RESEARCH INSIGHTS: SUPPORTING STUDENTS THROUGH THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND
Along with our Future You Webinars on confidence and growth mindset we are supporting the Student Minds’ Student Space initiative. We are delighted with the feedback from students about these events and the numbers attending or accessing on-demand. These will be a cornerstone of our Future You Programme for next year.
Jayne Rowley, Executive Director of Student Services at Jisc, reflects on a year of immense change for university students and careers
Our findings reflect what has been a year of immense change for young people in which uncertainty has affected all areas of life, not least career plans. More than a quarter of students had changed
professionals.
their career plans due to the pandemic and 37% said they were still uncertain about what they would do.
I was really sad to miss the AGCAS Annual Conference this year – although spending a week at three miles per hour on the beautiful The general sense of uncertainty ties in with findings from careers Llangollen and Shropshire Canal gave me a chance to reflect on services, with the vast majority indicating that there had been an how quickly the year has passed and how uncertain the plans for increase in students asking about changing their plans. supporting students, careers services and employers still are for next year. Given that university students who received careers advice were more likely to report that they were very certain about their career We are going to have to continue to be agile, be prepared to plans than those who had not, it is clear that the support they are change tack at short notice and be pragmatic about the ongoing receiving from the brilliant careers professionals in our institutions is blend of online and face-to-face engagement with students. I am extremely valuable. certain that wellbeing and confidence will be at the heart of student concerns for some time to come.
This spring and summer we have undertaken several research
REMOTE SERVICES
projects to understand how the pandemic has impacted students, as well as those who support them. We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to our latest Careers Advisory Services Survey. More than 250 careers professionals responded about advising students throughout the pandemic and future plans. Another highlight is the Prospects Early Careers Survey 2021 of
In the past year, it’s been inspiring to see how quickly careers services have adapted to remote provision, embracing virtual careers fairs, offering online guidance and setting up virtual assessment centre practice sessions. Many cited the flexibility and accessibility of virtual services as the biggest benefit.
more than 7,000 students and graduates. Careers professionals found that using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Teams was the most effective way to
CHALLENGES AND UNCERTAINTY
connect with students and graduates. Among the social media platforms respondents said that the most effective were Facebook,
Remaining motivated to study and optimistic about careers were
LinkedIn and Twitter. Some thought that Instagram and YouTube
among students’ biggest challenges of the past year. Mental health
were useful so it might be worth exploring those platforms to share
also featured heavily – the second biggest challenge for university
labour market information (LMI).
students – and we have several initiatives to support this issue. Nearly two thirds of university students said they had made use of these services, with finalists more likely to visit careers services than those in earlier years.
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