1. HUB4GROWTH EMPLOYABILITY WORKSHOP
SESSION 1 – PART 2.1
Corinth – Greece, 3-5 July 2017
Yiouli Papadiamantaki
University of the Peloponnese

2. The importance of data-collection
Purposes of the session:
To get participants to reflect on the type of data that can be used for the development of an employability strategy
already existing national survey data – if available
existing administrative data
To reflect on the possibility to develop an institutional graduate survey or other data collection instruments
To present experience and existing good practices

3. Collecting Data
To develop an efficient employability strategy one needs to track information on students (such as enrollment, throughput and drop-out rates) and employment/destination of graduates (further studies, labour-market)
Information is also needed with regard to
Skills acquired
Learning progress
Perceptions
Jobs

4. Collecting Data
Administrative data collections and surveys have different strengths and weaknesses when used to track the career paths of students and graduates.
In most European countries administrative data is the main resource used for student tracking in individual institutions. They are cost-effective and automatically representative when comprehensive. They pose few design and planning problems and can be collected with little extra effort.
However, results concerning student progress obtained from administrative data may offer only limited insights into the skills acquired and perceptions. And it is difficult to obtain similar data about graduates.

5. Collecting Data
Most universities truck the destination of graduates through surveys. Surveys help build a model for understanding the motivational and attitudinal factors which underlie the progression of students, their transfer to different programmes, as well as graduate entry into the labour market. However, they do so at the cost of greater effort and use of resources.
Institutions often complement surveys with other measures such as interviews, focus group meetings, student feedback sheets, etc. in order to capture student perceptions

6. Collecting Data
A number of countries deploy a ‘centralised approach’ for student tracking by administrative data. Institutions collect data on their students (often mandatory) and deliver it to a central national database which is typically administered by a national body.
In a few countries, graduate tracking can also be done on the basis of administrative data, where national-level databases combine student data with social security or labour-market data.

7. Collecting Data
There are major differences in the ways institutions are able to collect information on students’ social and ethnic backgrounds, depending on the national policies.
For example in some countries, questions on students’ background are part of the enrolment procedures, whereas in others they are not. However, even in countries where it is not mandatory, individual institutions developed measures to gather information on these issues, e.g. through supplementary surveys.

8. Data Collection
It is important to note that in many cases institutional surveys do not include or do not identify lifelong learning, international and mobile students
Given the growing number and importance of these groups, many institutions have recognised the shortcoming and strive for inclusive approaches in data collection
Whether doctoral candidates are tracked, depends on the existence of doctoral programmes and schools, which have been developed or are under development, in replacement of or complementary to the traditional apprentice model.

9. Tracking Graduates
Unless they track their graduates, institutions have relatively little chance of assessing the real impact of study programmes, and their relevance for the labour market.
Larger graduate numbers, flexible and modularised study programmes, less personal relations between teachers and students, and wider professional and geographical employment opportunities mean that individual academic teachers are unlikely to see how their former students are faring professionally.
In academic disciplines with fewer students, it might still be easier. Thus the size of institutions may be significant, and there can be differences between faculties and departments, at least in systems where these are highly autonomous.
Still more information than data on graduate employment is necessary if action is to be taken to embed employability in the institution.

10. Employability of Graduates
Do academic staff know who actually employs your graduates?
Are graduate employment data circulated to academic staff ?
Do current students know who employs graduates from this course?
Are students made aware of where they can obtain information on employment?
Are students aware at an early stage of the employment opportunities open to them?

11. Relationships with employers
Do you have good communication with major employers of your graduates?
Do you know what employers perceive to be the strengths and weaknesses of your students?
Do students have the opportunity to visit local employers?
Have you made potential employers aware of the skills your students develop?
Do employers visit your unit to give talks about employment opportunities?

12. Options for work experience
Are work experience opportunities provided/encouraged?
Are realistic simulations used to give experience of real work situations?
Are work placements available in areas not involving your specific discipline? Do some students carry out course project work in real settings with employers?
What proportion of students on your course have obtained work experience before graduation? (0=don't know; 1=<5%; 2=5 to 20%; 3=20 to 50%; 4=>50%)

13. Does the curriculum promote employability
Are generic skills (e.g. communication, group working, IT) explicitly taught?
Are subject-specific skills taught, practiced and assessed?
Have you identified where work related learning activities take place in the course and are these made explicit to students?
Have employers reviewed your curriculum and provided feedback on its content?
Are students aware of the skills they develop during a course/module?

14. Career Development Do students get help with producing/improving a CV?
Do students get help with letters of application for employment?
Is help with module choice available in each year?
Is reflection on and review of achievements actively promoted within the course?

15. Challenges
Complexity of results : The information derived was considered to be vital, but it does not necessarily provide ready-made answers.
Tracking can thus be considered to contribute to the enhancement of curricula and services, but is often just the starting point for further research and follow-up.

16. Challenges
Poor management: Lack of coordination of tracking approaches (over-surveying), poor data management and analysis, and random use and ad-hoc application of tracking results are likely to do more harm than good.
Results are not used: There were cases where tracking provided information and evidence, which were not followed up, e.g. due to insufficient resources at institutional level

17. Challenges
Resources and costs: A core question is still in what direction an instituion should go:
ever more comprehensive and extended data collection, also with regard to new technologies and approaches borrowed from commercial industries,
higher frequencies of surveys.
Obviously, a balance must be struck between effort and outcome. The cost issue has to be assessed: it does not make sense to develop comprehensive systems at institutional or national level if they are not sustained and implemented due to lack of funding or resources.

18. Thank you !