ISSUE 161 OCTOBER 2020
RESPONDING TO COVID-19
Locked down, not locked out: Opening doors for graduates during a pandemic
Delivering careers guidance in turbulent times
Rising to the challenge: Preparing for the unpreparable
Warp-speed employability: Accelerating technology-enhanced delivery
The road to reinvention
Phoenix is the AGCAS journal
october 2020 CONTENTS RESPONDING TO COVID-19
5
LOCKED DOWN, NOT LOCKED
17
DON’T PANIC, THERE’S A
29
GROWING DIGITAL SUPPORT
OUT: OPENING DOORS FOR
PANDEMIC! WORKING IN A
FOR WIDENING
GRADUATES DURING A
NEW VIRTUAL WORLD
PARTICIPATION STUDENTS
PANDEMIC
University of Portsmouth
Lancaster University
Kingston University 19 7
REMOTE CONSULTING
31
PROJECTS: DELIVERINGA
DELIVERING CITY-WIDE
KEEPING EMPLOYABILITY ON
BETTER EXPERIENCE?
SUPPORT
THE AGENDA
University of Bath
University of Leeds and Leeds
University of Bristol
Beckett University 21
9
A UNITED FRONT:
COMPETING PRIORITIES:
DELIVERING CAREERS 33
WARP-SPEED
ONLINE, COLLABORATIVE AND
GUIDANCE IN TURBULENT
FREE – IS THIS THE FUTURE OF
TIMES
EMPLOYABILITY:
CAREERS FAIRS?
The Careers Group, University
ACCELERATING
The University of Edinburgh
of London
TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED DELIVERY
11
CELEBRATING THE UNEXPECTED
22
Lancaster University
WHAT I LEARNT IN ALUMNI RELATIONS DURING A
POSITIVES OF VIRTUAL WORK
35
CAREERS ON THE COUCH:
PANDEMIC
EXPERIENCE
DEVELOPING A YOUTUBE University of Manchester
Nottingham Trent University
SERIES IN LOCKDOWN Northumbria University
13
INNOVATING THROUGH
23
IMPROVING YOUR VOICE FOR ONLINE DELIVERY
LOCKDOWN: CREATING
37
UCL
OPPORTUNITIES FOR A
REGAIN CONTROL Plymouth Marjon University
DIVERSE STUDENT BODY London Metropolitan University
25
BOOSTING EMPLOYABILITY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
15
39
University of Aberdeen
ADAPTING ONLINE GRADUATE
Glasgow Caledonian University
AGCAS Scotland collaboration
Caledonian, Queen Margaret, Stirling)
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MASTERING THE ART OF PROMOTION
SUPPORT ON A MASSIVE SCALE
(Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow
SUPPORTING STUDENTS TO
27
BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR THE OU? NOT QUITE The Open University
41
THE ROAD TO REINVENTION Leeds Beckett University
42
43
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE:
51
UNLOCKING NEW POTENTIAL
INSPIRATIONAL ALUMNI:
PREPARING FOR THE
FOR ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT
SUPPORTING STUDENTS
UNPREPARABLE
DURING LOCKDOWN
IN CHALLENGING TIMES
University of Derby
University of Birmingham
University College Birmingham
EFFECTING POSITIVE CHANGE
53
THROUGH SERVICE LEARNING
A VOYAGE INTO EFFECTIVE
65
A WHOLE NEW WORLD Swansea University
EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT:
University of Sussex
CHARTING A NEW COURSE FOR RESEARCH IN THE WAKE
45
64
SCALING UP DURING LOCKDOWN: CREATING VIRTUAL INTERNSHIPS
67
CREATIVITY IS CATCHING:
OF COVID-19
POSITIVE ACTION IN TIMES OF
AGCAS Employer Engagement
COVID-19
Task Group
University of Gloucestershire
Keele University 55 47
NAVIGATING UNCHARTED
SUPPORTING STUDENTS TO
68
THE DIGITAL AGE
FIND THEIR FUTURE, THEIR WAY
WATERS USING INNOVATION
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR
Bath Spa University
LSE
AND CREATIVITY Cardiff University
57
DEVELOPING CROSS-
69
CONTINENTAL CAREERS 48
SUCCESS IN A VIRTUAL
ADVICE
GAINING IN-DEPTH STUDENT
WORLD
Istituto Marangoni
INSIGHTS DURING A
SUPPORTING STUDENT
University of Chester
PANDEMIC The Open University
59
ADAPT FAST, ACT SMART, KEEP
PLUS
CONNECTED: EVOLVING 49
COUCH TO 5K: MOVING
CAREERS SERVICE DELIVERY
DELIVERY ONLINE
DURING COVID-19
Edge Hill University
University of Exeter
61
FOSTERING COMMUNITY, BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS: PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE WORKPLACES OF THE FUTURE The University of Edinburgh
63
THE BENEFITS OF
71
RESEARCHER’S DIGEST Covid-19 Special Edition
COLLABORATION ON AN INTERNATIONAL SCALE University of Manchester and University of Warwick
73
CONTINUING SUPPORT DURING COVID-19 AND BEYOND Jisc student and graduate services
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Phoenix is the digital journal of AGCAS, the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services. It is published three times a year.
To find out more about AGCAS,
message from the
see www.agcas.org.uk
Created in-house by AGCAS, based on an
EDITOR
original design by Marcom www.mar-com.net
Our aim in publishing this issue of Phoenix is to showcase how university careers services have responded to the challenges posed by Covid-19. We profile AGCAS members’
PHOENIX EDITORIAL GROUP
initial response during the first few weeks of lockdown, reflect on how they navigated the months that followed, and outline how they continue to evolve and futureproof careers and employability delivery within a changed – and still changing – landscape. Over the next few pages, you can read about the wide-ranging support and myriad of interventions that have been rolled out by AGCAS members across the UK since the middle of March.
Of course, it has been far from plain sailing. There have been seemingly insurmountable personal and professional challenges to overcome along the way; the past few months
Jenny Hammond Liverpool John Moores University
have tested the resilience of careers professionals, students and recent graduates alike. But, despite the challenging circumstances, the pandemic has also presented opportunities and resulted in unexpected positives for careers services. Opportunities for greater collaboration across departments, institutions, cities and regions. Opportunities to extend reach and accessibility, to engage previously unengaged groups of students and graduates. Opportunities to establish and grow new employer relationships. Opportunities to learn and use new technology to enhance delivery. Opportunities to
Lisa McWilliams Keele University
unlock geographical barriers and increase global connectivity. Opportunities to break down physical and conventional structures to rethink existing institutional aims in delivering employability strategies. Opportunities to flip the rhetoric, acknowledging the challenges but painting a more optimistic picture of what might be possible to counter the relentlessly negative public narrative.
Suzie Bullock Without question, this issue of Phoenix busts the truly archaic myth that university careers
University of Leeds
services are resistant to change. AGCAS members adapted very quickly to a shifting external context. Yes, most were able to pivot to remote working overnight, building on their use of existing platforms to enhance online delivery. For others, it took a little longer to flick the switch. Either way, regardless of the time it took to get fully up and running
Ellen Shobrook University of Birmingham
following the announcement of a national lockdown, AGCAS members have done more than simply move provision online to replicate face-to-face delivery in a virtual world.
In addition to ensuring content was fit for purpose, tailored to the changing labour market and the broader circumstances created by the pandemic, careers services have also embraced the opportunity to reconsider their usual modes of service delivery. As one
Rebecca Valentine The University of Edinburgh
contributor writes: “sometimes it takes a global pandemic to shake things up a bit”. Many services had already been planning to make changes to existing programmes. When lockdown hit in March this created the space to think outside the box, presented the opportunity to go back to the drawing board, start from scratch and try something new. This has resulted in innovations that might not have been arrived at under normal circumstances, delivered at a pace and scale that could not have been imagined. “We have been invigorated, not by pressing repeat but through reinvention”, writes another
Mary Macfarlane
contributor.
Leeds Beckett University Over the following pages, you can read how AGCAS members have provided students and graduates with continued access to graduate recruiters, through the delivery of virtual employer visits and panels, mock digital assessment centres and online careers fairs. Equally, careers services have created the space for alumni to share insights and
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inspiration, to reflect on their pandemic-related workplace challenges to date and, for the 2008 cohort, their experiences of graduating into a recession. Dedicated calling campaigns have provided a safe space for students and graduates to have positive, empowering conversations with guidance professionals in a climate of chaos and fear. New bite-sized careers and employability content has been co-produced with students to ensure currency and accessibility. Virtual internship programmes have provided students and graduates with opportunities to gain meaningful work experience while also supporting SMEs as they navigate their own pandemic-related business challenges. Online skills awards have enabled students to undertake a wide range of employability-enhancing activities, while the resulting awards celebrations have led students, staff and external partners alike to reflect on what they have achieved during a challenging year. New jobs boards have been created to identify alternative suitable part-time roles for students, many of whom lost a key source of much-needed income overnight. Existing programmes of support have been expanded for delivery across different time zones in response to the sudden dispersal of students to all corners of the globe. Labour market expertise has been consolidated and shared with internal and external stakeholders. Communication and engagement plans have been timed appropriately, with key messages staggered in order to avoid information overload and ‘break through the noise’ of competing institutional priorities.
Aside from showcasing service delivery, we also feature articles on how to use your voice during times like these, with an overview of the techniques that can help careers professionals to deliver effective online sessions. We also hear why it is important to carve out time to shout from the rooftops about the successes and achievements of the past six months. And there’s a Covid-19 special edition of our regular Researcher’s Digest feature. That really is just a whistle-stop tour of this bumper issue, which is by some distance the biggest issue of Phoenix we have ever published in its forty-year history.
It is impossible to read the articles in this issue and not feel inspired by the commitment and dedication of AGCAS members. From the outset, in the midst of panic and uncertainty, university careers services have been doing everything they can to support students and graduates through very challenging times, in the face of many competing institutional priorities. The examples of service delivery featured will continue to offer significant value to students, graduates, employers and other stakeholders long after restrictions have been lifted, when we are all out the other side of the pandemic and its legacy. In a climate where there are scarce opportunities to draw breath, university careers services will continue to adjust to a changed and changing internal and external environment, to innovate in rapidly shifting circumstances and fight to keep employability on the agenda. It was ever thus.
As I write, parts of the country have just entered the next phase of tighter lockdowns, with further restrictions likely to follow in other areas over the coming weeks. While some careers services have returned to limited face-to-face delivery, others have remained fully in the virtual world. How the remainder of this first semester will play out remains unclear. What is certain, though, is that AGCAS members will continue to play a vital role in supporting the cohort of students and graduates most affected by the pandemic, to help them manage career disruption and access the tools they need to take advantage when opportunities do become available.
When Rishi Sunak’s announcement that “careers advice works” landed within the AGCAS community, he was preaching to the converted. In addition to the broader package of careers support made available to young people through the National Careers Service, it is of paramount importance that the expertise of higher education careers professionals and the university careers services in which they work are recognised and sufficiently resourced to meet the anticipated growth in demand from the student and graduate populations hit the hardest by the pandemic. We will keep lobbying for this on behalf of AGCAS members.
The one constant during these highly unusual times is the strength of community that exists within the careers profession. University careers services are rich in collegial, specialist, expert practitioners. Ever conscious of the challenges ahead, it will be more important than ever to share endeavours, knowledge and best practice in responding to stakeholder needs, as we navigate the next few months.
As ever, my thanks go to all article contributors and the Phoenix Editorial Group who have helped to produce this issue. I hope you enjoy it – it has been a genuine pleasure to compile.
Gemma Green, Editor
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locked down, not locked out: OPENING DOORS FOR GRADUATES DURING A PANDEMIC
Kingston University’s Careers and
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
Employability Service (CES) launched a wholly virtual internship The funding secured was enough to offer 100 virtual internships
programme to address the challenges faced by both the small
lasting 100 hours over a period of six to eight weeks. This felt like a fantastic achievement. However, as we worked through the
business community and graduates entering the job market at a time of
details, many challenges presented themselves – some of which felt insurmountable at times.
profound instability. LAURA INGHAM, Career Firstly, we had never run an internship programme on this scale,
Development and Graduate
virtual or otherwise. We have delivered student consultancy
Outcomes Manager, and PAUL
projects, so had some knowledge to work from, but otherwise
CLATWORTHY, Employer
we were starting from scratch. Next, we had no internships
Relationships Manager, reflect on
sourced and our timelines (six weeks from funding secured to
the success of the scheme so far, as
first interns starting) meant we were simultaneously recruiting students and generating internship opportunities. This also
well as the impact on students,
meant students were applying to a generic internship
employers and wider CES team.
programme, going through recruitment and then finding out which opportunities were available. Disappointment was a significant concern. Last, but by no means least, we were in the
As lockdown started, we moved quickly to identify sources of funding that would enable us to launch a graduate internship programme. Working closely with our Partnerships & Business Engagement Team and
our
Alumni
&
Development
Office,
we
drew
on
the
Higher
Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) from UKRI and Covid-19 funding
midst of a global pandemic! Would students have the head space to consider an internship? Would employers be interested, and have the time to support students? And, of course, our team was working remotely with their own challenges.
from Santander Universities to try and meet the scale of our ambition and the demand from graduates and employers.
We were confident that the process was robust, developmental and reflective of real life
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