What Do Graduates Do? Scotland Putting Research into Practice 12th June 2007

Presentation content Project background Advisory Group Data resources Areas for (further) research and development Format of final product Editorial aspects to final product Report Feedback & evaluation Future

The What Do Graduates Do? [Scotland] project was established with two clear objectives: to provide an information resource for prospective and current Higher Education (HE) students, parents and careers guidance professionals to help with the decision making process; and to provide an accessible source of Scottish data for labour market researchers, policy makers, employers, and recruiters for HE in Scotland and the media.

By producing a pilot Scottish product that is broadly equivalent to the annual national WDGD publications, this pilot project has had clear beneficial outcomes: prospective undergraduate and postgraduate students will be able to make a more informed choice on university course options in Scotland; guidance professionals, HE recruiters and all who advise potential students have a reliable, accessible source of information, based on Scottish data;

enquiries from labour market researchers, policy makers, employers and the media seeking an overview of Scottish graduate destinations can be more readily answered by HE careers services and enquirers will also be able to access the data directly online; and this pilot may pave the way for other national or regional versions for example Welsh, Irish or English regional publications.

Advisory Group Representatives of user groups –Advice on types of information sought –Advice on best formats Representatives of policy makers –Advice on which kinds of analysis are relevant to policy makers’ needs –Advice on directions of future research to be recommended at conclusion of this project Communication with our professional network

What do graduates do? Scotland Advisory Group Members: Barbara Graham – Convenor Gavin McCabe – Project Officer Representatives from 3 SHEI’s – Strathclyde, Glasgow, Aberdeen Charlie Ball – HECSU John Duffy – Scottish Funding Council Peter Swan – Careers Scotland Patrick Watt – Futureskills Scotland Beverley Whitehead - HELOA

Funding HECSU Practitioner Research funding Futureskills Scotland Careers Scotland Strathclyde University Careers Service

Existing data resources - UK Key national publications for queries relating to destinations of UK HE graduates: –What Do Graduates Do? –What Do Postgraduates Do? Masters graduates Doctoral graduates –What Do PhDs Do?

Existing data resources - Scotland Key sources of data and publications for Scottish perspective: –Careers Scotland* –Futureskills Scotland* –Scottish Executive –Scottish Funding Councils* –Teaching Quality Information website * members of Advisory Group

Existing data resources TQI Access information for individual course and HEI combinations –Destinations (e.g. Working, Studying, Unemployed) –Job category (Graduate, Non-graduate, Unknown) –Most common job types Overall picture for all Scottish HE graduates or for particular subjects difficult to obtain

Existing data resources Other publications focus on overall Scottish picture, ranging in level/type of information given, e.g.: –Background information & issues within (graduate) labour market –Age, gender, occupation, employment sector, salary and underemployment indicators for Scotland’s HE graduates –Regional information on occupations & education level Rarely delve to subject/subject family level Users need to be careful of HE/FE data merger

UK and Scotland data comparisons 2005 dataset UK-domiciled first degree graduates from universities in: ScotlandUK Total24,955256,460 Respondents19,805206,965 Response rate79.4%80.7% Gender mix: ScotlandUK Female60.9%57.7% Male39.1%42.3%

Scottish destinations – all subjects (DRAFT)

UK & Scotland comparison Destination – all subjects (DRAFT)

UK & Scotland comparison Types of work – all subjects (DRAFT)

Destination Data Format: Similar structure for WDPD results to ensure comparability with UK data, will match WDGD & WDPD publication data analysis structures Breakdown of destinations of graduates from Scottish HE first degree courses by: –Subject family, e.g. “Science” –Most popular subjects, e.g. “Chemistry” Number graduating (male/female) Number of respondents (male/female) Destinations for all respondents In employment/Work & study –Number men/women; Type of work

Further developments Illustrative occupations for variety of subjects: covered in part by links to Prospects’ “Options with your subject”(?) Possible additional inclusions: –Employment sector at each level of data –Destinations additionally at subject family level –Size of organisation –Location of employment –……

Format of final product UK & Scotland comparisons side-by-side or as an addition? Web-based Different levels of publication? –Simple snapshot  fuller document, suitable for different audiences

Format & locations of web-product –Copy on HECSU website Series of webpages PDF file –Should be possible to have a copy on Prospects website also(?) –Other possible locations: AGCAS Scotland, Careers Scotland, Futureskills Scotland, SFC, Universities Scotland

Editorial content – WDGD Scotland Introduction, ‘health warnings’ associated with interpretation of destinations data, and the Elias & Purcell definitions of graduate job types ‘It still pays to get a degree’ Underemployment Employability Skills Whole of Scotland picture Scottish regional economy information Links to other sources of information

Project evaluation and feedback Who we need to ask? What we need to ask? How we will ask? When we will ask?

Content of report Background Existing resources Access to data Methodology –Project methodology –Technical methodology Output of data analysis Evaluation and feedback Dissemination/Availability Issues for further research Recommendations

Dissemination Promotion of the new website Distribution of the report Event/Events

Future: Continuing the research Parallel output in future years Aspects of recommended analysis and content not included in this project: –Different levels of product –Data –Analysis –Editorial

Recommended development Data Illustrative occupations & employers – postgraduate data Illustrative courses of further study – undergraduate and postgraduate data

Recommended development Analysis More detailed regional analysis & commentary Graduates who were unemployed or underemployed Graduate premium in Scotland, also by subject Statistical significance of UK/Scotland differences

Recommended development Editorial Case studies Progression – positive overall Scottish progression against OECD countries Articles targeted towards International Student market, including FTI More detailed regional analysis & commentary