Job / Career

Providing information, advice and guidance to students

My previous post asked if you were taking too many study risks.

Arthur made a great point in the comments:

“The focus on your education should be increasing your capabilities, not getting through a series of assessment tasks. If you bought a car that did not have wheels, you would feel ripped off. So why buy an education without capabilities?”

No matter how aware you are of increasing capabilities, how can universities help you increase them further in a changing world?

image by rild

Yesterday, Aaron Porter, President of NUS, spoke about the type of information, advice and guidance students need in order to develop talent and make the most of their time at university. Speaking at the Graduate Talent conference on Innovation and Skills for Competitiveness, he gave a similar analogy to Arthur’s.

Porter said that if you buy a bike and the chain falls off after five minutes, you’d get a refund because the goods are faulty. While he understood the massive difference between high street transactions and entering higher education, he still saw the need for an increasing recognition of how students perceive HE and the need for those students to have the right tools throughout their education.

That, he explained, is why information, advice and guidance needs to be properly targeted at the point of application, and that individuals are made aware of the differences in curriculum and community in different institutions.

You may be in the position to assess risk in terms of study, but what about ongoing? What can a university do to help you minimise risks after you graduate? And how can they help you minimise risks in terms of what you study and how you use your time at uni?

Porter covered a lot of ground in today’s talk and made a number of important points. Here are the main details covered in his talk:

Students will begin to change the way they engage with institutions. More students will actively ask “What can I do to guarantee employment?”
So much information is available, but it’s hard to navigate through it all. How can the relevant information be provided to students in an easy to digest fashion?
Student background makes a difference in how easily individuals can navigate information. Must address a diverse community, so nobody is left behind or left wanting.
League tables are used to choose where to study, but not always with real understanding of what those tables mean & how to see the big differences between institutions.
Students won’t dust down a strategic report on what employers want from graduates. As good as the advice may be, there is still a need to put the detail forward in a way that students *will* access it.
How often during induction are students actually asked what the purpose of HE is, told how it is different to what learning has come before, and asked what they personally want out of HE? Helping students to focus on these critical issues will make a huge difference to their experience and understanding. Ask critical questions at the start to earlier allow students to prepare better.
Need to think about better integrating employability and careers into curriculum and teaching. Students now expect this, so let’s deliver.
Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) needs rolling out quickly to make a level playing field for students. Beef up academic achievement and its detail, while also highlighting achievement outside the classroom.
Drawing out this information through HEAR will help graduates articulate their achievements and skills. In turn, job applications can be better targeted by graduates, as they can sell themselves more accurately.
All students should feel able to participate in extra-curricular activities, whatever their background.
Work exp. & internships need to become almost an entitlement, especially with fees about to climb.
Way in which we communicate information needs to be more innovative in terms of social media. On campus and off campus, are institutions operating in the same environments as students? Careers information is perfect territory to take on social media, because it’s not likely to be seen as a personal intrusion.
National measure of employment needs to go beyond a 6-month view. 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, etc. Students need to know, because education costs are growing and employability is a big deal.
There is a danger that learning for its own sake may be lost. Could be an adverse impact on which skills students learn before graduation.
Browne didn’t crack the problem of getting an entirely flexible HE system. The opportunity was there, but hasn’t been addressed. We must, therefore, still think about how we can address the issues. This is critical in allowing students to get the employment skills they need.

Unpaid internships & graduate quandaries

I’m in a muddle. On the one hand, I don’t agree that unpaid internships are reasonable. On the other hand, I’m aware that some graduates get great benefit from time in these roles. For example, Mario Creatura says that his unpaid internship with the 1994 Group was fantastic and something he would do all over again.

photo by amortize

Now the 1994 Group is seeking more graduates for unpaid roles. These are part-time, typically two days each week, lasting a couple of months. While Mario would heartily recommend this from his past experience, not everyone is happy.

Co-director of Intern Aware, Ben Lyons, told The Guardian:

“Working for free is impossible for the majority of graduates. We cannot have a situation in which young people are only able to start a career in education through the support of the Bank of Mum and Dad. It goes without saying that it is socially unjust if affluent graduates are first in line for the best career opportunities. But it is also unfair on hard-pressed parents to have to bankroll their kids, and it is bad for the organisations if the best jobs go the richest graduates, rather than the most able.”

I can fully understand why Mario endorses the internship on offer with the 1994 Group. It sounds like a great opportunity. He says:

“As a graduate, much maligned by the state and society as a whole, it was refreshing and downright encouraging to be finally working in an organisation that truly valued your work. We weren’t there to make tea and coffee; we were there to learn and work as if we were professionals within the sector. To learn from respected officers, attend prestigious conferences, assist research on influential policy and write speeches to mass audiences was to help with the essential day-to-day running of an organisation that prides itself on working for the student experience; high quality research and world-class teaching.” [Source]

So far, so positive. I am happy that other former interns on the 1994 Group intake have also come out in praise of the scheme. On this front, the 1994 Group can be heartily congratulated for offering such a great service to graduates. There is clearly no issue here.

Nevertheless, I remain uncomfortable as these unpaid roles automatically shut the door for many graduates. Mario’s argument is that so long as you are determined to succeed in life, “then you will find a way, any way, to sustain your skills in a very demanding market”.

I’ve had issues with this simplistic approach before. Determination and drive are necessary, yet no amount of determination can guarantee ‘a way’. It’s a good start, but not enough to suggest unpaid internships are therefore acceptable. Also, some unpaid roles require more than a couple of days a week, leaving no space to take on part-time paid work in the mean time. Again, kudos to the 1994 Group for giving graduates enough flexibility through their scheme.

One way to bring all companies to satisfactory levels is to create a standardised system for internships. Newell Hampson-Jones of the British Standards Institution (BSI) told me how this would prove a solid approach for both employers and workers:

“Rather than enforce new regulation, it’s my opinion that mediation and compromise could bring the most positive solution for employers, universities and graduates. In my view, we should invite the stakeholders together to create a standard which will help all parties. With this standard, employers can ensure they get the best graduates by offering the most challenging internships, universities and colleges can ensure their graduates are protected by requiring all companies working with them meet the standard and, most of all, graduates can be assured that they will be treated like a valuable employee and not have their enthusiasm taken advantage of with unfair financial conditions.

“I’ve always found it interesting that, during my previous experience of finding students internships, it has been the smaller, specialist organisations like 1994 Group who have provided the most challenging and useful internships, whilst the large glamorous brands have, by and large, just used the system for recruiting admin assistants and tea caddies; expecting students to be grateful just to have the brand on their CV. Hopefully a standard like this can discontinue this practice and give graduates an opportunity to hold those employers who take advantage of them to account.”

A big problem emerging is the increased popularity of unpaid roles. Many of these roles are legally obliged to pay at least minimum wage, but challenges aren’t exactly forthcoming, hence the continued practice in offering structured roles without a wage.

Perhaps the idea of standardising internships would sort the muddle. Done right, the process would even give graduates better scope to explain the benefits of their role for CV purposes.

There is currently no satisfactory answer. I don’t expect my muddle to go away any time soon.

Would you take up an unpaid internship? What do you think of the situation?

Clubs & Societies: Don’t Think ‘Employability’, Think ‘Achievements’

What do clubs and societies mean to you?

After Stanley Lee’s guest post, I started thinking about the reasons for joining up to societies and how different people use what’s available to them.

The key word that came to my mind was:

ACHIEVEMENTS

What you achieve could be the most important element linking the extra-curricular activities you undertake and your future potential to an employer.

However, your main purpose for joining anything shouldn’t be in order to impress an employer. If it fits your career interests and potential future, by all means jump in. But there’s little point in signing up to wow. Nobody will be wowed.

For Carl Andrew, not all clubs express a symbol of achievement in the first place:

“Serving as president of the Fifa Appreciation Society, the Free Hugs Society (does pretty much what it says on the tin) or the Comic Books Society is not going to look very impressive on your CV. Employers are far more likely to look for students who have instead been president of their university’s politics, history or debating society.”

I disagree. Serving as a president may appear more prestigious in a debating society over a Free Hugs society. But a Free Hugs president isn’t in a worse position in highlighting what they achieved in the position.

photo by Jesslee Cuizon

For instance, a Free Hugs president could start an initiative for members to give away hugs at big Fresher events, or set up a ‘friending’ scheme to help International students and those suffering from homesickness. These ideas could have brought forward an increase in student retention and student satisfaction at their university.

Unlikely examples? Maybe, maybe not. Nevertheless, these are the types of achievement to shout about. By highlighting the strengths of your presidency and what you accomplished, employers won’t care about the name of your society.

Andrew also mentions how students use societies to boost employability:

“This can also be harmful for the societies when students join them, or seek positions within them, purely to boost their employability. Last year, I turned away a student from the Just Vote campaign I was organising (to encourage voting in the general election) when he mentioned that his CV was the only reason he was planning to come on board.”

Andrew makes a great point and I understand why he was unwilling to take the student on board. While that may sound unfair to the student, I doubt a half-hearted attempt at looking better on paper would help in the long run. A minimal boost is possible, but an eye-opening interest on paper would only come about if that student could explain their achievements in a society or campaign.

When I was at uni, there was no English society. Some of us (students and academics) wanted to do something about that. So we set the society up. That’s an achievement.

We arranged book sales so students who’d finished with their books could sell them on cheaply to new students. Everyone wins. That’s an achievement.

Students upped the game the following year by beginning an arts magazine with poetry and short stories. That’s an achievement.

Being a member of a society is not enough if you can’t focus on the successes. Say that you were a member of your English Society and an employer may shrug their shoulders. Tell them you were a founder, that you helped students save money, that you organised events, that the society thrived…these are achievements.

I’m not suggesting any of us were heroes. Achievements aren’t a sign that you’re amazing or you did everything yourself. Achievements are signs of how much you care, of how you brought something to life, and of what you did to improve a situation.

When you next consider joining a club, society, campaign or cause, don’t think of it simply in terms for employability or personal gain. Instead, consider what you can give back while you move things forward. The more you achieve to benefit the society and its causes, the more you’re likely to benefit yourself.

The irrelevance of degree titles

Would you like a degree in Waste Management with Dance? Sound like a strange combination? Apparently not that strange. The course is available at Northampton University.

The Telegraph has reported on how the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) wants to see no change to the way it allocates funds to universities and, therefore, would allow all sorts of bizarre degree courses to continue.

I say ‘bizarre’, but what’s missing from analysis of HEFCE’s stance and The Telegraph’s view is opinion from students taking these courses.

Might Stomp explain a degree in Waste Management & Dance?

A degree in Third World Development with Pop Music (or Dance with Equine Studies, if you’d prefer) may be perfectly sensible to students taking on the work. Or perhaps those students are being led down a false trail of hope. Or they just want a degree and were happy to take whatever they could in current climate.

Until recently, Media Studies used to face the wrath of critics who were ready to dismiss it as a pointless “Mickey Mouse” degree. However, that particular stigma has disappeared as the years have gone by. There may still be difficulties securing employment for many graduates, but that’s the same for many apparently worthwhile degrees. Employability isn’t guaranteed in any field.

As universities cover an ever growing number of bases it’s not so surprising to find joint degrees that cover Waste Management and Dance. For instance, you may want to combine a vocational interest with an important hobby. Or you may want to further your experience in ways that cannot be covered with two similar subjects. I doubt there will be much subject crossover in lectures if you study both Waste Management and Dance.

Many camps are keen to see HE as a resource for churning out employable individuals with a vocational talent. But that’s never been the overarching point of universities. You would expect a certain level of development to assist in employability and vocational expertise, but it’s not the sole purpose of HE.

That said, many students take the university route because they see nothing better in their circumstances or because they think it’s the passport to future career success. Neither may truly be the case, but with a combination of more traditional careers requiring a degree and a lack of proper careers guidance and information for young people, I’m not surprised the situation has arisen.

Ridiculing degrees that sound stupid doesn’t help or prove anything. Taylor et al explain:

“Barry Matthews, chair of the Professional Association of Teachers, suggested that teenagers were being brainwashed into thinking that university was their only option. Matthews questioned the need for vocational degrees, asking whether bricklayers needed degrees or practical ability, whilst he was also scornful of new ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees in surfing or soap operas (Matthews cited in Curtis, 28 July 2004, p. 8). It is clear that there are now many new degrees in the portfolios of universities. Degrees have in some ways replaced the old apprenticeships and the practice of in-house training. For example, studies in journalism and in nursing are now successful degrees. We suspect that there will be those who believe that universities should not teach such subjects and should stick to teaching more traditional disciplines. Such a position fails to take into account the changing nature of the job market and the changing interests of students.” [Source]

I don’t have an answer to conclude with here. In many ways, I don’t see much to answer. Any degree with little value to the learner should be scrapped, whatever the discipline. I’m not just talking about employability skills. For whatever reason, it could be an English or a Biology course that fails in providing value. At the same time, a single university offering Criminology and Pop Music Production may give students an amazing insight that no other could. Degree title is irrelevant.

Students and graduates need to be part of the discussion as to what courses matter. Their voices need to be heard and they need to be told the truth about why their course exists.

Without proper grounding, it’s pointless to worry about funding based on course titles. And while nobody takes my proposal for a joint degree in Mosh Pit Sciences and Handbag Psychology seriously, I’ll stick with that view…

TheUniversityBlog

Life shouldn't stop when you study. Be the student you deserve to be.