Increasing Student Engagement with Careers: What's the Answer, Now?
Student engagement with careers services is a topic that comes up time and time again, but it is a key issue now engagement is reported to be in decline, as seen in the Prospects Early Careers Survey. In these post-Covid times many services may be focused on how to get back to pre-pandemic levels of engagement or fighting the battle of understanding how best to engage students in the new hybrid era.
It might be tempting to think that engagement with a careers service can be enhanced with some good marketing and a nice bit of branding. But the reality is, whilst a good communications strategy is helpful, achieving good engagement (and here I mean not just engagement figures but quality interactions with impact) in my experience is woven into the fabric of how we all work. This is true on an individual practitioner level, as a service and in the collaborative efforts needed across the entire institution to ensure careers is integrated into the student experience.
Having worked across different institutions and academic subjects, the ways of working I have seen that ultimately increased student engagement are those activities that are; tailored, embedded and grounded in collaboration. Namely the following;
Embedded Employability
Delivering key careers learning inside the curriculum helps us break down some barriers. For example, a significant barrier is the need for students to have the time to engage with careers outside of standard contact hours, and to know when to engage with careers and understand what careers support is. These are challenges that are often likely to be faced by students from widening participation backgrounds but, by embedding employability into the curriculum, we can ensure that careers support is going to reach everyone. This approach can help level the playing field for some students, ensuring support is equitable and not just accessed by those ‘in the know’.
Embedded employability usually means we can reach a high number of students in one hit, good for those engagement statistics. But the most successful strategy for me has been where the content provided has synergy with the wider syllabus. Avoiding any kind of ‘bolt on’ approach to ensure that the content is relevant to the wider topic the students are learning and feels purposeful to them. Even if they aren’t ready to start applying for jobs at that time, they’ll be more likely to take this on board.
In a previous role I was lucky enough to work with employability embedded in every year. This truly was the best way to overcome the barrier of students being ‘ready’ to engage with careers. We all know students will have different starting points, varying degrees of career readiness and will need reminders of key employability skills. Building up these career skills through embedded provision starting at first year and continuing until a student's final year will ensure they are not left behind. These continual reminders of key messages will also generate further engagement with other careers activities.
Tailored Support
Is the same content delivered in the same way going to resonate with both a Computer Science student and an English Literature student? No, probably not. And, they also likely have different needs.
Within distinct subject areas, differences in career interests, skills developed through courses or typical extra curriculars, learning styles, values, career readiness can all shape the students’ needs and how best to reach them. For example, when it comes to making applications, the strengths of an academic subject will differ, and, therefore, so will the way the student needs to articulate these experiences.
One size does not usually fit all when it comes to impactful engagement. Learning the nuances and general needs of an academic subject group will enable practitioners to tailor the advice and service they provide. Thus, making it more meaningful to the students and therefore encouraging them to engage.
I’ve also seen others’ success with creating tailored provision based on other groups, offering dedicated programmes for underrepresented groups or widening participation students seem to have had a great impact. This has enabled the support to cover typical issues that may help a particular group or start where these students may typically be at in their journey. The key is creating a space where students can feel safe to express themselves and ask questions, they truly need answers to. This was something I saw recently at a ‘Women in Tech’ careers event, a truly unique experience to be in a room full of authenticity and encouragement – one that many of the student attendees called ‘inspirational’, clearly having a large impact on them.
Collaborative Working in Academic Departments
Academic and professional service colleagues in academic departments know their students, their course content, how their department operates, the skills they are equipping students with and often have industry connections to boot. They can be fabulous allies! But becoming part of ‘the team’ when it comes to an academic department is tricky business. Some will have an appreciation for what careers can offer and other times it may be misunderstood, not valued or there simply just might not be enough time in our colleagues’ diaries!
Agreeing strategic objectives, delivery plans and communications strategies, reviewing KPIs and reflecting on previous activities either formally captured in an action plan or through less formal discussions is a useful tool to ensuring we are all on the same page. This helps encourage colleagues understand the work careers practitioners do, know their input is valued and can see the impacts of collaborative careers work in their own department and how this may line up to any shared goals.
But if you aren’t able to start here, then start smaller by simply being present. Contribute to Open Days, graduation, welcome week, student feedback meetings, or outreach events. These are all events that help raise awareness with current or future students, directly impacting engagement. But they also serve as helpful reminders for colleagues about the service too.
Having a place to see students in the department has been vital to me and many colleagues, this visibility and level of access can be helpful to students. Appointment booking systems can be such a barrier at times! But those off-chance encounters with colleagues in your department are valuable relationship building opportunities you might not get otherwise.
Co-delivery with Students
Co-creating service offerings with students seems to be gaining in popularity, and rightly so. Our students are the ones we should listen to when it comes to understanding their needs, but they also have experience and skills we, as practitioners, may be missing.
Collaborating on delivery, for me, has been valuable for all parties. A good example of this is workshops I have delivered with the Warwick Coding Society designed to support students through applications to tech roles. Now I am not a programmer, I simply could not offer advice on taking a programming test! Students, on the other hand, do have these skills and have experience of these tests. Luckily for me they have also been willing to collaborate on and deliver workshops together, meaning more valuable support for the student body that alone I would not have been able to offer.
Student societies often have some excellent communication networks and great events, but so do careers services and this can make for a fruitful exchange. Bringing societies in not only to help promote an event but to be an active participant can help raise the profile of employability building activities taking place on campus whilst utilising their feedback and ideas to ensure events are meeting their needs.
Utilising the strengths of our students we can add to the careers service offering by delivering on topics we might not have been able to before, ensuring skill building opportunities are well publicised and offer those involved in co-delivery a chance to add to their CV building experiences too.
Networking Across the Institution
Being known across the institution can absolutely pay dividends. When other services are aware of, and able to work collaboratively with their career service this can often lead to more effective and efficient working.
At a time where budget constraints are flagged as challenge to student engagement it can be helpful to look for opportunities to collaborate with other services sharing resources, especially where objectives align well. For example, engaging with enterprise or widening participation teams where events speak to their goals of innovation or diversity, equality and inclusion. Sharing events can help ensure they still run, the service offer is still viable in times of financial constraint and both parties will have communication channels for marketing opportunities that can lead to increased engagement.
Why should we be aiming for good quality engagement?
Because simply put impactful engagements can have the ability to move a student’s career forward. The kind of engagement where students’ needs are not just being met, but they have a sense of ownership over the activities and feel these were designed for them can not only encourage engagement but be more meaningful. Gaining more from these experiences can aid in the transition to the graduate labour market and help students manage their careers longer term. Which can also lead to some positive news when it comes to KPIs such as the Graduate Outcomes Survey and LEO data.
And for those who already have some nice-looking outcomes statistics, it’s making your students’ transition into graduate destinations easier, freeing up their time to focus on their studies and doing so in a way that provides a quality student experience.
About the author
Samantha Merrix is a an experienced and qualified careers practitioner in Higher Education. With a track record of increasing student engagement with careers activity and positive graduate outcomes. Experienced in embedding employability into the curriculum and engaging typically hard-to-reach student groups. Dedicated to supporting widening participation, diversity, equality and inclusion both inside HE and in industry ensuring students’ feel empowered to pursue any career regardless of their background.
