First-Year Student Career Readiness Survey 2016 Laura Kerley, Sheffield Hallam University Helen Zhu, AGCAS Tom Staunton, University of Derby

Introduction Methodology Findings Discussion

Why? complexities of university/course choice mixed bag of pre-university careers support student mindsets and resilience the importance of early engagement how well do we really know our students and how to support them with career planning? Given the wider context can be complex and challenging for many students and known value of early career planning/engagement (eg. as proven by 'Planning for Success', March 2017, DofE), there is value in really knowing first year students as early and as much as possible......WHAT IS IT WE WANT TO KNOW?

Aims Overall aim to gauge students' career development by examining: Students' pre-university experiences: - prior experience of careers support - motivations for course choice - steps already taken to enhance employability Is wording 'stage of career planning' ok? Could make light reference to our difficulties of naming the survey as difficult to translate it's whole purpose into a snappy title! Emphasise 'career readiness' is meant to relate to stage of career planning and stage of study rather than literally being ready to transition to a career.

Aims ii. Students' current views on careers and employability: - perceived importance of different aspects of university life - levels of careers self-efficacy Self-efficacy = confidence in one's own ability to achieve intended results

Aims iii. Students' intentions and planning for future careers: - wider aspirations - specific career plans - intentions to participate in career related activities

Scope (so far) 2015 2016 1 university 289 responses 4 universities

Potential Institutional level: help careers service adapt/target services, initiatives and communications provide evidence of needs for services could be adapted to use longitudinally National level: could provide a large insightful data set attract wider interest

Introduction Methodology Findings Discussion

Data collection online survey collection period: early November 2016 to the end of January 2017 student engagement voluntary participation large proportion of BME, mature, and female students The realist check in the past two years tells us that it was impossible to organise this survey at first-year students’ entry point or in the beginning of the new term. However, the results demonstrated that the current timing is not bad. It enable the comparison between students’ career aspiration at the time of responding to the survey and that before university. The way participated careers services engage students to answer the survey has impact on the findings.

Position NSS survey LDLHE/LEO DLHE Career registration AGCAS 1 year survey Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 After graduation

Questionnaire What questions do we ask and why? demographic questions five scales: Factors for University Course Choice Students’ Perception of University Life Careers Self-efficacy Students’ Likelihood to participate Career-related Activities Factors for Future Career Choice other questions Eleven demographic questions allow us to differentiate student cohorts in terms of preparation for higher education and career readiness if there lies any difference. Some demographic variables appeared to have a better differentiation than the others. For example, parents’ HE experience seems a better proxy SES variable than students’ school background. The scales were developed from scratch. However, all reliability test in the past two years were beyond satisfactory. In the next review, we will focus on the scales’ validity and check if the statements in each scale cover all the key dimensions of the questions.

Comparison

Introduction Methodology Findings Discussion

Career Support before university

Important Aspects of University Life Percent of very important

Important Aspects of University Life by type of school Percent of very important

Careers support needed

Careers support needed White vs. BME

Career Self-efficacy

Career Self-efficacy by gender

Likely first year career activities

Likely first year career activities by age groups

Factors for future careers

Introduction Methodology Findings Discussion

? How could we use the survey findings? How could you use these survey findings in your service? What issues has this session raised for you re. running surveys in your institution? Could this survey be useful for your institution and how? ?

Q&A

Thank you! & Welcome to contact us Laura Kerley: L.Kerley@shu.ac.uk Tom Staunton: T.Staunton@derby.ac.uk Helen Zhu: helen.zhu@agcas.org.uk