocks4

and reflective space to encourage critical thinking around selfvalue. Students, graduates and staff can access the non-linear

Connect with Roxanne on LinkedIn

resource on a central internal platform and complete it in its entirety (80 minutes), or focus on specific sections.

PAGE 44

practitioner views: USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY DURING AND AFTER

There are new expectations from students and, as a result, new avenues for careers delivery

THE PANDEMIC

Tom Staunton, Lecturer in Career Development at

The research has particularly focused on the idea that things will not return to the previous ‘normal’; there are new expectations

iCeGS, the University of Derby, reports on higher education practitioners’ experiences of using digital technology during the pandemic. With a view to the future, he examines what careers services can learn from developing hybrid digital delivery models in a (hopefully) post-pandemic world.

from students and, as a result, new avenues for careers delivery.

Many careers services are now looking at moving to a hybrid digital delivery model from the autumn.

Three of the main themes from the research, which will be expanded upon in the future, look at access, context and embodiment. These themes show how practitioners experienced delivering digitally during the pandemic, but also create signposts for future practice.

ACCESS The participants I talked to almost exclusively described technology leading to more students accessing their services.

Digital technology has had a profound impact on higher

Most said this was for one-to-one work with similar numbers for

education (HE) careers work long before the pandemic occurred.

central workshops as well. This was in terms of the number of

Careers work has been subject to trends throughout the HE sector,

appointments but also more qualitative comments, such as

which has seen technology become prevalent in both the delivery

students being able to access services in a more convenient way.

of learning and teaching and the management of the same.

For example, students with caring responsibilities or those with disabilities benefitted from accessing services remotely, without

Despite these pre-existing trends, the pandemic has presented a

the need to come to campus.

Pandora’s box moment for digital engagement, as HE practitioners’ interaction with students, employers and their teams

This was echoed by practitioners who discussed being able to

have been disrupted for over twelve months.

facilitate greater access between employers and students. They were able to use employers in the curriculum and workshops by

Throughout the last academic year, I have researched the

‘Zooming’ them into sessions. These reflections on access are

experiences of careers practitioners using digital technology as

significant for careers services, both in terms of meeting

part of their role. I have had the privilege to conduct in-depth

institutional objectives and offering a service which is genuinely

interviews with 16 participants across the UK HE careers sector.

‘for’ all students.

This involved talking to practitioners working across a number of student, employer and staff-facing roles, as well as those with

What was crucial for careers services was understanding if this

management responsibilities for careers services.

access would continue after the pandemic. Was the increased involvement the product of easier access or the need for more

This research has focused on how practitioners adapted to the

support because of the reduction of careers options during

pandemic and how they feel about hybrid delivery in a post-

lockdown? Careers services will need to pay close attention to

pandemic university.

how students, and which students, access their services using technology post-pandemic.

PAGE 45

CONTEXT Respondents talked about the importance of context in terms of their delivery. We can sometimes think about professionals as automatically deploying their skills in a robotic manner no matter what their situation is. But one thing we have learnt from the pandemic is that context matters. Some (not all) participants talked about the drain of being stuck on video conference calls all day while everyone commented on the benefits of working in their home environment. However, they also lamented the downside of not being physically present with their team or other university colleges. As universities consider developing hybrid services in the future, it is vital to think about how career consultants can be supported to not feel isolated, and how the benefits of homeworking can be balanced by developing effective teams.

A number of practitioners reflected that being physically present may not be better for clients, just a projection of their own values.

This points to the need for more research in this important area.

FUTURE MODELS There are a number of key themes for university careers services

EMBODIMENT

to consider as they develop future hybrid models. Services will need to consider and monitor how students want to access

Finally, one of the key aspects of delivery that was discussed was services. There are also the challenges of developing contexts that careers guidance as an embodied activity. All practitioners professionals can operate in, and the skills and strategies needed recognised the importance of developing a strong working to be present and engage with students. alliance with clients (especially in one-to-one work, but in groups as well).

I hope to continue to develop these findings as part of an ongoing project, but I think at an early stage it shows the need for careers Some participants talked about eye-contact, reading body services to think across a number of different levels in order to language and sharing space as part of how they developed understand student needs, develop appropriate digital strategies strong alliances in physical environments. Not having these and consider the contexts of teams and individuals. interactions was challenging, often made worse when (for a variety of reasons) clients had their camera turned off.

What was interesting was a split between participants who had developed alternative strategies for not being present with students, while others who focussed more on missing face-to-face

t.staunton@derby.ac.uk

delivery. Partly this points to the need for effective CPD to share best practice and encourage practitioners to adapt. But it also raises another question about these narratives – what actually

runninginaforest.wordpress.com

@tomstaunton84

makes a difference to clients?

PAGE 46

Career Weaver is also a very flexible tool, with no set ‘path’ to follow. It is deliberately non-directive and built to encourage users to explore; to log in and simply start to play, and uncover the exercises that intuitively appeal to them. While users don’t have to complete every exercise to uncover valuable and actionable insights, the different exercises can reveal complementary ideas that reinforce each other, or prompt reflections to challenge

Career Weaver:

current thinking and assumptions.

As careers advisers, our experience tells us that a single insight

SUPPORTING ONLINE

can be enough for some people to generate direction and momentum, while others need more time and input to build a

CAREER REFLECTION

more holistic understanding of their personal foundations. We feel that Career Weaver supports both styles, which has been reflected in students’ feedback.

HUGH NICHOLSON-LAILEY, Careers Adviser at the University of Oxford, outlines how the creation of a novel web-based application is helping

REVEALING A PATTERN Career Weaver’s reflective exercises also embrace elements of action planning; it supports goal setting and the development and self-evaluation of a user’s best examples, which they can use in

students reflect, identify and articulate their personal career drivers.

applications to demonstrate skills and contributions. Lastly, for students who want to work to ‘an endpoint’, the Reveal my Pattern exercise walks users through the process of crafting a personal branding statement or elevator pitch from the insights and

Soon after the country went into the first lockdown, Oxford

reflections they have captured.

University Careers Service (OUCS) launched Career Weaver, an online application for self-led career reflection and discovery of users’ core career drivers. It is a flexible, intuitive tool that helps students identify and articulate clearly what they love, what they are good at and why they do it.

Most exercises need only a few minutes’ work before the student is adding their own thoughts, reflections and insights, and we recommend Career Weaver is used over a number of visits. In the first year, we have seen 1,600 active users make over 4,000 visits to Career Weaver. More than half of these visits are long

PROGRAMME FOUNDATION The idea to create a platform offering students a suite of simple and quick exercises to stimulate careers reflection was sparked by

enough to complete at least one exercise, whilst one in eight have been longer than 30 minutes, suggesting a much deeper engagement across several exercises.

a 'values sort' exercise included in Ignite, a career confidence programme developed by OUCS for schools and colleges. A

LOCKDOWN LAUNCH

successful bid to the Oxford University IT Innovation funded the development work.

It was a lucky coincidence that this new, online, mobile-friendly self-assessment and reflection tool was available for students at

We started by translating existing paper-based tools into gameplay concepts, which we tested and developed through workshops and focus groups. Many of the OUCS careers

the start of lockdown. Careers advisers were quick to recommend Career Weaver to students working remotely, being familiar with its underpinning concepts and having helped with its design.

advisory team contributed to this work, providing a user interface and collecting and collating feedback from students to inform the UX work. Our testing went beyond undergraduates and Master's students to include PhDs, and both research and administrative staff.

Initially conceived for use in advisory sessions with students, Career Weaver is now integrated into OUCS employability programmes, and required as pre-work for some skills programmes to promote discussion and learning. We have also extended access to alumni and university staff, acknowledging Career Weaver’s potential to support on-going self-evaluation,

FOLLOWING THE THREADS

career thinking and personal development for everyone.

Designed to be accessible and intuitive, Career Weaver offers a variety of exercises to help everyone uncover, explore and articulate their personal career drivers. The dozen exercises employ a variety of methods of play to embrace differing work

hugh.lailey@careers.ox.ac.uk

styles, sustain interest, and give users the structure and language

Connect with Hugh on LinkedIn

necessary for independent reflection on values, preferences, strengths, skills and motivations.

PAGE 47

AGCAS training 100% online for 2021/22

Giving you the opportunity to learn, hone and augment your knowledge and skills, and extend your professional network.

[Online is] more suitable as I did not have to make a business case for travel expenditure. [Observed]

BRAND NEW FOR 2021/22 interviews felt more natural as

Bridging the Gap: Demystifying, exploring and challenging trends in talent acquisition, recruitment ethics and practices priced at a lower, pilot price from

webcams were off and muted, so it felt more realistic and comfortable.

£380 AGCAS WORKSHOPS – two-hour long intensive sessions

Participant, Introduction to

on focussed topics, from just £40.

Guidance Interviewing

Writing for Impact training.

All the trainers were

These complement our existing training portfolio which includes:

fantastic and very approachable. It was clear they had really thought about how to adapt the content for online delivery.

The breakout rooms were extremely enjoyable; they were a great way to connect. Also the activities and discussions were extremely beneficial.

One-day introductory and refresher courses such as Introduction to Advice, Leadership Refresher and Guidance Refresher.

Two-day courses feature the opportunity to practice 1-2-1 interview techniques with real students in a confidential and supportive environment. You will also receive both tutor and peer feedback. These are Introduction to Guidance Interviewing and Employability Advice.

Longer, more in-depth training on a range of topics from Group Work, Work Related Learning in Higher Education and Employability and Career Development Learning to Guidance Skills (Advanced), Management of HE Careers and Employability Services and Technology-based Career

Participant, Work Related

and Learning Provision.

Learning in HE

These courses are also modules of the AGCAS/University of Warwick Careers Education, Information and Guidance in HE (CEIGHE) postgraduate qualifications, but are open to all – registrants and non-registrants; AGCAS members and non-members.

Full programme coming soon.

For further details view Training and Conferences or get in touch with Erica Imhof, AGCAS Professional Development Manager.

By working with colleagues in Digital Technologies, we have

employer engagement knowledge exchange: ADOPTING

developed bespoke dashboards and management reporting capabilities. This more sophisticated use of the system has enhanced user experience and buy-in from colleagues.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY The Employer Engagement Team is comprised of over 20

CUSTOMER

externally-facing employer engagement professionals whose

RELATIONSHIP

placement and graduate opportunities, attracting employers to

MANAGEMENT

primary role is to develop new business, such as identifying

events, and encouraging employer involvement in initiatives, presentations and webinars. The team are aligned to specific industry sectors and projects; some colleagues have specific employer engagement remits, such as international employer engagement.

The team initially mapped out the customer journey and configured the system according to our specific needs. For example, identifying the origins of leads, tracking conversion of leads, management reporting and creating both target call lists

With the growing need to embed employer-related

and marketing lists.

activity and labour market intelligence (LMI) into the curriculum, and the rise of targeted employer engagement across the higher education sector, it is

LEAD GENERATION The system enables the management team to have visibility of an

now paramount that universities effectively manage

individual's and whole team’s lead generation performance. This

their institution-wide external engagement. HANNA

has enabled managers to identify pressure points and use the

LUETKEMEIER, Employer Engagement Manager, and

data on the system to manage and direct daily operational activity. We created bespoke dashboards to track progress

LOU RONTREE, Industry Engagement Manager, outline how Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU)

against individual targets and against specific project deliverables.

Employability Team have utilised a customer relationship management (CRM) system and adopted

The system also allows us to track referrals to the Employability Team by other departments, such as Alumni Relations, and we

a commercial approach to employer engagement.

can report on successful lead conversion. This process has enhanced our internal stakeholder relationships. We can also track our website and external marketing activity (inbound

Many external relationships exist across an institution the size of Nottingham Trent University (NTU), ranging from alumni contacts

activity) versus how well we have proactively reached out to employers (outbound activity).

to research partners. These relationships are not visible to the Employability Team and our relationships are not visible to the wider university. Whilst the Employability Team uses bespoke careers systems – InPlace and CareerHub – we identified the

The aim is to improve

need to hold our engagement in one place, and to track our lead generation activity. The aim is to attempt to improve employer

employer engagement by

engagement by increasing transparency and reducing the chances of employers being contacted multiple times by the team,

increasing transparency

and the university.

We decided to adopt the university’s customer relationship management system (MS Dynamics CRM), which is primarily

We have created a way to monitor whether the employer is

used for student recruitment. To date, we have seen significant

interested in placement or graduate recruitment and, most

benefits. It has improved the visibility of existing relationships and

recently, specific interests such as diversity and inclusion. This

engagement activity, increased our ability to cross-sell and

enables us to create a target group of employers for bespoke

enhanced our collaborative working approaches.

initiatives.

PAGE 49

PROJECT MAPPING

WORK IN PROGRESS

Utilising the leads and opportunities within the system gives us the

Adopting MS Dynamics CRM has not been without its challenges.

ability to track the employer journey from the starting point of

We are using a system which is primarily used for student

engagement to full enrolment on to an externally-funded project,

recruitment and adapted its customer tracking functionality with

of which we have several. Through the system we can track

little knowledge of how the back end of the system works. We

enrolment through to all claimable project outputs, such as hours

developed an automated data feed from other employability

engaged and costs associated (recorded per interaction)

systems into the CRM platform, as our aim is to ensure it presents

throughout the lifecycle of the project. The opportunity to create

an accurate and real-time picture of our employer engagement.

bespoke dashboards for each project has given us a clear

This is still a work in progress due to resource restrictions within

indication of monthly performance against targets, as well as the

the centralised CRM team.

ability to track and report engagement across multiple levels, such as location, local council, industry and size.

Whilst the CRM platform is the approved system used by the business development team, we still face challenges with the wider Employability Team using the system. To combat these challenges, we have produced training guides and videos to

The system gives us the ability to

support new members of the team. We have built bespoke dashboards to demonstrate visually how the tracking of leads can

track the employer journey

benefit manager’s decision-making and help colleagues direct their activity. We are also in the process of creating an interface

throughout the lifecycle of engagement

tailored specifically to the Employability Team, which ensures unused features will no longer be visible.

We continue to work together to share the benefits of the system, such as knowledge exchange, with our internal stakeholders and

DIRECT MARKETING

with employers. It will be an ongoing journey of process

We can also use the system to generate and send mass-mailers,

improvement; we acknowledge that any system is only as good

using a simple classification tool to group employers together. We

as the information we put into it.

can search by sector, size and location to create industry-specific business development lists, which is really helpful when we want to identify a group of employers to engage with or to invite to a particular event. For example, we can target Nottingham-based

hanna.luetkemeier@ntu.ac.uk

SMEs or create specific lists of employers for each of our lou.rontree@ntu.ac.uk recruitment fairs.

PAGE 50

ensuring your event is VIRTUALLY UNMISSABLE FAREEHA ADNAN, Employer Engagement Officer at Royal Holloway, University of London, shares what she has learnt from delivering and attending virtual events over the past 18 months and highlights key points to help elevate online delivery.

As a result of the pandemic, we are now more experienced in attending and delivering webinars than ever before. I became interested in what elements make for a positive experience after watching countless webinars, speaking to event professionals in a range of sectors, and delivering my first few virtual events.

KNOW YOUR TECH

REAL TIME FEEDBACK

Questions like “Can you hear me?”, “Can you see my slides?”, “Is

I ran a debate style event on MS Teams called Marketing In-house

that working?” gives your presentation a weak start and risks losing

vs Agency: Which is Right for Me? Alumni from both in-house and

your audience before you’ve even begun. At the start of the

agency roles talked about their experiences and students were

pandemic, this was understandable as we were all getting used to

able to hear the pros and cons of each type of role and company.

new technologies and platforms. Now though, being fully

At the beginning of the event, I used polls to ask the audience

prepared will allow you to control the virtual space in the same

whether they wanted to work in an agency, in-house role or if they

way you would command a physical room. As well as hosting your

didn’t know yet. Nearly 65% of attendees responded that they

audience, you are also a host to your panelists and speakers. To

didn't know. At the end of the event, I posted the question again. In

ensure they are comfortable and fully prepared, it’s helpful to

contrast to the poll at the start, all students either voted in-house or

‘meet’ them virtually beforehand – particularly as they are often

agency and no one selected that they didn’t know. Asking these

entering into an unknown virtual space.

questions provides reassurance that the students our careers service aims to target are getting the support they need.

ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE In a physical event, we are used to seeing reactions from students

AVOIDING VIRTUAL FATIGUE

and colleagues - nodding heads, smiles and sometimes confused

Fewer words on slides means students are less likely to suffer from

faces - all of which give us an indication of how well our message

virtual fatigue and more likely to listen to what you are saying.

is being received and understood. In a virtual world where your

Display key words or pictures in a fun and creative way to

audience is often a blank screen, it’s infinitely harder to gauge a

demonstrate what you are trying to portray. For example, when

reaction to your content. This is where non-verbal engagement

describing teamwork, don’t go for the typical in-the-boardroom-

tools come in. Many of the platforms we are using (MS Teams,

sitting-around-a-table image, but maybe use an image of ants

Zoom, etc) have capabilities to help us gauge real-time feedback

working together in a colony?

from our audience. Activities such as posting polls or posing questions in the chat throughout the presentation offers more

While none of these points are revolutionary or new to careers

nervous or introverted students the opportunity to contribute

events, it’s worth remembering that a lot of the key elements for a

thoughts and ideas to the discussion.

successful physical event translate into the virtual space too.

Prepare to be agile and flexible in the delivery of your event, so that it doesn’t come across as a scripted, recorded presentation.

Refer back to student responses to show you give importance to their opinion, you understand their concerns and can offer relevant advice. If you’re confident in your material, and can divert to a question or comment and then navigate back to your event seamlessly, the webinar will flow much more naturally.

PAGE 51

Fareeha.Adnan@rhul.ac.uk

Connect with Fareeha on LinkedIn

Longer term, we hope to develop a Physics Pathfinder digital tool to support students to better understand regional graduate labour markets by matching their career aspirations to potential job

digital careers planning

opportunities. This will help students build a more accurate picture of regional work opportunities that fits their academic interests and desired location of work.

FOR PHYSICISTS CAREER CONVERSATIONS Other digital toolkits will focus on a diverse range of themes,

DR ANDREW HIRST, director of the White

including ‘recruitability’ (such as interview skills) and creating a

Rose Industrial Physics Academy (WRIPA)

LinkedIn profile. WRIPA is also collaborating with the Institute of

at the University of York, outlines a digital

Physics to create a digital Wellbeing and Personal Resilience guide, which will outline strategies to help students build and

approach to improving the outcomes of physics graduates.

maintain resilience in the face of change. WRIPA has started to develop inclusive online content and resources that will resonate with different student cohorts and can be embedded within the physics curriculum. We also plan to develop a podcast series

The White Rose Industrial Physics Academy (WRIPA) is a based on career conversations with alumni, covering topics such collaboration between business and the university physics as changing career paths and how to deal with failure. This departments of Hull, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield and York. content will highlight to students the non-linear career paths of WRIPA’s mission is to provide physics students with the physicists and how to view career progression as a opportunity to gain skills, knowledge and work experience that developmental activity. will better prepare them for graduate-level work. WRIPA was recently awarded funding from the Office for Students’ Improving Outcomes for Local Graduates Challenge Competition. The funding has enabled WRIPA to focus on increasing the number of physics students that are in graduate-level employment in the Yorkshire, Humberside and East Midlands region.

TALENT POOL Increasingly, employers are delivering their student engagement events and content digitally in order to connect with a larger number of students across multiple universities. WRIPA’s website will link up a regional talent pool of physicists with technical

NEW DIGITAL FUTURE

employers. This will offer SMEs and lesser-known employers improved connectivity with an undergraduate physics audience.

Physics students have the right skills to be valuable in the new digital future. Current graduate labour market data indicates that opportunities for physicists in areas such as programming, data

We also plan to curate sector or role-specific content in collaboration with employers or professional bodies, to sketch out career pathways and develop inclusive digital content.

science and software development will remain or grow. However, in the post-pandemic world, many physics students lack the ‘translation’ skills to digitally market themselves, develop online professional networks or find work opportunities.

WRIPA has been able to draw on a cross-university interdisciplinary team with expertise in marketing, web development, student careers support, business engagement and teaching and learning. Through the digital tools and resources

In response to the pandemic, WRIPA has re-imagined how it will support physics students to navigate their new virtual professional world, make better-informed career decisions, and connect with employers. The WRIPA website, to be relaunched in autumn

that have been produced to date - and those that are planned for the future - we hope to empower and inspire physics students as they transition out of university and into the workplace, and continue to support their future career development.

2021, will be an innovative and accessible physics career development platform, offering information on career pathways, business connections and relatable role models. Using a desktop

With thanks to all staff who contribute to the central delivery of

or mobile device, physics students will be able to access

WRIPA.

embedded career readiness resources, including a Physics Discovery Careers tool to learn about the types of roles that physicists go on to, and connect with compatible employers or WRIPA physics alumni.

andrew.hirst@york.ac.uk

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn

ASPIRATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES @WRIPAinfo The tool will help to break down misconceived stereotypes of physics-related job roles by introducing students to a range of diverse role models.

PAGE 52

career conversations: STUDENT CONCERNS, PRACTITIONER APPROACHES AND PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGES Dr Julia Yates, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at City, University of London, and Professor Wendy Hirsh, share the findings from a recent research project that sought to unearth students' key support needs during one-to-one careers interviews.

Career guidance training courses and text books cover a wide range of techniques and approaches to support clients, but it’s important that we keep asking ourselves whether we are teaching

The next most common group of difficulties were to do with anxiety. Advisers reported that students found the uncertainty of the process particularly difficult to cope with.

the right stuff. To answer this question properly, you really need to have a good understanding of where students get stuck with their career planning. There is very little academic research on this and

PRACTITIONER APPROACHES

the papers published are all fairly old and not based on UK data.

Advisers spoke about the importance of developing a strong

So, last year, we set to work to find out some of this information

relationship (lots of empathy, rapport-building and authentic care

for ourselves.

and interest) and the value of a loose flexible interview structure, which nearly always involved some contracting at the start and

We found 59 generous higher education careers advisers from

some action points at the end. They used an impressively wide

varied institutions across the UK. Each kept a record of the nature

range of techniques to address students' specific emotional,

of every one-to-one careers interview they conducted during the

cognitive and behavioural issues.

course of a week (quick queries, CV checks, long interviews and anything else). We collected details of 600 career conversations

For the most part, the advisers’ strategies mapped quite well on to

from July 2019 – March 2020 and followed up with in-depth

the students’ difficulties, but there were a couple of areas that

interviews with 22 careers advisers to explore our findings in

seemed to be less well covered.

more detail.

We didn’t hear much from advisers about how they helped

WHERE DO STUDENTS GET STUCK? Advisers found that each student they saw had, on average, four elements that were holding them back. These could be cognitive, emotional or behavioural, or a combination of all three.

students to generate ideas for job options, nor how they described the process of career development to students. We wondered whether there could be a place for further research here, to get some deeper understanding of effective ways to generate job ideas, and to find ways to present career development theories or descriptions of the career development

Exactly 85% of the one-to-one conversations centred on a lack of

process in a more usable form.

information, with more than half of the students asking for help with job hunting. Careers advisers noted that, very often, the request for a CV check came alongside a number of other issues; students often use a focus on CVs as a displacement activity (instead of engaging with career planning) or as a gateway to

We were also interested to see how views differed on the topic of information-giving, with some advisers rarely giving labour market information (LMI) and others feeling that informationgiving should be a core part of any career conversation.

seeking advice (a safe, tangible starting point).

Advisers generally felt that they were quite well equipped to support the students. Where they felt a conversation to be

Careers advisers used an impressively wide range of techniques to address students' specific emotional, cognitive and behavioural issues

PAGE 53

challenging, this was usually associated with a concern about leaving the student disappointed.

The hardest things were coping with students who had unrealistic

DEEPER TENSIONS

career plans (expecting to walk into prestigious graduate jobs Research always seems to generate as many questions as it does

with ease), or a specious view of the role of the career adviser

answers. We wanted to leave you with a few final questions to

(imagining that the adviser will be able to wave a magic wand and tell them what do to). Some students also had very complex

mull over:

practical or psychological needs, including low self-confidence.

Is existing career theory good enough for our purposes as practitioners? Could we teach theory in a more useful way?

RECOMMENDATIONS

Should we, as a profession, have a clearer and more consistent approach to integrating information in guidance?

Drawing on our findings, we identified four ideas that services might want to consider:

How can we use careers education activities in HE to help

1.

make students feel less anxious and more ready for their own

An enhanced focus on peer learning.

planning?

It seems very sensible to capitalise on the existing wealth of expertise in services with peer reviews, case conferences

Is the non-directive, counselling approach the best approach

and formalised opportunities to share ideas.

for students who just want to be told what to do?

2.

Using our ‘Where do students get stuck?’ model.

To help advisers to more readily identify where their clients are stuck. It could also be shared with students in workshops

Should we have a clearer and

to help them reflect on their experiences.

more consistent approach to 3.

Training.

integrating information in

This could include approaches that are tailor made for

guidance?

specific aspects of our model. For example, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Solution Focused Coaching to help students with emotional issues, and Motivational

Finally, we want to thank the participants for their time and effort.

Interviewing and goal-orientated coaching to help propel

We found the project fascinating and really appreciated the

students towards action.

4.

generosity of everyone who took part.

Clearer explanations.

Do get in touch if you would like a copy of our full report, a PDF

Of career decision-making and the role, within this, of one-

of our model, or to discuss any of these findings further with you

to-one sessions. This could help to allay students’ anxiety

as individuals, or in your teams.

about the process and might help to make students more realistic about what to expect from a careers interview.

Julia.yates.1@city.ac.uk

Behavioural

Engage late Focus disproportionately on CVs Reluctant to take ownership

Where do

Emotional

students get stuck?

Anxious Lacking in confidence

Cognitive Limited understanding of: Themselves Relevant labour markets Process of career development Careers service offer

PAGE 54

RESEARCHER'S DIGEST

DR JULIA YATES, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at City, University of London, shares a digest of research related to technology in careers and employability work.

01

COACHING WITH AI

Graßmann, C., & Schermuly, C. C. (2021). Coaching With Artificial Intelligence: Concepts and Capabilities. Human Resource Development Review, 20(1), 106-126.

This paper hints at a brave new world to come, in which careers advisers are entirely replaced by bots. Artificial intelligence (AI) coaching is described as a machine-assisted, systematic process

02 TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED COUNSELLING

that aims to help clients set professional goals and identify solutions.

There are some obvious pluses to the idea of AI coaching (an anonymous, accessible and cheap alternative to face-to-face

Zainudin, Z. N., Hassan, S. A., Talib, M. A., Aniza, N., Ahmad, Y. M. Y., & Asri, A. S. (2020). Technology-

coaching). But could it ever offer a high-quality service? The authors

Assisted Career Counselling: Application, Advantages and of this paper had a go at mapping AI capabilities on to the different steps of coaching to see whether AI coaching could ever cover all the stages of a coaching session. They looked at problem identification, developing goals, generating solutions, consideration of consequences, targeting the most feasible solution, implementing the solution and evaluation. They concluded that AI could make a reasonable stab at most of the required steps but would not be able to do the early stages when a coach tries to understand a client’s situation and help them to identify their own goals. Nevertheless, the authors concluded that coaches might be able to hand their clients over to the AI programme part way through the coaching process. The second thing the authors did was to see whether AI could mimic the aspects of coaching that have been shown to make the biggest impact, most specifically, developing the working alliance. Here, the authors made quite a good case, backed up with what seems to good quality empirical evidence from the world of therapy, that clients can establish a genuine bond with their AI virtual agent, which develops over time. I’ve got to admit that I remain a little sceptical, but let’s see what other research emerges.

PAGE 55

Challenges as Career Counselling Services and Resources. Sciences, 10(11), 67-93.

These authors conducted a systematic literature review of the advantages and challenges of using technology-assisted career counselling, in which they looked at the findings of 30 existing research papers and summarised the themes. The studies included video conferencing career counselling, the use of social media, online group interventions, e-guidance and computer-assisted guidance programmes. In terms of advantages, the authors found that practitioners and clients valued the way that web services could get to groups of students who wouldn’t usually come to a careers service, the opportunity for students to access support whenever they need it, and the instant responses. The challenges the authors identified were more to do with the quality of the support that could be given online. They questioned the quality of information offered and were concerned that urgent needs of clients might not be picked up. They also highlighted concerns that not all students would have the access, or the skills required to make full use of the services.

03 WEB-BASED THERAPY

04 ENHANCING VIRTUAL LEARNING

Kiuru, N., Puolakanaho, A., Lappalainen, P., Keinonen, K.,

Greenhow, C., & Galvin, S. (2020). Teaching with

Mauno, S., Muotka, J., & Lappalainen, R. (2021).

social media: Evidence-based strategies for making

Effectiveness of a web-based acceptance and commitment

remote higher education less remote. Information and

therapy program for adolescent career preparation: A

Learning Sciences.

randomized controlled trial. Journal of vocational behavior, 127, 103578.

With so many career services offering taught employability modules, and so many of those now being offered online, this

I am really pleased to be able to include this paper as it offers some high-quality empirical support for an approach that I think has much to offer the careers world. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (pronounced as one word ACT) is an approach to helping people manage the impact of anxiety. In some ways it is quite similar to the more familiar CBT, but instead of trying to encourage clients to replace their negative thoughts with positive ones, ACT acknowledges that sometimes this is just too hard. Instead, ACT aims to help change the impact that those thoughts have on a person’s behaviour. This paper describes a randomised controlled trial, in Finland, that tested the impact of a web-based ACT intervention, comparing the impact of the intervention on its own with the impact of the same ACT intervention accompanied by face-to-face career counselling.

They found that the interventions both increased students’ selfefficacy and lowered their career insecurity, as measured both immediately after the intervention and six months down the line, and that girls, particularly, benefitted from the added face-toface support. Although this is a very interesting and relevant

paper offers what might be some useful ideas on using social media to enhance virtual learning. Evidence demonstrates that students are perfectly able to learn as well, or even better online as in person. However, we know that in the virtual classroom, students miss out on developing the personal connections with each other and with the teachers, which allow them to feel fully supported, to ask for help and to enhance their enjoyment of their learning. This paper looks at the idea of using social media as mechanism for developing these relationships virtually. The authors highlight that social media has a number of features that have the potential to help with this. They suggest that teachers could use personal profiles as a way to get to know their students, taking advantage of the informality of sites such as Facebook for relationship-building, and using social media for collaborative content creation. The message is that when integrated thoughtfully within online learning, social media can help students and teachers stay connected while apart, enhance students’ engagement and make remote learning seem less remote.

study, it does come with a caveat. The interventions lasted for five weeks, and even the web-based group had regular text

If you would like further details about any of the research

conversations with their career coach throughout, so whether this

featured in this round-up, please email

could ever be practical within our career service contexts is a

julia.yates.1@city.ac.uk

moot point.

PAGE 56

RESEARCH INSIGHTS: SUPPORTING STUDENTS THROUGH THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

Along with our Future You Webinars on confidence and growth mindset we are supporting the Student Minds’ Student Space initiative. We are delighted with the feedback from students about these events and the numbers attending or accessing on-demand.

These will be a cornerstone of our Future You Programme for next year.

Jayne Rowley, Executive Director of Student Services at Jisc, reflects on a year of immense change for university students and careers

Our findings reflect what has been a year of immense change for young people in which uncertainty has affected all areas of life, not least career plans. More than a quarter of students had changed

professionals.

their career plans due to the pandemic and 37% said they were still uncertain about what they would do.

I was really sad to miss the AGCAS Annual Conference this year – although spending a week at three miles per hour on the beautiful The general sense of uncertainty ties in with findings from careers Llangollen and Shropshire Canal gave me a chance to reflect on services, with the vast majority indicating that there had been an how quickly the year has passed and how uncertain the plans for increase in students asking about changing their plans. supporting students, careers services and employers still are for next year.

Given that university students who received careers advice were more likely to report that they were very certain about their career We are going to have to continue to be agile, be prepared to plans than those who had not, it is clear that the support they are change tack at short notice and be pragmatic about the ongoing receiving from the brilliant careers professionals in our institutions is blend of online and face-to-face engagement with students. I am extremely valuable. certain that wellbeing and confidence will be at the heart of student concerns for some time to come.

This spring and summer we have undertaken several research

REMOTE SERVICES

projects to understand how the pandemic has impacted students, as well as those who support them. We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to our latest Careers Advisory Services Survey. More than 250 careers professionals responded about advising students throughout the pandemic and future plans.

Another highlight is the Prospects Early Careers Survey 2021 of

In the past year, it’s been inspiring to see how quickly careers services have adapted to remote provision, embracing virtual careers fairs, offering online guidance and setting up virtual assessment centre practice sessions. Many cited the flexibility and accessibility of virtual services as the biggest benefit.

more than 7,000 students and graduates.

Careers professionals found that using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Teams was the most effective way to

CHALLENGES AND UNCERTAINTY

connect with students and graduates. Among the social media platforms respondents said that the most effective were Facebook,

Remaining motivated to study and optimistic about careers were

LinkedIn and Twitter. Some thought that Instagram and YouTube

among students’ biggest challenges of the past year. Mental health

were useful so it might be worth exploring those platforms to share

also featured heavily – the second biggest challenge for university

labour market information (LMI).

students – and we have several initiatives to support this issue.

Nearly two thirds of university students said they had made use of these services, with finalists more likely to visit careers services than those in earlier years.

PAGE 57

OVERCOMING BARRIERS Careers services noticed that student engagement had increased as

While the majority of careers professionals plan to continue with

students could access support from the comfort of their own home.

virtual one-to-one sessions when students are back on campus, some

This meant that barriers such as location, travelling and fitting face-

services are likely to adopt a blended approach to LMI delivery and

to-face appointments in around other commitments weren't an issue.

careers support in the future. This will help to reduce social isolation

Attendance rates also improved for some with fewer no shows.

and connect with colleagues and students in person while also

Others commented on the ability to access a wider student body

offering online alternatives to those who can't travel.

including transnational campus students. Students who were alone generally opened up more and seemed more relaxed than when

These insights are invaluable in helping us to support you in the best

they attended on-campus appointments.

way possible in the coming year. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for more things we could do here at Jisc.

This not only suggests that it will benefit both careers services and students to continue with the online format, but it also conveys that

There are three reports in this series:

students are actively engaging with careers services to seek out the

Work Experience During a Crisis

information they need, with 60% of respondents saying there has

Jobs, Apprenticeships and Postgraduate Study

been an increase in demand for general LMI.

Careers Advice

Both of our surveys indicated that there has also been a significant

These, along with other articles on careers services, can be accessed

surge in the amount of students asking about the job hunting process

on Luminate (luminate.prospects.ac.uk).

– many specifically seeking advice about virtual recruitment – and career planning. University students cited guidance on CVs, cover letters and job applications, and careers events such as job fairs among the most popular.

PAGE 58

VIEW PHOENIX THEMES

next issue

AND ISSUES

OF PHOENIX

NOVEMBER 2021

THIS ISSUE INCLUDES CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE FOLLOWING INSTITUTIONS:

City, University of London

The Open University

University of Hertfordshire

King’s College London

The University of Sheffield

University of Nottingham

Lancaster University

University of Birmingham

University of Oxford

Newcastle University

University of Bradford

University of Reading

Nottingham Trent University

University of Cambridge

University of Strathclyde

Robert Gordon University

University of Chester

Royal Holloway

Staffordshire University

University of Derby

University of Exeter

University of the Arts London

University of York