[]

• print this page
• 30 Jul 2010

• Products and services
  • Prospects Directory
  • Prospects Finalist
  • Prospects Jobs & Courses
  • Prospects Law
  • Prospects Work Experience
  • Prospects.ac.uk
  • Prospects Immediate Vacancies
  • Prospects Virtual Fair
  • Prospects ChatLive
• News and information
  • Labour Market Information
  • Graduate Market Trends
  • Subscribe to GMT
  • Testimonials
• Online vacancy advertising
  • Why advertise online?
  • Packages and prices
  • Sample online advert
• How to...
  • Advertise with Prospects
  • Promote work experience
  • Use Prospects Net

YOU ARE IN » Home page > News and information main menu > Graduate Market Trends > Break out or break up? (Winter 08)

Break out or break up? (Winter 08)

• Break-out or break-up?
• Summary
• Introduction
• External agendas
• The changing role of careers services
• The current project
• Employability strategies
• Implications for careers services
• Staff roles
• Conclusions

Break-out or break-up?

Implications of institutional employability Strategies for the role and structure of university careers services

back to top

Summary

In this article, A.G. Watts and Val Butcher report on their research into the changing role of the careers services. The findings explore four institutional responses to externally driven government agendas relating to the themes of employability, enterprise, personal development planning (PDP) and employer engagement. The research explores how the four agendas overlap and have been framed in different ways within different institutions.

The research project is part of a HECSU programme to support practitioner research: PROP (Putting Research Outcomes into Practice).

back to top

Introduction

The role of careers services in higher education has changed considerably across the UK in the decade since Strategic Directions for Careers Services in Higher Education (Watts, 1997) was published. Increasingly, external government agendas are providing stimulus and funding. Within the UK, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are shaping their own policy agendas to a much greater degree than formerly. Services are also affected by the increasing competition between institutions for students and research funding, in the context of a decreasing supply of post-school entrants, the challenge to upskill the adult workforce, and a greater awareness of being part of a global market.

It accordingly seemed timely to revisit the changing role of careers services. A small pilot study was funded by HECSU in spring 2008 to look at how a handful of careers services have been affected by these challenges, particularly those relating to employability. The research funding and time-scale prompted the selection of only English universities, and of institutions for which there was anecdotal evidence of substantial restructuring of their careers services, linked to their role in relation to institutional employability strategies.

We believe that the results of the study, whilst in no sense offering a comprehensive picture of UK careers services a decade on from the Strategic Directions report, indicate sufficient change and challenge to merit further in-depth consideration.

back to top

External agendas

It is possible to distinguish four externally-driven agendas which have developed over the past decade and which now potentially impact on the work of higher education careers services: employability; enterprise; personal development planning (PDP); and employer engagement. The four agendas overlap, and have been framed in different ways within different institutions.

From a student perspective, the relationship between them can be framed as shown below. In this view, employer engagement (in its broad sense) can support the delivery of programmes related both to employability and to enterprise. Employability and enterprise are in some respects complementary: the entrepreneurial aspect of enterprise provides a potential alternative to employment (self-employment); while generic enterprise skills add a further dimension to employability (intrapreneurship). PDP helps students to convert employability and enterprise programmes into the language of personal competences and career development.

back to top

The changing role of careers services

In seeking to address these agendas, some institutions have looked to their careers services to take a strong lead. But some have not.

The Strategic Directions report (Watts, 1997) indicated that the traditional core of such services had been built around interviews, information and placement activities. This core was still in place, though the nature of each part was being transformed. In addition, however, most services were undertaking a range of additional activities, which potentially could lead to a major restructuring of such services.

Seven options for such restructuring were suggested. One of these was the ‘curriculum model’, in which the careers service becomes part of a delivery vehicle for, or part of a service designed to support academic departments in, incorporating employability skills and career management skills into course provision.

Conceptually, careers services have a strong claim for expertise in relation to the development of career management skills, increasingly now referred to as ‘career development learning’ (Watts, 2006; see also Butcher, 2007). There is a strong argument for this to be viewed alongside employability and enterprise as a third band of curriculum delivery, focused on helping students to learn how to develop a sense of career direction and how to sustain the utilisation and development of their employability and enterprise competences.

The relationship between the three concepts is complex, and merits further exploration. Within higher education, there has been a tendency for employability to be implemented primarily through the curriculum, enterprise primarily through extracurricular learning experiences, and career development as a student service.

While careers services can claim distinctive expertise in relation to career development, their claims in relation to the other areas outlined above may be more open to contestation. In terms of these agendas the role of careers services has in practice varied considerably. In relation to the EHE programme, for example, some careers services took the lead within their institution, whereas others played only a marginal role (Watts & Hawthorn, 1992). Again, Kumar (2007) reports that some careers services have been brought centre-stage within PDP-related initiatives, while others have struggled to carve out a niche in relation to the PDP agenda.

Such diversity of practice is familiar. There are however signs that major developments are currently taking place in a number of institutions, which may be bringing some of these processes to a head.

back to top

The current project

For this small pilot study, four institutions were selected: two pre-1992 universities (one old – Birmingham; one relatively new – Lancaster) and two post-1992 universities (Central Lancashire; Liverpool John Moores). The selection was not intended to be representative, but was based on information that, in all four cases, substantial restructuring of the careers service was taking place linked to their role in relation to institutional employability strategies. It was felt that this might offer useful indicators of the nature and degree of potential changes, to be explored more fully at a later stage.

back to top

Employability strategies

Within all four institutions, student employability is being given greater prominence than in the past. There appear to be two main drivers for this: concern about the university’s position in the first-destination employment league tables, which has had a significant impact in the two pre-1992 universities (Birmingham and Lancaster); and the prominence attached to student employability in the distinctive positioning of the two post-1992 universities (Central Lancashire and Liverpool John Moores). There is clearly overlap between these two drivers.

The nature of the employability strategies within the four institutions is, however, taking contrasting forms. In the case of the two post-1992 universities, the strategies are more radical in nature, but are based on different principles. At Liverpool John Moores, the strategy is focusing mainly on change in the curriculum: ‘World of Work’ (WoW) is the term being used to describe how the student experience will have ‘added value’ through an explicit strategic focus that will encourage and enable all students to develop skills demanded and valued by employers. At Central Lancashire, it is more structural in nature: the Careers Service, the Centre for Employability, and Northern Lights (an enterprise centre with business-incubation facilities) are being integrated into a new Centre for Employability, Careers and Enterprise (CECE), on a ‘hub and spokes’ model (i.e. some centrally-located parts and some parts based in the faculties).

There is overlap between the two approaches: at Liverpool John Moores, there is some restructuring, including the establishment of a new Graduate Development Centre; at Central Lancashire, part of the design of CECE is that it will induce curriculum change. But the core of the strategy differs.

At the two pre-1992 universities, the strategy is again primarily structural in nature, but built around the principle of extending the role of the careers service. At Birmingham, the careers service is being restructured as a Careers and Employability Centre (CEC); at Lancaster, the careers service has been restructured as a Centre for Employability, Enterprise and Careers (CEEC). In both cases, the staffing of the service has been enlarged, its role has been extended, and it has been given (or, in Birmingham’s case, is to be given in a year or two) a more visible central location.

At all of the institutions, a potentially central role in the employability strategy is being played by the notion of an additional student award to run alongside the degree: an initiative which has anticipated, and in future may be shaped by, the recently announced pilot programme for the higher education achievement record (HEAR).

It is evident that the employability strategies take distinctive forms at the four institutions. In all four cases, the employability strategies have included attention to the three other themes outlined above: enterprise, employer engagement (in a broader sense than that focused upon in recent policy statements) and PDP. But the employability strategies tend to be stronger at the two post-1992 universities, both in terms of restructuring and of curriculum change. In the two pre-1992 universities, they have been built more organically by extending and reframing the role of the careers service.

back to top

Implications for careers services

These employability strategies have radically different implications for the structure and role of careers services. In the two pre-1992 universities, the remit of the careers service has been extended to embrace the employability agenda, and its staffing has been increased accordingly. By contrast, in the case of the two post-1992 universities, the careers service is in effect ceasing existence as a separate entity: these changes have induced staff anxieties relating to location, to changed roles, and to losing existing team identity.

More generally, the changes in principle raise questions about at least two aspects of conventional careers service practice. The first is the future of one-to-one career guidance. This has been questioned at Birmingham, for example, on the grounds that it is not ‘scaleable’: in other words, it can operate well enough for a minority of students, but is not capable of being scaled up to cater for all or a majority of students.

The second is the future of career resource centres. Several of the services have noted a decline in student usage of such centres in recent years. This is attributed largely to the growth of web-based information, including information from employers (students no longer have to visit the centre to access this) and the careers service’s own website. At both Central Lancashire and Liverpool John Moores, possibilities are being explored for integrating such centres into broader learning resource centres, with 24x7 access and extensive internet facilities. This raises issues, however, about the level of access there will be to skilled personal support in the effective use of these resources.

A further important issue which applies particularly to the two pre-1992 universities is the implications for the enlarged careers service of their increasing learning and teaching functions. This issue is linked to the nature of the careers services’ relationships with teaching departments.

back to top

Staff roles

A final important issue for careers services – and for the other structures that may in some cases succeed them – is the implications of these various developments for the roles and continuing professional development of relevant professional staff.

At Birmingham, for example, five of the Careers Advisers are being redesignated as Careers and Employability Consultants, and promoted to higher-level posts. One is to be attached to each of the five colleges' faculties. Part of their role will be as ‘the tip of a flying wedge’, brokering between departments’ needs and services that their colleagues in the Careers and Employability Centre can provide. In addition, though, they will be expected to help departments to map and then to strengthen departments’ own contributions to students’ skill development, including placements and other forms of employer (and alumni) engagement, as well as other aspects of their course provision. The likely initial balance between the two roles (brokerage and consultancy) is estimated as 70:30. To prepare these consultants for their new role, a careful process of ‘tooling up’ is taking place. This includes a staff-development programme at MBA level in consultancy skills, including negotiation skills, assertiveness, stress management, and the like.

An interesting issue is whether the Careers and Employability Consultants represent a new role in higher education careers services, or an enhancement of the existing Careers Adviser role. If some of the staff development provision for these consultants is at MBA level, could it lead to an MBA qualification? A parallel issue is the extent to which there is also a case for recruiting staff with, or offering existing staff opportunities to gain, qualifications in learning and teaching (already a possibility at some universities). Finally, in both these cases, should consultancy and/or teaching and learning represent additional qualifications to staff with a core career guidance qualification? Or could they represent alternative skill-sets within a multiprofessional team?

back to top

Conclusions

A decade ago, a key issue which arose from the earlier review of strategic directions for higher education careers services (Watts, 1997) can be summarised as: ‘Can the centre hold?’ In other words, can responses to new challenges and opportunities be built around the traditional core roles of careers services? Or do they imply some radical restructuring of such services?

On the basis of the limited pilot study reported here, it seems that there is recent evidence of both processes in response to the challenges represented by institutional employability strategies. In two universities, the role of the careers service has been extended; in the other two, the service in its traditional form is being broken up and integrated into alternative structures.

The evidence in these four institutions has also supported the proposition that there may be a difference between traditional, research-intensive universities and newer, teaching-oriented universities in this respect. Further investigation may prove differently. But in our small sample the former tend to have better resourced careers services and have sufficient critical mass to carry credibility in taking on broader institutional roles. At the same time, there may be more resistance to curriculum change in such institutions. Accordingly, giving the leadership role on employability strategies to such services may be seen as a way of addressing employability concerns but also containing their impact.

Other factors seem likely to be relevant too. One is the quality of leadership within the careers service. Another is the extent of sympathetic understanding of careers service roles among senior management.

This has, however, been a limited study. There is a strong case for extending it, in two ways: through a quantitative survey of all universities throughout the UK, to identify the extent of the trends mapped in this report; and through further qualitative case-studies to extend the range of models represented in the present study (particularly with reference to the developing employability-related learning provision and the respective roles of teaching departments, careers services and other central units in relation to such provision).

We also suggest that this might be linked to two further studies with a more specific focus:

• A comparative study of the nature of additional awards and their impact. These represent a major development within higher education, which could transform the level of institutional attention to student employability, enterprise, career development and PDP, and are particularly significant in the context of the pilots for the higher education achievement awards.
• A study of the changing nature of professional and paraprofessional roles within higher education careers services and related structures, and their implications for initial training and continuing professional development.

References

Butcher, V. (2007). Careers education: what’s in a name? In Butler, T. & Dane, M. (eds.): AGCAS: Reflections on Change 1967-2007. Sheffield: Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services.

Kumar, A. (2007). Personal, Academic and Career Development in Higher Education: SOARing to Success. London: Routledge.

Watts, A.G. (1997). Strategic Directions for Careers Services in Higher Education. NICEC Project Report. Cambridge: Careers Research and Advisory Centre & Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services.

Watts, A.G. (2006). Career Development Learning and Employability. Learning and Employability Series Two, No.5. York: Higher Education Academy.

Watts, A.G. & Hawthorn, R. (1992). Careers Education and the Curriculum in Higher Education. NICEC Project Report. Cambridge: Careers Research and Advisory Centre.