ISSUE 165 JULY 2022
PROFESSIONALISM Professional pride: nurturing and owning our credibility and expertise A journey along the AGCAS Professional Pathways Capturing and celebrating continuous improvement Reaping the rewards of delivering a quality service
Phoenix is the AGCAS journal
july 2022
CONTENTS PROFESSIONALISM 05 PROFESSIONAL PRIDE: NURTURING AND OWNING OUR CREDIBILITY AND EXPERTISE Nalayini Thambar AGCAS Director of Quality 08 A JOURNEY ALONG THE AGCAS PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS Lorna Dargan and Lizzie Mortimer AGCAS Professionalism Working Party 10 TO INFINITY AND BEYOND: VOLUNTEERISM, PROFESSIONALISM AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT Matthew Howard University of Leeds AGCAS Peer Reviewer 12 THE AGCAS MEMBERSHIP QUALITY STANDARD: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY University of East Anglia 14 CAPTURING AND CELEBRATING CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Kate Daubney The Careers Group, University of London AGCAS Peer Reviewer 16 THE AGCAS AND MATRIX STANDARDS: HELPING TO NAVIGATE STORMY WATERS Iwan Williams AGCAS Professionalism Working Party 18 REAPING THE REWARDS OF DELIVERING A QUALITY SERVICE University College Cork 19 CURIOUS? CONFIDENTIAL? COURAGEOUS? THE 3 'CS' OF A PEER REVIEWER Janice Montgomery University of Aberdeen AGCAS Peer Reviewer 20 UPHOLDING OUR PROFESSIONAL GROUND Nalayini Thambar AGCAS Director of Quality
22 HOW TO BUILD A LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY Anne Wilson The University of Warwick AGCAS trainer 25 PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS: A TAILORED APPROACH FOR LOCAL CONTEXTS University of Nottingham
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TAKING YOUR MENTORING PROGRAMME TO THE NEXT LEVEL sfG MentorNet
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EMPLOYABILITY COURSE FOR AUTISTIC STUDENTS AND GRADUATES Edmund Lewis, LSE Keren Coney, Liverpool John Moores University
26 A TALE OF TWO UNIVERSITIES: SHARED MOTIVATIONS, QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS University of Greenwich City, University of London 28 PLUGGING BACK INTO A COMMUNITY OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE Kulvinder Birring AGCAS Professionalism Working Party 29 STEPPING UP TO THE PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGE: THE CRITICAL FRIEND PERSPECTIVE Mark Yates Writtle University College AGCAS Peer Reviewer 30
HARNESSING PEER SUPPORT TO ENHANCE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Queen Margaret University
35 GLOBAL CHALLENGE: BROADENING STUDENT ACCESS TO INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE WACE 36
RESEARCHER'S DIGEST
38 SUPPORTING STUDENTS TO MAKE GOOD CAREER CHOICES JISC and Prospects services
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, see www.agcas.org.uk Created in-house by AGCAS, based on an original design by Marcom www.mar-com.net
PHOENIX EDITORIAL GROUP Suzie Bullock University of Leeds Mary Macfarlane Sheffield Hallam University
Kate Robertson University of Aberdeen Emma Hill Edinburgh Napier University Sarah Brown University of Gloucestershire
Laura Scott University of Birmingham Holly Delafield University of Bristol Kaz Scattergood University of Liverpool Sophie Hall Cardiff University Lisa McWilliams Keele University
message from the
EDITOR In this issue of Phoenix we reflect on the work of AGCAS, as a membership body, to maintain the quality of university careers services and uphold the high standards expected of the professionals that work within them. In doing so, we celebrate and champion the fundamental expertise and distinguishing features of higher education careers and employability practitioners. Articulation of a professional identity matters for various reasons. At a time when employability features heavily in policy discourse, and the institutional positioning and resourcing of university careers services is subject to change, it is crucial that the significance of AGCAS members’ work is not overlooked, underestimated or diluted. The role of higher education careers and employability services, and the support provided by AGCAS members to students and graduates, have evolved significantly in recent years. For the sake of our professional community, it is vital that this is understood and recognised across the sector. In this edition’s opening article, Nalayini Thambar, AGCAS Director of Quality, sets the context by reflecting on what ‘profession’ means and why it matters in the context of higher education careers work. The golden thread running through this issue is AGCAS members’ longstanding commitment to continuous improvement, from both a service delivery and professional practice perspective. Over the next few pages, you can read honest accounts of AGCAS members’ experiences of engaging with the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS), from the dual perspective of the Peer Reviewers who support and guide services to achieve the MQS, and from the Heads of Service who share their personal stories of what it’s like to have your service reviewed. We hear how the MQS has provided Peer Reviewers with unique and valuable insights into careers service delivery – to learn about services when they are at their very best, and also at their most challenged – and how service leaders and broader careers teams can benefit from the outside perspective of a critical friend. We also learn how the MQS grants AGCAS members the permission to take the time to reflect in a safe space. From these accounts, the benefits of the process to raising standards, performance and credibility are clear to see, regardless of service size, mission group or location. Moreover, peer reviewers themselves have benefited from the professional stretch afforded by the opportunity to undertake the role in support of this area of AGCAS activity.
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We also outline the work of the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party and the development of the AGCAS Professional Pathways. You can read why the Professional Pathways were created – ultimately to enable the articulation of the professionalism of higher education careers and employability practitioners – and how earlier iterations evolved to ensure they capture the distinct skills, qualities and knowledge of the various roles that exist in our professional community, and that they remain relevant. We are delighted to feature articles that outline how members are already drawing on (and benefiting from) the Professional Pathways: to enhance and progress their own career and practice; to map out a service approach to developing the professional journeys of existing team members or recent entrants to the sector via new routes. You can also read how AGCAS training is supporting the Professional Pathways, drawing on the framework to map the evolution of practice from entry-level to experienced against AGCAS Learning opportunities, and to support the growth of a leadership community. With such limited opportunities (still) to draw breath, it remains a challenge to dedicate the time to give our professionalism the focus it needs. Taking inspiration from the author Brad Stulberg, Nalayini considers how we can individually and collectively as an AGCAS community uphold our professional ground at a time when our stakeholders need us more than ever. We hope that from reading the articles in this issue of Phoenix, AGCAS members feel a sense of professional pride from being part of an association committed to setting the high standards expected of higher education careers work and championing the unique expertise of a diverse and talented professional community. We call on AGCAS members to nurture, own and protect our professional domain. Wherever you are on your own professional pathway, declare your expertise and credentials; embrace the opportunities and tools presented to you to develop your professional identity; identify the next steps you need to take on your professional journey; anchor yourself to our community of expertise and support; plug yourself into our professional network. Thank you to all article contributors and to the Phoenix Editorial Group for their support in producing this issue. I’d also like to thank members of the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party who have helped make this issue of Phoenix a reality. Finally, thank you to Marcus Andrews who, in his role as Head of Member Services at AGCAS, supported the Professionalism Working Party in developing the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) and Professional Pathways. Gemma Green, Editor
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professional pride:
NURTURING AND OWNING OUR CREDIBILITY AND EXPERTISE
NALAYINI THAMBAR, AGCAS Director of Quality, outlines why professionalism matters in HE careers work and calls on the AGCAS community to champion the expertise and distinct professional credentials that are the lifeblood of university careers services. What we do matters. We make lives by enabling our students and graduates to understand themselves and what they could do. We equip them to identify the paths they want to explore and follow. Our work across our institutions catalyses an environment where students are transformed and developed by their educational experience to go out and make a positive difference in the world. Our partnerships with opportunity providers, not least employers and recruiters, supports them to attract the talent that will enable them, and by extension the communities connected to them, to thrive. As if that wasn’t compelling and fulfilling enough, we are a diverse and talented community – a joy to be a part of – brought together by shared values and a wish to make a difference.
THE CHALLENGE But on what basis is it us? And how do we ensure the quality of what we do, for the benefit of our stakeholders and to uphold our credibility and professional pride? As employability has evolved into a sector-wide priority, university careers services have diversified and evolved in their range and scope of activities – from guidance, information and employer engagement to the different service models we see today.
Alongside this, the issue of higher education careers work gaining recognition as a profession has become complex, made even more so by our willingness to embrace entrants from a wide range of backgrounds and at different stages of their own careers, appreciating the skills, knowledge and perspectives that they bring. My personal observation, which perhaps you recognise, is that there has been some long-standing discomfort amongst the AGCAS community with declaring ourselves as experts or setting or expecting standards and qualifications for practice – the implication being that such approaches make us unhelpfully exclusive or elite. But, if we don’t set standards for ourselves, my concern is that either someone else who doesn’t understand our work will, or our professional domain is at risk of dilution or distraction by fads and trends that miss the key tenets of our work and the skills that we know we deploy.
WHAT IS A PROFESSION? We use the words ‘profession’ and ‘professional’ quite naturally (and rightly so) but there is a difference between the two. Just like our work, a lot of work across our economy and society is delivered in a highly professional way. There are some established definitions of the type of work and role that constitute a profession. A profession, typically: sets and controls entry, standards and qualifications to practice; has access to privileged knowledge not widely available; and uses that knowledge to benefit the public, who recognise the professional role as such (Freidson 2001, Tosrstendahl 1990, Wilensky 1964). Such roles are typically 'professionally socialised' (Hall, 2005) as all entrants follow a shared training and enculturation process, which is strongly consistent across the different institutions where people study and train to join that profession.
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And then there is the work of the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party. This edition of Phoenix is a celebration and recognition of the steps we have taken with you, our members, over the last five years. The AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) has been designed to apply to university careers services of all size, focus and delivery approach; it enables services to outline the principles and practices that underpin their professional delivery in their institutional setting. Despite the pandemic, take-up means that all AGCAS member services will have gone through the process to acquire the standard by the end of 2022.
Establishing consistency across our profession can feel hard to achieve given the diversity of AGCAS member services, reflecting the institutional diversity across our sector. Furthermore, within a single service there can be significant role diversity, which can result in operational and cultural challenges if seeking to establish a single ‘voice of the profession’. However, our institutions are founded on the basis of specialised knowledge and expertise; if our distinct skills, qualities and knowledge (routinely certified through higher-level nationally-recognised qualifications) are not acknowledged, this makes us vulnerable to being misunderstood and undervalued. We are at even greater risk of being overlooked or underestimated if we ourselves foster or encourage distance from professional credentials by playing down what enables us to fulfil our roles so effectively. We already see this when the value of higher education or career guidance are discussed at policy level. The critical task of equipping students and graduates for their future lives and longterm career success – the distinct feature of AGCAS members’ work – is often skirted over in favour of a heavier focus on graduate recruitment. This is important, but not the whole picture.
THERE IS GOOD NEWS Fortunately, we are closer to being a conventionally defined profession than this article so far might suggest. We do have common and typical qualifications and experience for our areas of work, and many university careers services expect particular qualifications for certain roles. We perhaps need to remember also, especially when describing our work to others, that the skills and knowledge that we deploy are not ‘general’. Alongside this, AGCAS is a strong professional association and all those who do engage with AGCAS – its networks, training, development and professional support – will be ‘professionally socialised’, even when their training, qualification and length of time in higher education careers work varies.
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If our distinct skills, qualities and knowledge are not acknowledged, this makes us vulnerable to being misunderstood and undervalued
We make lives Meanwhile, the Professional Pathways provide a basis from which each of us, working in a wide range of roles, can declare and nurture our profession and professionalism. Along with our Code of Ethics, as AGCAS members, we have the tools that other – perhaps more recognised – professions use to maintain their standards and distinctive practice and which gives them the agency to fulfil their purpose. It is down to us to use these tools in a deliberate and systematic way. I hope this edition serves to emphasise AGCAS’s commitment to this work and motivates you to foster your own, and our collective, professional identity. It matters because what we do matters. We make lives.
nalayini.thambar@nottingham.ac.uk @NalayiniT Connect with Nalayini on LinkedIn
If we don’t set standards for ourselves, either someone else who doesn’t understand our work will, or our professional domain is at risk of dilution or distraction by fads and trends that miss the key tenets of our work
Freidson, E. (2001) Professionalism: The Third Logic. London: Polity Press Hall, P. (2005) Interprofessional teamwork: Professional cultures as barriers. Journal of Interprofessional Care 19 (2): 188-196 Torstendahl, R. and Burrage, M. (eds) (1990) The Formation of Professions, London: Sage Wilensky, H. L. (1964) "The Professionalization of Everyone?" American Journal of Sociology 70 as cited in Collins, R. (1990) Changing conceptions in the sociology of professions. In: Torstendahl, R. and Burrage,M. (eds) (1990) The Formation of Professions. London, Sage
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a journey along
THE AGCAS PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS
We knew that we did not want the Pathways to feel prescriptive. We also did not want them to be a standard that must be met for AGCAS membership or participation, nor intended to be used as job descriptions. Instead, we wanted the Pathways to be aspirational, challenging those within our profession to hold their practice to high standards, providing both a framework and language to articulate their own skills and expertise, and also for reflecting on and planning professional development alongside their managers.
FACETS AND THEMES In thinking about the individual Pathways, we wanted to be as inclusive of the range of AGCAS member services as possible. This immediately meant that categorisation using job titles was impossible – services organise themselves very differently according to their individual contexts, and we have so many variations in job titles, specialisms and types of students.
Following the launch of the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) in January 2019, the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party (PWP) began work on the Professional Pathways. PWP members LORNA DARGAN, Director of Careers at the University of St Andrews, and LIZZIE MORTIMER, Assistant Director at The University of Edinburgh Careers Service, describe how the Pathways developed: the aims, the approach, and the odd tussle with the English language. As a sector, we are committed to the concepts of personal and career development: self-reflection, self-awareness, and lifelong learning. Many of our employers will have frameworks that support training and professional development within the institutional context, but we wanted (and needed) to protect our professional space and identities by highlighting the skills, knowledge and capabilities that make us distinct. And so, following the launch of the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS), the Professionalism Working Party (PWP) turned its attention to the second part of our brief: to develop a Professional Pathways competency framework for higher education student career development and graduate employment professionals.
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE It seemed like a huge task, but we were all delighted to have an excuse to reassemble – immediately getting stuck into lively debates on topics ranging from the nuances of professional roles to the advantages of alliteration. It proved to be both hugely enjoyable (as AGCAS volunteering always is) and deliciously complex.
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The Pathways account for the evolution of professional practice from complete newbie to experienced professional We instead settled on ‘facets’ of services – careers education, enterprise, internships, and so on – allowing members to fit together different functions that aligned to their roles and enabling us to future-proof the Pathways to account for how roles might evolve to new challenges and opportunities. We noted that there were skills and attributes common to all our roles as career professionals – data, research, managing our own careers (important to practise what we preach!) – so decided to make them cross-cutting themes to emphasise their importance and how embedded they are in the work that we do. It wasn’t easy deciding on facets and cross-cutting themes. Was careers education sufficiently different from skills development? Data did its own version of the Hokey Cokey, dancing in and out of cross-cutting themes and facets whilst we tried to decide where it should eventually sit. We consulted extensively on our work from almost the very beginning, starting with the AGCAS Board, then Task Group Chairs, Heads of Service, and Advisory Council. PWP members also had a ‘go-to’ colleague in their pocket for each of the facets, so that we could have an informal sense-check to make sure we weren’t wildly off track. Feedback suggests that we have managed to capture the breadth and complexity of work that we do.
CAPTURING PROGRESSION The Pathways account for the evolution of professional practice from complete newbie to experienced professional, which we have framed as ‘Entrant’, ‘Established’, and ‘Experienced’. It was really important to us all that the Pathways reflected the fact that many careers professionals choose not to go into management roles; the progression from ‘Entrant’ to ‘Experienced’ captured a deepening of practice rather than setting an expectation that colleagues would want to become managers. We were fortunate to have so many examples of colleagues across the sector to help us articulate this, from completely new entrants into roles who we just know are going to be shining stars, to highly experienced and inspirational colleagues who have honed their skills working in just one or two facets of our work.
We want the Pathways to be aspirational, challenging those within our profession to hold their practice to high standards We feel that the Pathways really capture and celebrate the unique skills and expertise of our professional community. The response from members, not least during the most recent AGCAS Annual Conference, has shown how much you value the recognition and articulation of your professional identities that the Pathways bring.
FUTURE-PROOFING In late spring 2020, we spent one very sunny house-bound Sunday on Teams conjugating verbs, searching for rogue full stops, and approaching expert level in tracking changes. The one thing that had become all too apparent was that the landscape in which we operate can and will change and, from recent experience, be completely disrupted. Reassuringly, the Pathways that we had drafted pre-pandemic were still relevant and true, speaking as they did to the fundamental distinguishing skills and attributes that make us who we are. But the recent seismic changes did reinforce the need to future-proof the Pathways as far as possible. Yes, we should indicate the importance of understanding contextual data, but would Graduate Outcomes, NSS or TEF always exist? Probably not – so out those references came. And as for the verbs, with Lizzie wielding her (aged) degree in English language we had been looking forward to ‘tightening up the language’ as we naively described it. Now we were staring at Version 6.2 FINAL FINAL FINAL’, trying to unpick what Lorna meant when she commented: “To finish our unspoken sentences, I’m using the present tense under ‘skills’ (‘prioritise’), to the present participle in attributes (‘prioritising’), and I’m not using ‘subjectverbs’ in knowledge because the verb sits in our unspoken sentence”. Verbiage finally sorted (and with both of us having aged a hundred years in the process), that just left AGCAS's Marcus Andrews to grapple with the small task of turning our nine facets, three crosscutting themes, four areas of focus and three levels of experience into something readable that would stand the test of time.
With thanks to the rest of the then PWP crew: Nalayini Thambar (Nottingham); John Kirwan (then Oxford Brookes); Darcey Gillie (then Sheffield Hallam); Iwan Williams (Liverpool); and Marcus Andrews (then AGCAS).
lorna.dargan@st-andrews.ac.uk elizabeth.mortimer@ed.ac.uk @LornaDargan @lizziemortimer Connect with Lorna on LinkedIn Connect with Lizzie on LinkedIn
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to infinity and beyond:
VOLUNTEERISM, PROFESSIONALISM AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT
MATTHEW HOWARD, Deputy Head of Student Careers at the University of Leeds, reflects on his experience as a Peer Reviewer for the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) and outlines the benefit of volunteerism to his own career development and sense of professionalism.
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In May 2021, following training by the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party (PWP), I started as a Peer Reviewer for the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS). I have subsequently supported four services to achieve the MQS, from a diverse range of institutions, regions, and mission groups.
ENABLING REFLECTION The review process offers members a structured, confidential opportunity for reflection on service positioning, organisation, design, and delivery. Impartiality, fairness, and the ability to respect sensitivities, including providing constructive feedback, are at its heart. Services are asked to prepare a self-evaluation document (SED), carefully considering professionalism against nine pillars, grouped within three themes: service leadership and management; stakeholder insight and collaboration; and professional expertise. Reading the SED provides a unique window into the soul of a service; strengths, areas for development, and aspirations are shared openly. Each review meeting is unique, offering protected time for Heads of Service to pause, reflect and re-focus on development priorities. I take pride in helping to surface and celebrate the outstanding work delivered across HE careers services, with many projects and milestones often overlooked or hidden. Additionally, I enjoy being a sounding board for professional practice discussions, focused on all aspects of service functionality.
I take pride in helping to surface and celebrate the outstanding work delivered across HE careers services LEADERSHIP CONFIDENCE Volunteering as a Peer Reviewer is an honour. The review is not an opportunity to gain privileged knowledge of a service for competitive advantage, nor is it an evaluation of its management. It is, however, an enviable development opportunity and one which boosted my confidence to consider, apply for and transition into a new leadership role. Regardless of seniority within one’s own institution, the process allows you to engage in strategic conversations with a Head of Service, to build networks with senior leaders, visualise change management techniques, and contribute towards the evolution of a service. Two months into my role at Leeds, I now find myself leading the service through our own MQS application. I am fortunate to be the recipient of guidance and top tips from colleagues who I previously supported as a reviewer. The professional learning cycle in action!
POWER OF VOLUNTEERISM Inspired by ‘Planned Happenstance’ (Krumboltz, 1996), my personal approach to professionalism and career development is founded upon curiosity for embracing chance learning opportunities. AGCAS provides a plethora of unexpected ways to give back to the sector whilst benefitting considerably from volunteerism and informal mentorship. For me, membership of the AGCAS Employer Engagement Task Group and contributing towards the Community pillar of the AGCAS strategy, is a source of strength and professional growth. Since joining the group in 2019, I have been humbled by our collective achievements, including: publication of two research projects on the impact and future of employer engagement, supported by the Institute of Student Employers (ISE); contributing content to AGCAS Heads of Service webinars, Annual Conference, and Board-level discussions; and hosting forums to build networks and share ideas. Via AGCAS, there is huge potential to pick up national-level projects and be exposed to differing perspectives, service models and points of collaboration. Moreover, volunteering as an AGCAS trainer not only aids your progression along the AGCAS Professional Pathways, but also helps to elevate sector-wide professional standards. Becoming a trainer provides you with hands-on experience of facilitating learning needs, design, and evaluation; useful evidence in support of any Advance HE application. I feel fortunate to be teaching on the AGCAS/University of Warwick Challenges of Careers Work in HE and Writing for Impact courses and to have delivered a new suite of Employer Engagement training; each course encouraging reflective practice for participants and trainers.
COLLECTIVE PROFESSIONALISM As highlighted by Thambar et al (2020), the role of higher education careers services has evolved considerably in recent years, as have our roles and sense of collective professionalism. Volunteering for AGCAS has the potential to help members of any experience level and role to develop skills, boost confidence levels, build support networks, and broaden horizons through exposure to good practice, new ways of thinking and opportunities for collaboration. AGCAS has played a pivotal role in my journey within the sector to date, including my recent move into a deputy head role. How can volunteering support your unique sense of professional identity and personal career development?
m.howard2@leeds.ac.uk @MatthewHwrd Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn
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the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard:
AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
A REMINDER IS RECEIVED
ANTONY COTTERILL, Student Employability Manager at the University of East Anglia (UEA), maps CareerCentral’s six-month journey towards achieving the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS). In contrast to expectations, it was an undeniably positive and valuable experience. From completion of the self-evaluation document (SED), the allocation of a Peer Reviewer, review meeting and subsequent report, the process was seamless and constructive, allowing the opportunity to surface and celebrate the many strengths of the service. CareerCentral is UEAs careers service, supporting all aspects of a student's careers experience. Like all careers services, we had rapidly adapted during the early stages of the pandemic, moving appointments, workshops and events online to support our student and graduate clients. The university was also undergoing change; in the previous autumn the institutional position of the service was moved from Research and Innovation to a newly-created Student Education and Experience Division. This involved a change in leadership and interim head(s) of service. The university also began a major campus development programme, which meant that the long-term location of CareerCentral was moved to a new home in the library.
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I had been back at UEA, the place I had begun my own ‘careers’ career, for about three months, following an eight-year stint at two other UK universities. The team (many of whom I had not met in person) had been creating new delivery methods, coping with changing engagement patterns, adapting to ever-evolving guidance, and working with a concerned student cohort who had received a university experience unlike any other. In early May we received a reminder; we were nearing the deadline to start the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard process. Very honestly, amongst the management team, there was little enthusiasm to embark on the journey.
A COMMITMENT IS CONFIRMED Six weeks passed. We had got through the academic year, student demand was dissipating and there was inevitable talk of summer projects. At this point we agreed that we would submit our SED (self-evaluation document) by the end of July. It was in writing, so we were committed. The SED involved providing evidence against three themes. These themes were broken down across nine pillars, with the requirement to write no more than 500 words against each. At points, the SED felt like writing an assignment for the CEIGHE qualification – a challenge to get started and then a challenge to contain the words. Gathering evidence involved meetings, Teams chats and e-mails with colleagues across all levels of the service. We sourced information and evidence and rooted out where and how we shared our messages and services with students. We had several management team meetings to reflect on what and why the service did what it did. The result: we submitted (slightly after deadline) and went on our holidays.
A MATCH IS MADE AGCAS were quick to match us with our Peer Reviewer. We were impressed that they were able to match us with someone who had experience of an institution similar to our own: size, research and education intensive, regionally-based, a distance from a large metropolitan centre but with some significantly sized regional employers. We confirmed a time for our Peer Review meeting at the start of the new academic year. We had prepared for an intensive interrogation but, of course, it wasn’t like this. In true careers style, our Peer Reviewer used their guidance skills, built rapport, summarised and paraphrased our SED, listened, questioned, and self-disclosed. Over the course of a morning, we had the opportunity as a management team to discuss all aspects of our service and outline a stretching but achievable development plan - it was pretty enjoyable!
In true careers style, our Peer Reviewer used their guidance skills to build rapport
We have since used the development plan as part of our team strategy day, to remind us of what we said we would do A STANDARD IS SET Mid-way through the autumn term, we received our final report and confirmation from AGCAS that we had achieved the standard (and we received the all-important certificate and logos). This provided us with the opportunity to celebrate success with the team and promote CareerCentral to the rest of the university. We have since used the development plan as part of our team strategy day, and to remind us of what we said we would do to continue delivering levels of professionalism across the service. To sum up, in our report our Peer Reviewer told us: “UEA’s CareerCentral service should be incredibly proud of their outstanding employability and career development provision, and fully deserve receipt of the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard.” We are. We do. And we got a lot more out of the journey than we thought we would. a.cotterill@uea.ac.uk @antonyc77 Connect with Antony on LinkedIn
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capturing and celebrating
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
KATE DAUBNEY, Peer Reviewer for the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) and Director of The Careers Group, University of London, outlines how the MQS service review is so much more than a tick box exercise. It is such a privilege to be a Peer Reviewer for the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS), as I have been for over two years now. I mean that in the very genuine definition of the word – to be granted special rights not simply to peer over the wall into other universities' careers services, but to be invited in for a good look around and a reflective discussion. It's a metaphorical visit, in the sense that we don't physically go to the service to conduct the review. But through the self-evaluation document (SED) that services complete, and the peer review conversation that follows with the Head of Service, I have the opportunity not just to hear about what another careers service does, but why and how it does it.
As a profession, we are always looking to improve what we do PAGE 14
STEPPING UP TO SCRUTINY The word 'review' can feel like a heavy axe waiting to fall from above. As I experienced myself when I was Head of Careers at King's College London, many careers service leaders regularly have their service provision and staffing reviewed for value for money, and for effectiveness and impact - not least against Graduate Outcomes data, which we know is a simplistic, unhelpful and ultimately misleading marker for careers service quality. The prospect of a review can create quite a sense of defensiveness in everyone. As one Head of Service put it to me: "it's easy to think of a 'review' as a box to tick and a battle to be won". There is often the sense that a reviewer is looking for something 'wrong'. At a time when careers services are increasingly innovative, outward-looking and integrated into university strategies, that can feel quite disruptive. My experience, having worked in careers for almost 20 years and led three very different careers services and communities since 2015, is that careers service strategy and delivery, and the institutional positioning of careers services, have never changed more than in the last seven years. And these continue to change and evolve and redefine themselves. My experience as a Peer Reviewer has reaffirmed two things I have always felt about the higher education careers profession: that we are always looking to improve what we do, and we are unfailingly generous in sharing our learning journeys with each other.
How can a process like the AGCAS MQS attempt to capture a dynamic situation, while also remaining a positive experience?
AN OPPORTUNITY TO REFLECT Reflection is key to the whole process. We are all so busy all the time doing the work, that it can be really hard to step back from it simply to reflect. It's ironic, in many ways, because education and careers education are both centred on the importance of reflection in learning. And my experience of taking King's through a review process, and being a reviewer, indicates how incredibly valuable and revitalising it is to take a moment to reflect on the 'why' and the 'how', when we are all so caught up in the daily 'what'. While the 'what' does change (and so it should), the 'why' behind the approaches we take, and the principles that underpin our partnerships with academics and employers and our enabling of students, are generally pretty constant. And that is part of what I think the SED can capture.
DIVERSITY OF PERSPECTIVE Involving the whole team in writing the SED is a brilliant opportunity to engage everyone in the 'why' and the 'how' too. It also creates an essential diversity of perspective on how colleagues see the success and development of what the service does.
In my experience, this leads to a stronger selfevaluation, which can also have huge benefits far beyond the review, not just in any future actions but also in initiating new conversations in the team.
The process is a safe environment in which to discuss how the service can move forward EMPATHY FOR SHARED CHALLENGES Remember your reviewer is innately empathetic. They also work in a careers service. We are really fortunate to have a diversity of reviewers who have different roles and experience in HE careers work, but they are also very likely to have experienced several of the challenges that might get surfaced through the SED. One of these is the tension between being responsive to student needs on a daily basis while balancing big picture, long term planning. The process is a safe environment in which to discuss as teams, and with the reviewer, how the service can move forward to meet the changing landscape while remaining true to its core values and 'whys'. I have enjoyed finding out about the many ways the same issues are addressed or problems solved.
kate.daubney@careers.lon.ac.uk @careerampersand Connect with Kate on LinkedIn
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A LIGHTHOUSE IN THE STORM
the AGCAS and matrix Standards:
HELPING TO NAVIGATE STORMY WATERS
Luckily, innovation and flexibility are qualities that sit deeply rooted in our profession. But that’s not to say it is straightforward. When we are as busy as we have been, it is easy to get our heads down and inadvertently lose the connection with the wider careers sector. Luckily, we have a couple of helping hands to steady the tiller. Not only is membership of a professional body a salvation, but it is also where the quality standard process can be so useful – a proverbial lighthouse in the storm. Beyond the opportunity to review our own effectiveness and gain professional accreditation, we can realign strategic goals and seek reassurance that we are on the right track and doing far more than just keeping our heads above water. AGCAS has a long history with quality standards. Before the launch of our own hugely successful version in 2019 – the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) – there had been a longstanding partnership with the matrix Standard and, indeed, up until 2014 it had been a requirement for AGCAS membership.
IWAN WILLIAMS, a member of the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party (PWP), charts the return of the matrix Standard and outlines how AGCAS has influenced the development of the standard to ensure its relevance to higher education careers work. It is fair to say that careers teams across the higher education landscape have had to endure some fairly stormy waters over the last year or two. The pandemic has changed – perhaps permanently – not only the way we deliver our offer but also the very shape of the graduate employment market. Add in new government policies, the ever-increasing importance of employability metrics, and the resulting demands from senior leadership and it would have been easy to spring a leak or two.
In 2022, the matrix Standard is making a comeback in higher . education and taking definitive steps to become more relevant and appropriate for university careers teams. While in the past it may have been felt a slightly awkward fit, this may be about to change.
FRESH APPROACH The matrix Standard is owned by the Department for Education (DfE) and delivered on their behalf by the Growth Company. After ten years, a recent review Chaired by Dr Deidre Hughes (DMH Associates) has seen a fresh approach emerge with a new structure and clearer, more relevant features. Roger Chapman, Head of Service at the Growth Company, describes this as “more an evolution than a revolution”. Alongside fellow members of the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party (PWP), I have had the chance to help address some of the challenges and to advocate for AGCAS members, particularly in terms of ensuring the relevance of the standard to our context. The approach of ‘Plan, Do, Review’ encourages services to be more active in the process and engage at a deeper level in self-reflection rather than it just feeling like a tick box exercise. There is a clear focus on evidencing impact and measuring distance travelled and, at its heart, remains the delivery of meaningful information, advice and guidance. The latest version of the matrix Standard has been piloted and is due to approved by DfE around autumn 2022.
The matrix Standard is taking definitive steps to become more relevant and appropriate for university careers teams PAGE 16
COMPLEMENTARY PROCESS Some sections within the matrix Standard might feel familiar, but new criterion have been added – like one on Health and Wellbeing, with a focus on both students and staff. Crucially, there will be a specific higher education sector companion guide to accompany the framework, which AGCAS and the Growth Company are working on. This will be a game-changer in how the matrix Standard is perceived and therefore implemented by potential partners in this setting. The guide is being written by specialists within higher education and seeks to join the dots between the matrix Standard and the vast range of approaches we see adopted by contemporary careers teams across our sector.
Membership of a professional body is a proverbial lighthouse in the storm
Roger Chapman sees the matrix Standard as a complementary process to the AGCAS quality standard. Each service will need to decide their own path, but the wider contextual understanding provided by a quality standard that partners with over 1,700 organisations up and down the land offers a very tempting and unique insight to careers delivery. With thirty universities involved with the matrix Standard, there is great potential for further growth.
"By working with the higher education sector we are developing a standard which is ideally suited to your needs. It would be great to hear from more services on how this might strengthen your offer. The companion guide will remain under regular review by AGCAS and others in the sector to ensure the framework keeps pace with best practice” Roger Chapman, Growth Company
Partnership is strength. By working with our friends across the wider careers sector we can continue to stay one step ahead and navigate these stormy seas together. Contact matrixStandard@growthco.uk for an advance copy of the matrix Standard.
iwangw@liverpool.ac.uk @IwanGW81 Connect with Iwan on LinkedIn
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reaping the rewards of
DELIVERING A QUALITY SERVICE University College Cork (UCC) Career Services embarked on the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) journey last academic semester. ADEL COLEMAN, Graduate Attributes Programme Manager, shares how achieving the standard has led to stronger partnerships, an increased sense of strategic importance across the institution, and a multitude of national awards.
BRINGING EXPERTISE TO THE FORE The process of undertaking the MQS allowed us to not only reflect on how we led the development, integration, and delivery of the framework but also brought our expertise to the fore within the university. The MQS has also given us a voice to promote ourselves with greater credibility. There is now increased awareness amongst senior management and colleagues across the university of the critical support we provide to students to ensure they are well prepared for their transition out of university. As our academic colleagues seek to collaborate with Career Services to develop employability initiatives and embed employability in their programmes, there is recognition that they are working with future-focused experts. The Employability Framework is now being consulted to inform the development of the University Strategic Plan 2023-2027.
AWARD WINNING PARTNERSHIPS University College Cork (UCC) Career Services has undergone phenomenal positive changes in the past year, and the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) was an enabler to this happening. Undertaking the MQS provided us with the opportunity to reflect deeply, as a service, on our objectives, priorities and challenges. One of many positive outcomes from this process has been our role in creating a new Employability Framework in partnership with the UCC Graduate Attributes Programme (GAP) and our academic and professional services colleagues.
STAKEHOLDER NEEDS Developing an Employability Framework presented opportunities for the Career Services team to work collaboratively with colleagues across the university to ensure the framework responded to the needs of all stakeholders. The initial phase of the project saw the establishment of a staff consultation process. All UCC staff were invited to feed into the development of the framework and encouraged to reflect on how employability is defined within their context and what they would like to see prioritized. This process provided a wealth of feedback for the Career Services team to consider and then draw on for the development of core framework pillars. To understand the student and graduate perspective, we used data from the HEA Graduate Outcomes Survey, the UCC Student Success Survey and the national Student Survey. Once our key stakeholder data was gathered and analysed, a focus group of Career Services staff was formed, drawn from all areas of service delivery, to consider how we could flex our services and offerings. We found gaps in service provision that we aimed to fill and we identified opportunities for close collaboration with our academic and professional services colleagues to successfully embed the framework.
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We have also benefited from the strengthening of our existing partnership with GAP. Working in close collaboration, we have developed and expanded the UCC EmployAgility Awards . programme and made AI practice interview and CV review tools available to all current UCC students and recent graduates. We will continue to work in partnership to deliver career development support at appropriate junctures in a students’ journey. At the Irish Education Awards we won the Best Career Impact Strategy Award, based on a submission developed by the Career Services and GAP team that highlighted our drive as a university to ensure our graduates are exposed to engagement opportunities that support them in developing core values and attributes. We were awarded the AHECS (Association of Higher Education Career Services) Building Effective Partnerships Award in recognition of the collaboration between the Career Services and GAP. We also celebrated winning the University’s President’s Award for Enhancing the Student Experience. We have a new sense of confidence, ready to try new projects and not afraid to demonstrate that we are a team of quality assured and professionally recognised experts. We remain committed to further collaboration with academic colleagues and employers to enhance the student experience and our graduates’ employability – a paramount outcome from the university experience. Our ambition is to capitalise on our enhanced profile to drive more innovative, transformative employability projects within the university.
adel.coleman@ucc.ie Connect with Adel on LinkedIn
curious? confidential? courageous?
THE 3 'CS' OF A PEER REVIEWER
JANICE MONTGOMERY, Senior Careers Adviser at the University of Aberdeen, outlines the key attributes required of a Peer Reviewer to successfully guide and support services through the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS). Being a Peer Reviewer demands a range of skills and qualities. These include: the ability to assimilate large quantities of information and analyse findings; awareness of the wider context; empathy; and unfailingly courtesy. However, underpinning them all are three key attributes: curiosity, confidentiality and courage. Why these?
CURIOSITY You could call it being nosey, but I think curiosity sounds more professional. A Peer Reviewer should be interested in knowing more about current practice in higher education careers work across the UK, and keen to surface how current events are playing out in AGCAS member services. How are services coping with hybrid delivery, university strategies, league table drivers, changes to staffing, adjustments to institutional positioning, the drive for placements, skills awards, co-creation, funding and did I mention continuous change? How is the service perceived by their university senior leaderships team and academics across subject disciplines? Do service representatives have a seat at the important university committees? How is the service structured and does that structure work for the whole team? Being curious helps a Peer Reviewer to read between the lines and ask the right questions to assist the team to see themselves from an outside perspective, identifying areas where they are doing really good work but also where a further review might make a difference.
CONFIDENTIALITY The self-evaluation document (SED) that underpins a quality review is a highly sensitive document. The SED allows services to celebrate key success areas, showcase great initiatives, and demonstrate areas of real progress, but it also highlights where the service’s own perceptions suggest that things are not going as well as they might like. There are issues in almost every member service – funding, staffing levels, institutional or directorate positioning, and a whole host of other things – and these can impact staff activities and morale. Some things can be changed, some can’t. Either way, they appear starkly on the pages of a quality review – and that’s where they really need to stay.
A Peer Reviewer helps a service to see themselves from an outside perspective The point of a quality review is to give services an opportunity to reflect on successes but also areas where they need to change. A service will never do that honestly unless they are offered the highest levels of confidentiality. So, as a Peer Reviewer, I can’t name or identify the careers service I am assessing to anyone, or mention anything I have seen or heard, or pass off perfectly brilliant and innovative examples of good practice as my own ideas in subsequent discussions within my own service (even if tempted).
COURAGE Why do Peer Reviewers need to be courageous? Largely because it is our role to read the review carefully (and probably several times), to assimilate it well and then, based on our own experience of careers work in HE, ask some helpful and probing questions. The purpose of the questions is to allow the service to reflect even more deeply than they have already on the why and the when and the how and the what, to identify the big issues and ask if everyone has had an opportunity to be involved in trying to solve them. The questions are profoundly supportive, carefully crafted to encourage exploration of the issues, and designed at all times to help the service move forward. But sometimes it can be hard to ask them – to probe, to enquire, to carefully challenge. Most Peer Reviewers are not Heads of Service, but we ask those questions of Heads of Service, Student Support Deans, Deputy Heads and Team Leaders, as well as (usually) a range of staff in the service. That takes a bit of courage sometimes. It is a rare privilege to be allowed to be a Peer Reviewer and a really interesting learning experience. We interact with services in different types of universities in widely different geographical locations. We see examples of good practice and truly innovative solutions to problems that affect us all. We are trusted with information about services at their very best, but also at their most challenged. It is a wonderful opportunity.
AGCAS is recruiting for Peer Reviewers Are you incurably curious, strictly confidential and on occasion willing to be a little bit courageous? Contact Elaine Boyes to find out more.
j.montgomery@abdn.ac.uk Connect with Janice on LinkedIn
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upholding our
PROFESSIONAL GROUND
NALAYINI THAMBAR, Director of Getting in Shape and Careers and Employability at the University of Nottingham, and AGCAS Director of Quality, reflects on her own experiences of navigating the personal and professional disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Here, she shares how the author Brad Stulberg’s thinking on groundedness can help the AGCAS community survive and thrive during times of uncertainty. The word ‘unprecedented’ has been used so much since March 2020. Yet, despite these extraordinary times, magnificent effort across our sector has resulted in adapted delivery and continuous response and improvement when dealing with all our stakeholders. It has, though, been much harder to give our professional ground the focus it needs, or ourselves the time to step back and reflect; the challenges of logistics, government guidelines and evolving regulations have all, rightly, taken precedence.
FEEDING YOUR SOUL I have been helped through the relentless pace and change of the last two years by the discovery of an author and his book (thank you, Twitter). The Practice of Groundedness by Brad Stulberg offers ‘a transformative path to success that feeds – not crushes – your soul’. I bought the book in September 2021 when my soul was a bit bashed, and finally read it over the Christmas break (thank you, autumn term and the Omicron wave).
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It has been much harder to give our professional ground the focus it needs, or ourselves the time to step back and reflect
I was quickly drawn in by Stulberg’s identification of a phenomenon he describes as ‘heroic individualism’, features of which can be: Low level anxiety and a sensation of always being rushed or in a hurry – if not physically, then mentally A sense that your life is swirling with frenetic energy – as if you are being pushed and pulled from one thing to the next Not always wanting to be on but struggling to turn off – and not feeling good when you do Feeling way too busy but also restless when you have open time and space
BUILDING HABITS I think the pandemic has nudged many of us towards this state. Stulberg suggests the antidote to heroic individualism is groundedness: “a deep reservoir of integrity and fortitude, of wholeness, out of which lasting performance, well-being and fulfilment emerge”. He suggests it can be achieved through these steps: 1. Accept where you are to get you where you want to go 2. Be present so you can own your attention and energy 3. Be patient and you’ll get there faster 4. Embrace vulnerability to develop genuine strength 5. Build deep community 6. Move your body to ground your mind I would suggest that to ‘be present’, avoiding distractions and multitasking, and having the time and space to ‘build deep community’, have been particularly challenging over the last two years. For each step the challenge is building the habit of applying it. The book is a great read which explains why, and what might be done to build those habits.
MANAGING FUTURE UNCERTAINTY
The Practice of Groundedness is available on Amazon in book, Kindle and audiobook.
I found Stulberg’s thinking helpful and shared it widely across my institution to help us all get through the start of 2022 and the prospect of yet more uncertain times. Seeing how well it landed motivated me to think about his work from an AGCAS perspective and the importance of upholding our professional ground.
You can learn more from Brad Stulberg at bradstulberg.com and you can follow him on Twitter @BStulberg.
If you become familiar with the practice of groundedness, no doubt you will be able to come up with your own approach, but as a starter for ten here is mine: Identify and protect distraction-free time in an environment that works for you (maybe a walk?) to reflect on the last two years and your professional journey. Consider your practice, with the help of the relevant Professional Pathway(s). What do you need to restore, retain or reshape? Make time to meet with your trusted friends and colleagues to connect and share honestly your thoughts and experiences. Identify steps that will help you uphold your professional ground, being kind to yourself when setting targets and deadlines. I would suggest that this covers Stulberg’s six steps and can help us individually and collectively to uphold our professional ground at a time when our stakeholders need us more than ever.
Look out for an exclusive opportunity for AGCAS members to have a virtual Q&A with Brad Stulberg later this year.
nalayini.thambar@nottingham.ac.uk @NalayiniT Connect with Nalayini on LinkedIn
Revisit the AGCAS Professional Pathways to help uphold your professional ground.
Groundedness is an ongoing practice. First, you have to know something. But then, you actually have to do it. I call this the knowing-doing gap, and it's why I made sure to include so many concrete practices in the book. It is so important to remember that groundedness is not a switch that you magically flip. You've got to work at it. But, as Nalayini points out, the benefits of doing so are transformational. Remember that what you work on works on you, and focus on small steps that, compounded over time, lead to big differences in your work and life. Sustainable excellence is possible, but we've got to pursue it in a whole new way, one that starts from a foundation of groundedness. I hope this article and the book can help build momentum for just that. Brad Stulberg
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how to build
A LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY ANNE WILSON, co-trainer on the AGCAS Management of HE Careers and Employability Services (MoHECAS) course and Head of Careers at The University of Warwick, explains how using the AGCAS Professional Pathways can help you prepare for taking the step into leadership and management.
This year I took on responsibility for the Management of HE Careers and Employability Services course (or MoHECAS for short), with partner-in-crime John Harrison, Head of Student Futures at the University of Hull. We were delighted to accept the challenge, although acutely aware we had big shoes to fill. The course had previously been designed and delivered by Dr Nalayini Thambar and Marc Lintern; naturally, we were keen to ensure the strong reputation of the course was maintained. MoHECAS is aimed at those already in management and leadership positions, deputies and aspiring leaders. While it is an optional module of The University of Warwick Career Education, Information and Guidance in HE (CEIGHE) postgraduate qualifications, is it open to anyone.
WHAT MAKES MOHECAS DIFFERENT TO OTHER LEADERSHIP PROGRAMMES? Most leadership courses will provide something of value. Institutional training will enable you to connect with fellow leaders, helping you understand the values, culture and idiosyncrasies of your employing institution. However, these courses won’t connect you with your ‘tribe’ of fellow careers professionals who are much more likely to understand and share many of your challenges. A key strength of MoHECAS is that participants help inform content and discussions through identifying hot topics in higher education careers work. Each year, course content is therefore automatically refreshed to ensure we meet participants’ needs.
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The programme provides an opportunity for leaders to identify and reflect on their unique leadership strengths
It is important to acknowledge that leadership expertise is not held exclusively by the trainers. Our primary role is to facilitate learning and to stimulate discussion. All participants bring a wide variety of skills and experiences from both within and outside the sector. They invariably represent a wide range and type of institution, and this makes for rich and insightful discussions with everyone learning from each other. Each programme benefits from guest speakers, who provide insights into their leadership approaches. The application of theory we have explored through session inputs and background reading is brought to life through practical illustration. This year Gemma Kenyon (City, University of London) and Mark Stow (Leeds Beckett University) demonstrated how to implement strategy successfully; while Warwick’s Roberta Wooldridge-Smith, Director of Student Opportunity, outlined the critical importance of effective communication when implementing change effectively both during and emerging from Covid. Course topics enable participants to focus on the bigger picture. For example, how to create a good strategy, responding to and leading change, and meeting stakeholder expectations. The course structure provides an opportunity for much-valued thinking time, which often eludes us in the day job. On an individual level, the programme provides an opportunity to for leaders to identify and reflect on their unique leadership strengths and how to deploy these to good effect. There is also the opportunity to interview a Head of Service from another institution (outside the course) as part of the programme. The opportunity to hold discussions in smaller groups creates a safe space for participants to explore challenges, identify possible solutions and develop action plans. A few weeks after the course, there is an opportunity for participants to meet with one of the tutors to reflect on their learning and any changes they have made as a result of the programme.
ARE YOU AN ASPIRING LEADER? As a practitioner, perhaps you have been reluctant to consider a leadership role; you may feel you lack the requisite skills. However, the guidance skills you develop as a practitioner carry forward into management and leadership roles. Remember that leaders are not born; leadership is experiential. You continue to develop the requisite additional skills once in the role. Don’t wait until you can tick off all the skills listed on a leadership person specification before applying – you should expect much of the learning to be on the job. Those of us in leadership roles never take off the ‘L’ plates.
Developing your leadership potential is exciting. Spending time with capable leaders and leaders of the future is both stimulating and highly enjoyable. As course leaders, John and I took away at least as much as we shared, helping to make us better leaders and trainers. We are already looking forward to welcoming next year’s intake.
MoHECAS was fortuitously timed two months before my step up into a Deputy Head of Careers role at another institution. The course’s focus on strategy, change management, leadership strengths, and the practicalities of managing a careers service gave me the confidence I needed to transition successfully into a new leadership role. I valued the chance to learn directly from senior leaders and am grateful to have kept in touch with fellow participants. We are now an invaluable community of support for each other Matthew Howard Deputy Head of Student Careers University of Leeds
The AGCAS Professional Pathways is a great tool in preparing to move into leadership roles. Use it to inform your annual performance review. Complete the Pathways document as a personal needs analysis. As an aspiring leader you can check any development areas that would enable to you increase your skills, knowledge and understanding. Identify where you are in the relevant sections of the framework. How will you shift from ‘Established’ to ‘Experienced?’. From your personal needs analysis you can begin to identify what you’d like to gain from attending MoHECAS. It can help you prepare for interviews. Go through the ’Experienced’ headings in each section to gather evidence of the capabilities listed in the person specification. Anticipate questions on any potential gaps so you’re ready to respond to these.
Bookings for Management of HE Careers and Employability Services 2023 will be announced in ARENA and on the AGCAS website.
A.E.Wilson@warwick.ac.uk Connect with Anne on LinkedIn
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AGCAS Learning
HOW AGCAS TRAINING SUPPORTS PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS AGCAS training gives you the opportunity to learn, hone and augment your knowledge and skills, while extending your professional network. For the entrant, with 0–2 years’ experience, we have our Introduction to… series, which covers: Advice Guidance Interviewing Employer Engagement and Data. For the established, with 2–5 years’ experience, expand your knowledge, confidence and toolkit with courses including: Work-Related Learning in HE Career Coaching (Information, Advice and Guidance) Employability and Career Development Learning. And for the experienced, with 5 years and more, consider: Guidance Refresher Management of HE Careers and Employability Services Guidance Skills (Advanced). We also have cross-cutting courses which are relevant to anyone, however long you have been in your role. Join: Writing for Impact Technology-Based Career Learning and Provision and our upcoming Workshop Week in September 2022. With prices starting at £30 we have the right course for you – wherever you are on your Professional Pathway, wherever you want to go. For more details view Training and Conferences page or get in touch with Erica Imhof, Professional Development Manager.
COMPETITION! Email Erica with a topic for a two-hour workshop inspired by the Professional Pathways. The best suggestion wins £30 credit towards AGCAS training. Deadline 31 August 2022. The judge’s decision is final. Credit expires after one year.
professional pathways:
A TAILORED APPROACH FOR LOCAL CONTEXTS
PAULINE MADEN, Associate Director for Faculty Engagement in the Careers and Employability Service at the University of Nottingham, outlines how the AGCAS Professional Pathways help to surface the diversity and professional expertise of different roles within a local service setting, and the ways in which this can enhance opportunities for professional development. One of the key learnings from the past two years has been that we are all more capable than we ever imagined of adapting to the unpredictability of delivery in a hybrid way. My own reflections as we entered the 2021/22 academic year were to consider how to embed adaptability within student-facing teams in a sustainable way, while enhancing the professional identify and expertise of colleagues.
ADAPTING SERVICE DELIVERY My intention was to develop a shared understanding of the activities, skills, knowledge, and behaviours associated with each student-facing role to ensure we are providing services that we are genuinely able to adapt according to how students want to engage with us and not based on custom and practice of a pre-pandemic way of working. I was particularly keen to bring clarity to the place and focus of one-to-one work (in high demand at Nottingham). I turned to the AGCAS Professional Pathways for inspiration and to support me in identifying the critical elements of each role. I then started to map out a pathway unique to the student-facing roles within the teams that I lead. Developed in consultation with managers, the pathway has: increased the flexibility of how each team can respond to the different one-to-one needs of students studying in each of the five faculties improved accountability and flexibility around roles expanded our approach to professional development provided a framework for induction, progression and succession planning conversations
DEVELOPING EXPERTISE The diversity of job roles that exist within a university careers service brings both challenges and opportunities in ensuring that the professional development of individuals is based on the needs of specific roles and also builds on an individual’s existing skills, knowledge, and experience, whether as a new entrant, established or experienced careers practitioners. At Nottingham, like in many university careers services, we benefit from a diverse range of professional expertise. Mapping out a professional pathway over the past year has brought home to me the importance of ensuring that the definition of role profiles and associated professional development requirements are anchored within the culture and context of your service (and institution). Welcoming individuals with a broader diversity of skills and experience into higher education careers work inevitably means that there will be development gaps. We have recruited individuals with significant careers experience but who are new to higher education. My own career path reflects this: having worked extensively in skills and apprenticeship development, I had no direct higher education careers experience when I joined the university as a Careers Consultant. However, I was able to build my professional knowledge through the PGDip in Careers Education Information Advice and Guidance (CEIAG), through AGCAS training, as well as through my work and being able to learn from excellent colleagues within my institution.
DIVERSE ROUTES INTO THE PROFESSION I am delighted that as one of the employers supporting the development of a new route into the profession, we have supported team members to join the pilot cohort of the University of Warwick’s Degree Apprenticeship in Career Development. Balancing work with on-the-job learning, residentials and academic assignments has undoubtedly presented challenges to the learners. However, for the careers profession, this new qualification is providing another route to gaining professional development, truly contextualised to the role, service and institution. Again, the pathway is helping those learners to chart their progress and identify their learning and development needs. Higher education careers work continues to shift and evolve, as do the roles underpinning the profession. Drawing on the AGCAS Professional Pathways to map out unique development opportunities for different roles is a positive way to recognise expertise and address future needs for individual, service and institutional benefit.
pauline.maden@nottingham.ac.uk @pmaden Connect with Pauline on LinkedIn
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a tale of two universities:
SHARED MOTIVATIONS, QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS
ANISHA BADSHAH, Internships and Ambassadors Officer at the University of Greenwich, and FAREEHA ADNAN, Employer Engagement Adviser at City, University of London, compare and reflect on the professional journeys of careers and employability staff within their two teams in relation to the AGCAS Professional Pathways. Earlier this year, we joined forces to create a survey to better understand the career and professional development journeys of staff members within our respective teams. We wanted to reflect on the key themes that emerged from the survey in respect of the AGCAS Professional Pathways, mapping out and comparing journeys within respective facets of higher education careers and employability work against these. Response rates from City and Greenwich were 16% and 49% respectively and most survey respondents worked within the following three Professional Pathway categories: Information, advice and guidance (47%), Cross-cutting activity (32%), and Business engagement (11%).
BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION Survey respondents had entered the field with varied degree backgrounds, ranging from undergraduate degrees to postgraduate degrees and PhDs, and from subject areas spanning business management, digital marketing, library science, English literature, social policy, art, history, nutrition, science and sports science. The varied backgrounds highlight the usefulness of a framework like the Professional Pathways as a guide into the world of higher education careers and employability.
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Staff working across all facets in both teams showed clear shared motivations for joining the profession. Many staff at Greenwich are alumni of the university, with first-hand experience of receiving careers support and now wanting to give back to students – due to either living locally or feeling a desire to pass on knowledge. A sense of achievement and satisfaction from seeing students meet employers and gain experience and employment was also identified across both teams.
“I think preparing young people for life after graduation is such an important mission, and one that I find really rewarding” Greenwich careers and employability staff member
Further motivations came from a desire to support a diverse student cohort; 72% of undergraduates at City and over 50% of the student population at Greenwich identify as BAME.
“I come from a widening participation background and the idea of working in a careers team to ensure that other students from a similar background to me get the support they need to excel in the job market felt like rewarding work to me” City careers and employability staff member
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS The majority of respondents from Greenwich did not hold a careers qualification, with the small number that did feeling that it was ‘somewhat necessary’ to carrying out their role and that they would be able to do so either ‘very well’ or ‘extremely well’ without it. At City (part of The Careers Group, University of London), where careers consultants are required to either hold or be working towards a relevant qualification in careers guidance or careers education, respondents felt that the qualification was either ‘very necessary’ or ‘somewhat necessary’ to carrying out their role. This led us to question whether the recommended professional qualifications and training within the Information and Advice, guidance and coaching pathways will encourage more recognition of the value in professional qualifications. Although very few colleagues had undertaken accredited training courses, other internal and external training had been completed on topics such as Microsoft Excel, project management, influencing and negotiating, management and leadership – again, in line with the Professional Pathways training guidance.
ENHANCING KNOWLEDGE Other methods used to maintain skills and enhance knowledge in both teams included peer observation, reading careers-related articles and blogs, as well as articles on professional body websites, completing free courses, and attending talks from visiting employers. Respondents also mentioned the benefits of AGCAS conferences and task groups, and other professional body events, for gaining labour market information and networking with industry and other careers and employability colleagues. This demonstrates how the Professional Pathways can guide colleagues to seek training and knowledge in useful areas, leading to greater confidence in their ability to effectively perform their role.
DEVELOPING RELEVANT SKILLS Greenwich staff referred to the importance of professional skills, such as communication, empathy, project management, organisation, public speaking and people skills for effectively performing their roles; skills also highlighted by the Professional Pathways as relevant for careers and employability work. Similar skills were highlighted by City staff with the addition of problem solving, emotional intelligence, leadership and data analysis. Interestingly, many staff believed they had gained professional skills including project management, time management, communication, networking and remaining calm under pressure, from activities and interests outside of work. This included painting, gardening, reading, running, climbing, sports, singing, volunteering and starting their own businesses.
Aspects of the Professional Pathways are already present in the professional journeys of our teams
“My crochet business definitely has [helped develop my skill set] as I manage all communications, all sales, all finances including taxes, and all collaborations independently which has further enhanced my project management, administration and organisation skills” Greenwich careers and employability staff member
Working within the careers profession, colleagues seem wellpositioned to articulate the value of recreational activities in relation to their professional development, which the Professional Pathways recognise where the skills gained are relevant to role profiles. Our research has evidenced that aspects of the Professional Pathways framework are already present in the professional journeys of our teams where colleagues have independently sought relevant training and qualifications. Highlighting and increasing awareness of the framework during induction sessions could lead to more structured planning around professional development for colleagues entering higher education careers work from a wide range of professional backgrounds.
a.badshah@gre.ac.uk fareeha.adnan@city.ac.uk Connect with Anisha on LinkedIn Connect with Fareeha on LinkedIn
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plugging back into
A COMMUNITY OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE KULVINDER BIRRING, Head of Employability and Placements at London South Bank University, joined the AGCAS Professionalism Working Party (PWP) in March of this year. Here, he shares how re-engagement with AGCAS led him to becoming a Peer Reviewer for the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) and reflects on his own experiences of being peer reviewed. I have been a higher education career professional for a long time, working across many different services, supporting AGCAS activities in my early life but less so in recent years due to the demands of running a tiny service with significant challenges. My recent re-engagement with AGCAS came through chance, initially due to the service being required to complete the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS). This is what sparked my return to becoming a more active member of the AGCAS community, along with a gentle nudge from a couple of colleagues.
DUAL PERSPECTIVE Immersing myself in the service’s MQS review took me to a few different places. From a service perspective, the process seems complicated on initial viewing. However, when considering the requirement to be reviewed and the insights I gained from training as a Peer Reviewer, I found some interesting thoughts to mull over. As a Peer Reviewer, it’s the realisation that the process offers the opportunity to: get a 360-degree perspective on a service: gain new insights and the opportunity to discuss from an employability angle the issues that affect us all be a critical friend: help celebrate success and allow services to take stock with a peer who understands the pressures university careers services are under offer support when services need external validation take a breath: a period of reflection at a specific point along a journey
I rediscovered my appreciation for CEIAG and how this is core to our development and integrity PAGE 28
As a service being reviewed, there were similarities, giving me the opportunity to: take control of the process: owning the review – it wasn’t being done to me, it was mine to control – I drove the process and influenced the outputs celebrate and drive forward change: offering me a focal point stand still: an opportunity to reflect, which is becoming harder and harder in the current climate especially for smaller services reconnect with AGCAS: rediscovering my appreciation for Careers, Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) and how this is core to our development and integrity view MQS as one part of a puzzle: I revisited the matrix Standard and the detail involved in that review, which was useful to revisit as a diagnostic and collaborative tool
STRENGTH IN PARTNERSHIP Taking part in both activities has made me return to my early professional thinking of realising how important the relationship is between AGCAS and its members. This partnership is critical to helping us to: validate our profession, one that changes lives professionalise our work, skills and knowledge re-visit the beliefs and practices at the core of CEIAG As the leader of a tiny but busy service, I have deliberately made time to re-engage, to play my part in helping to shape AGCAS, to disrupt the status quo when this is needed. To achieve the professional recognition we deserve, and to ensure the continued development and strengthening of the AGCAS community, we all need to get involved.
kulvinder.birring@lsbu.ac.uk Connect with Kulvinder on LinkedIn
stepping up to the professional challenge:
THE CRITICAL FRIEND PERSPECTIVE SAME RIGOUR, DIFFERENT CONTEXT
MARK YATES, Careers Adviser at Writtle University College (WUC), reflects on his experiences of being a Peer Reviewer for the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) and outlines the ways in which it has been an invaluable experience to learn more about what is happening across the sector while flying the flag for smaller services. To date, I have peer reviewed five different services: one Russell Group and four smaller services. At Writtle University College (WUC), the Careers Service is staffed by two part-timers (about 1.5 FTE). While there are undoubtedly constraints for everyone, smaller services face the additional challenge of having to make bigger ‘bangs’ for their money. With limited resources to cover the full range of careers activities – an average day can mean employer engagement, student guidance, curriculum engagement activities, and pre-entry guidance – recognising how all the pillars can be addressed can be daunting at first.
SERVICE EVOLUTION I think, therefore, there may have been some intent in getting me to review smaller services, to build upon my experience at WUC – we went through the process in the first year of the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS). It has been really interesting to get a better understanding of how other smaller services have evolved over time and how the challenges emerging from the pandemic have had an impact on provision. Regardless of the curriculum on offer, many similar issues seem to come up around student and staff engagement, and how to ensure the service is recognised as a significant contributor to the organisation. Once the first couple of reviews were out of the way, it was much easier to know what to expect with each one. Having the selfevaluation document (SED) to read really does give a flavour for what the service is aiming to achieve. It has been fascinating to read these and surface the real challenges services are facing. It has also been intriguing to see how the arrival of a new member of staff has often brought a new focus or set of skills (such as curriculum engagement through work with academics) and the impact this has had on how the service is perceived in the wider institution.
Outside of my role at WUC, I undertake a range of freelance activities. One of these is a role as an assessor for the Quality in Careers Standard (QiCS). This is a national award for schools and colleges to demonstrate that their careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) provision is to a high standard. Gaining the award demonstrates that CEIAG is integrated across the organisation, with the expertise and professionalism of the careers staff well recognised and used internally. My experience of undertaking this work alongside my role as an AGCAS Peer Reviewer has meant that I am well versed in reviewing submissions and asking the ‘so what?’ question. It has been interesting to see how the AGCAS standard is as rigorous and challenging. Both need that ‘critical friend’ approach, both benefit from not having the Ofsted or OfS monster looming in the background, rather the setting of a positive professional ‘challenge’.
TWO-WAY LEARNING As with any process like this, the learning has been two-way. I have seen smaller services with similar issues and how they have responded. I have certainly picked up on a couple of activities around developing the use of data – a particular challenge with a smaller cohort, which doesn’t produce big data sets to work with. Being a Peer Reviewer obviously doesn’t mean you have all the answers but bringing the ‘critical friend’ perspective has enabled conversations to flow and ideas to be shared and discussed. I have enjoyed being able to then reflect on these conversations in the wider context. It has certainly helped to know our challenges aren’t just our own. It goes without saying that the opportunity to have a delve into a service to better understand what they do, and their successes and challenges, has been far more insightful than having a quick conversation at an AGCAS conference or via email exchange. Personally, I have benefited significantly from the professional stretch and the insights I have gained along the way while working in one of the smallest services in the AGCAS community.
mark.yates@writtle.ac.uk @marksyatesiag Connect with Mark on LinkedIn
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harnessing peer support
TO ENHANCE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
JUAN GARCIA NAVARRO, Employability and Development Adviser at Queen Margaret University (QMU), shares the importance of the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) to innovative professional practice. Here, Juan outlines how undertaking the review inspired the Careers and Employability team to implement regular reflective practice meetings with an outside peer to provide a more holistic approach to careers support.
Working in careers and employability, I have realised that resilience and embracing the changing nature of careers services is paramount to maintaining professional practice. These changes have been accelerated by the pandemic, particularly the repercussions for mental health, which can affect clients’ university experience and engagement, as well as their capacity to set goals and take ownership of their lives and career development. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to keep adapting to our clients’ needs and develop new skills to meet their expectations and respond professionally. However, the unavoidable empathetic engagement with an increasing number of students experiencing trauma has also resulted in subtle vicarious trauma for me and my colleagues. Participating in the AGCAS Membership Quality Standard (MQS) in 2021 presented an opportunity for the Careers and Employability team at Queen Margaret University (QMU) to identify our strengths and address some of the challenges that our practice and the service was facing. This included the increasing number of clients we were dealing with who had mental health and other complex issues that were affecting their career decisions and employment choices – and how we could address this as a team.
A REFLECTIVE TOOL FOR PRACTICE When new members of the team joined in 2021 we decided to embed peer assessment as a development tool. Being part of the university’s wider Student Services, an opportunity arose to have regular peer sessions with a member of the university Counselling team to discuss topics relevant to our professional practice. The sessions are facilitated by Sarah Carlile, Student Counsellor. Sarah uses her active listening skills to structure the sessions, help us to choose topics and, crucially, create an environment where we feel at ease to share our concerns. This can be challenging as we feel we may expose our failings, but the meetings have helped us to bond as a team and trust each other, and we understand that we can face similar challenges despite the different nature of our roles. Sharing experiences as well as explaining how other colleagues have faced similar situations helps us understand how they overcame those challenges. Having the opportunity to share anonymised case studies and analyse them in depth helps us to work more effectively with clients and meet their requirements without compromising our ethical values and code of practice. Sarah often provides a lateral way of viewing these challenges based on her own experience with clients who often suffer from trauma. This helps us understand the reasons why these clients may feel this way, alleviating our concerns. Sarah has also indicated that she learns a lot from these sessions as part of her own personal development.
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A SAFE SPACE TO GROW The MQS helped us realise that having an outside peer who brought new skills to the team provided a ‘safe space’ to grow professionally. Our Peer Reviewer highlighted the relevance of the sessions, the importance of taking part in these together as a team, and how our approach could benefit other AGCAS practitioners and careers services. Through learning directly from a different student-facing team and benefitting from each other's skills in an efficient and cost-effective way, it has highlighted that a more holistic approach to guidance is possible within the established professional standards. Peer support sessions provide reassurance and help us to develop our professional practice identity. Meeting Sarah as a team has been extremely useful to deal with vicarious trauma and establish clear boundaries on how we can support students more efficiently. Discussing our practice with a counselling practitioner who believes in providing a person-centred approach meant that, despite dealing with more complex cases, we could still aim to ensure that the client leads the content of the meetings and feels empowered to identify outcomes within the choices they currently have. The meetings have helped us feel comfortable setting clear boundaries but equally to empathise with our clients and make them feel valued and accepted. Anecdotal evidence suggests that clients feel appreciated, which has helped us to develop rapport and trust, enhancing the service that we provide. Members of the Careers and Employability team have also felt that their professional practice has benefitted from the peer meetings:
Peer support sessions provide reassurance and help us to develop our professional practice identity
“These sessions are so valuable to me. Often questioning whether something is the correct approach requires having the space to discuss this with my colleagues. To know my doubts or insecurities are not uncommon is helping me to grow in my profession. I would encourage anyone to look toward this approach in their own practice.” Charlotte, Careers Adviser This exercise has clearly highlighted the benefits of working together despite the different roles we have, to ensure that in all careers and guidance-related interventions we meet the demand and set clear and consistent professional standards of practice. From a personal perspective, I truly believe these sessions have helped to silence my critical voice and be kinder to myself, to believe in the skills that I use in my one-to-one interactions with clients and to learn and share expertise from and with other team colleagues. Through maintaining professional standards, identifying best practice and embracing new approaches, we feel we can understand each other better and provide more holistic careers support to students.
JGarcia@qmu.ac.uk Connect with Juan on LinkedIn
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taking your mentoring programme
TO THE NEXT LEVEL Mentoring programmes are becoming increasingly popular as a way for people to share their knowledge, experiences and inspiration with one another. Using a mentoring platform can help you manage your mentoring programme, with ease. At sfG MentorNet our goal is to provide you with the resources you need, to help your mentors and mentees succeed. Mentoring, at its most basic, is the act of transferring knowledge, experience and skills between individuals. Developing and establishing a mentoring programme requires time and thought, and after you’ve made the effort to implement one, it’ll be a key priority for coordinators, administrators and leads to maintain engagement and involvement, to ensure the programme is worthwhile and productive. In the modern world, mentorship plays an important role in student and personal development. A study was conducted in 2019 which looked at pairing junior and senior university students in a mentoring relationship. Unsurprisingly, the results demonstrated that the mentees accrued several benefits from participating in the mentorship program. For mentees, job search self-efficacy increased over time because of participation in the program. Mentees valued receiving practical careers-related support, such as opportunities for networking, resume development and job interviewing skills. Mentees also gained a more realistic view about the workplace and their potential career options. At sfG MentorNet, we understand there are certain pain points and barriers when it comes to implementing, managing and growing mentoring programmes. That’s why we take a different approach when it comes to working with organisations who run mentoring programmes. Our goal is to not to let our customers figure things out for themselves, or to leave them in the dark when it comes to supporting them. We make every effort to develop strong relationships with our customers and make them feel valued, supported, and a part of the larger sfG MentorNet community. We currently work with several AGCAS members, and we enjoy learning and understanding all the work they do to try and engage and support their mentors and mentees. We have learned that every mentoring programme operates slightly differently and has its own requirements. This is where sfG MentorNet comes in. sfG MentorNet is highly customisable, extremely flexible and helps organisations to scale up their mentoring programmes with ease.
Staffordshire University is one of the fantastic AGCAS member services with whom we collaborate. Lucie Brown and Laura Cope, Mentoring Leads, chose sfG MentorNet after a lengthy process of selecting a platform. We've had a great working relationship with Lucie and Laura since Staffordshire University came on board, and they've been fantastic at organising and running their mentoring programmes. Staffordshire University currently runs six mentoring programmes, each with a different audience. By using the sfG MentorNet platform, Lucie and Laura can tailor the sfG MentorNet platform for the different programmes, to meet the requirements of each mentoring group. Each mentoring group is ring-fenced from the others, whilst also being able to have different security and configuration settings applied for each programme. It also means that by putting all the programmes on one system, administrators will have complete visibility of all activity and engagement across all the programmes.
“Mentoring has aided our retention, progression, graduate outcomes and overall wellbeing of our students. sfG MentorNet has allowed us to cater for many students and their needs whilst expanding our mentoring strands to their full potential. This means that all our students can now take part in mentoring, and has the opportunity to choose their own mentor, taking ownership of their mentoring journey, thanks to sfG MentorNet. By removing the admin burden, we can now take the time to create more meaningful schemes of work, evaluate and ensure that each user has a fantastic experience which we can celebrate. Thank you sfG MentorNet for not only helping us, but also the thousands of students, alumni and business partnerships” Staffordshire University is just one of the many organisations with which sfG MentorNet collaborates. We currently support mentoring programmes for universities, charities and businesses in the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, and America. With our expanding customer base, we never lose sight of our primary goal: to provide the best customer service possible. At sfG MentorNet, we are proud to provide our customers with our secure, online system, humbled in the knowledge that by using our platform, individuals all over the world have access to educational guidance, through a user-friendly platform.
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employability course
FOR AUTISTIC STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
EDMUND LEWIS and KEREN CONEY, Careers Consultants at LSE and Liverpool John Moores University respectively, outline their work as part of a collaborative project to create a free, online course for autistic students and graduates. The recently published AGCAS Disability Task Group annual report, What Happens Next?, unfortunately echoes findings from previous reports regarding autistic graduates, who: experienced the highest unemployment rate of all disability groups – at 16.7%, more than twice the rate for nondisabled graduates (7.7%) and considerably above the average for all disability groups (9.9%) were the least likely of all disability groups to be in full-time work (36.2%) or in any type of employment (66%). These findings highlight the importance of specialist careers advice and information for autistic students and graduates, in addition to careers professionals seeking to support these potentially disadvantaged individuals to realise their potential in the workplace.
CO-CREATING A SOLUTION With all the above in mind, when autism researcher Jonathan Vincent got in touch to invite us to collaborate on the co-creation of a resource to support the employability of autistic students and graduates, we were keen to be involved. Other collaborators involved were two autistic experts by experience and another autism researcher. Over a period of 18 months, we met regularly to consider the most important topics, create the materials and design additional resources to complement and enhance learning related to employability. We decided to host the course on Udemy, where it could be accessed for free by any autistic individuals and those seeking to support them.
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COURSE STRUCTURE The course comprises five main sections: 1. Knowing yourself and your autism; 2. Planning your career path; 3. Sharing your autism with others; 4. Asking for reasonable adjustments and 5. Preparing for interviews. We estimate that someone may take 3-5 hours to complete all sections, but it can be done in part and individuals can take as long as they like to complete it. We are delighted with the responses we have had so far: since the course was launched in May, over 750 people have enrolled on the course and 100% of those responding to requests for feedback strongly agreed that the course provided them with skills or knowledge which will help them find employment. One autistic individual stated about the course: “It was amazing, clear, accessible and just brilliant. Specifically, I really found useful the section on sharing, and also the second on language preferences”.
WHAT DO WE RECOMMEND? We know from our experience as disability specialist careers consultants that many autistic students and graduates may not wish to seek careers support in the form of a one-to-one appointment with a careers practitioner. Some may find that the verbal processing involved with a live careers conversation is challenging and causes anxiety; others prefer to access resources at a time and pace that they can control for themselves. This course provides autistic individuals with this opportunity. Alternatively, for those who do wish to meet with a careers practitioner, this course could be used as a tool to support the individual; specific activities could be selected and worked through together.
EFFECTING CHANGE We are eager to contribute to a change in the year-on-year findings of the What Happens Next? reports regarding the low employment outcomes for autistic graduates. We believe that this course could make a real difference to autistic individuals seeking to progress to employment and succeed in the workplace. We hope that careers services across the UK will add information about this course to their websites and pass information on to autistic students and graduates, so that as many individuals can be helped as possible. We also would welcome your feedback on the course. Access the course on Udemy (you need to create a login in with Udemy first) View an overview of the course on YouTube E.D.Lewis@lse.ac.uk k.a.coney@ljmu.ac.uk @KerenConey Connect with Edmund on LinkedIn Connect with Keren on LinkedIn
global challenge:
BROADENING STUDENT ACCESS TO INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE JUDIE KAY, Vice Chair Programs and Partnerships at the World Association for Cooperative and Work Integrated Education (WACE) introduces the WACE Global Challenge initiative.
The WACE Global Challenge activates a global network of universities located in every continent to form diverse student teams assisting organisations to advance initiatives aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Collaborating in multidisciplinary, transnational teams, students work with real clients on project briefs over their four-week WACE Global Challenge experience. WACE is the global association for work integrated learning (WIL). Global Challenge was developed to respond to strategic goals to broaden student access to international experiences and overcome barriers many students face to engage in in-person work integrated learning experiences across the globe.
FROM PILOT TO PROGRAM LAUNCH The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic turbocharged the implementation of this programme. Piloting the concept in 2020 with experienced WIL universities and an experienced educational technology company, Practera, and using their established experiential learning platform, was critical to getting this complex initiative off the ground. By June 2022, WACE had run four Global Challenge programs, in addition to the pilot, involving over 500 students from 34 institutions located in over 20 countries. Students are from a wide range of disciplines and from both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. In addition to undertaking the client project, students undertake skills development, a cultural intelligence workshop prior to commencement, an orientation session and a presentation and reflection session at programme end. Most institutions have provided Global Challenge to students as a co-curricular activity, but several have included it as a credit-bearing component of their curriculum. Clients range across all industry sectors from large multinational companies to start-ups and not-for-profits in a wide range of countries.
POSITIVE OUTCOMES Global Challenge has produced positive outcomes for all stakeholders from the initial pilot. There has been over 80% student retention in each programme, with student withdrawals usually linked to external factors. All students are surveyed for feedback at the conclusion of each Global Challenge. Over 80% of students report enhanced employability skills and social and professional networks resulting from the Global Challenge experience. Similarly, 70% of client organisations report that the outcomes of the Global Challenge projects assist their business decision making. Institutions believe that Global Challenge’s project-based, multidisciplinary approach prepares their graduates for contemporary workplaces by developing a global mindset and capabilities as well as providing real international experience. "University of Exeter students have participated in the WACE Global Challenge program since its inception. Like many institutions we pivoted our activity to ‘digital first’ during the peak of the pandemic and this included our extensive range of experiential learning provision. The Global Challenge programme has therefore become an integral part of our Global Leaders portfolio of global and SDG-focused experiential learning programmes and contributes to the University of Exeter’s Strategy 2030 commitment to embed SDGs across the student experience. Intercultural awareness, work-authentic problem solving with real-world employer clients are invaluable learning outcomes for students in preparation for the new world of work and digital environment that continues to emerge as a result of the pandemic. This programme, and our wider portfolio, have facilitated an immensely rewarding and rich experience for our students as a result. Research demonstrates that these experiences are particularly beneficial for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups who might not readily otherwise have access to such transnational experiences, and feedback from our own students continues to support this." Paul Blackmore Head of Student Employability and Academic Success University of Exeter Global Challenge has grown quickly and been effective at enabling access to quality international work-integrated learning to a diverse range of students globally. Students value the authentic industry experience, being challenged, gaining new perspectives and knowledge of other cultures as well as discovering new abilities. This innovative programme has been recognised by being a finalist in the PIEoneer Awards in the category Real Life Learning in 2022. programspartnershipsvc@waceinc.org waceinc.org/Global-Challenge
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RESEARCHER'S DIGEST
02 CAREER SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY
In this issue's digest, DR JULIA YATES, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at City, University of London, focuses on career development theories.
Chen, 2017; Ryan & Deci, 2000 This theory is based on a widely known psychological theory of human motivation and identifies three psychological needs that must be met in order to feel fulfilled at work.
01 CAREER INACTION THEORY Verbruggen & De Vos, 2020 This one is useful for students who know where they want to go and what steps they need to take, but aren’t taking any action. The theory explains that there are three ‘inertia enhancing’ psychological mechanisms which might be causing a block: fear and anxiety, short-termism, and cognitive overload. Fear and anxiety is very commonly associated with career choices, in large part because of the uncertainty of the process. Shorttermism is when a student prioritises their short-term goals (eg their studies, their social life, their part-time job) over their long-term future. Cognitive overload happens when students feel overwhelmed by too much information, too many options and too many decisions, and mentally shut down. You can increase students’ motivation by encouraging them to visualise a clearly crystalised desired future (possible selves is a great technique to use), identifying one small first step for them to do, asking them to set themselves a specific deadline and getting them to think about (or giving them stories about) other people who were in their position and made a successful transition.
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Career Relatedness Does your job allow for good relationships inside and outside work?
Career Autonomy Does your job align with your values, interests and identity?
Career Competence Have you got the right attributes; are you learning; and do you feel confident in your job?
Career Autonomy is about having some control and choice over your work and career development, and the theory holds that if you can find a job that aligns with your sense of identity, your interests and your values, you will feel that you will have had some control over your career path. Career Competence is the need to feel that you are capable of doing your job. You need to feel that you have the basic skills, knowledge and abilities to do the job, that you feel that you are learning, growing and developing, and that you have a measure of self-efficacy and confidence in your ability. Finally, Career Relatedness is all about relationships. If your career allows you to develop relationships at work (with colleagues and other stakeholders) and enables you to maintain your relationships outside work (within your community or family) then your career relatedness needs will have been met. This can be a great theory to share with your students (in a group context or a one-to-one) as a structure for helping them start to identify what it is that they want in a career. Taking each of the elements in turn, invite them to think about their desired future identity, their interests and their values.
03 IDENTITY STATUS THEORY
04 THE PERMA MODEL OF HAPPINESS
Kolbert, Hilt, Crothers & Nice, 2021; Marcia, 2002
Seligman, 2011
This one might be useful for students who are struggling with their identity development. The theory considers two dimensions of identity development: commitment, which is how committed the student is to a particular career; and exploration, which is the process of career planning and research. These two dimensions then give rise to four identity status positions:
This model comes from the Positive Psychology movement, which aims to provide research and approaches to help people and organisations thrive. This model identified five antecedents of happiness. It was developed as a general theory of psychological wellbeing, but there is a growing body of research showing that these five constructs are also really important in the workplace. Career happiness, according to this model, comes from:
Identity Diffusion Identity Foreclosure Identity Moratorium Identity Achievement Students in a state of Identity Diffusion (no clear idea of what they want to do and not making any efforts to research) are often suffering from career anxiety and this may be preventing them from moving forwards. Some of the techniques from the career inaction theory might help here. Those in Identity Foreclosure have made a decision before they are really ready, and probably for the wrong reasons. They might be motivated to fulfil others’ expectations, or to allay the anxiety associated with the uncertainty of the process, but haven’t really done the research or thinking needed in order to make a wellinformed choice. These students need a gentle guiding hand to realise that there is more exploration to be done and reassurance that there is still time to change their minds. Identity Moratorium is really where you might want students to be – still exploring but no decisions yet – but the uncertainty experienced in this state can cause anxiety, which can easily push students into the Diffusion or Foreclosure states. Sharing this theory explicitly with these students can offer them some reassurance and help them to guard against slipping into the other states. Identity Achievement is when the student has made a wellresearched and considered choice, and at this point the focus might turn to applications and interviews.
Positive emotions: just basically feeling good, experiencing emotions such as joy, love and pleasure. This could come from a pleasant working environment, having a drink with colleagues, or enjoying a good lunch. Engagement: feeling very involved in your work, defined as a combination of feeling energised at work, feeling dedicated to your job and a sense of absorption or flow. Relationships: being able to develop and sustain supportive relationships and emotional connections with colleagues, customers and other stakeholders. Meaning: feeling that your job makes a difference, contributes to making the world a better place, and makes a positive contribution to your identity. Accomplishment: evidence of your hard work, being able to identify tangible outcomes and the feeling that you have done a good job. This list can be useful as a checklist to help students feel confident about their choices and can also help people to understand why previous jobs didn’t work out. Further information about these and other theories, research and practice can be found in the second edition of The Career Coaching Handbook by Julia Yates. julia.yates.1@city.ac.uk
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SUPPORTING STUDENTS TO MAKE GOOD CAREER CHOICES
SARAH BROOKES, Student Services Marketing and Operations Director, reflects on Jisc's latest projects and looks ahead to the new academic year. Careers services adapted to the pandemic by offering virtual careers events and remote guidance, but are students and graduates still making the most of these resources and what do they find useful? The answer to this and more is in Prospects Early Careers Survey 2022, which is now available on Luminate.
BIGGEST CHALLENGES OF 2022 More than 5,000 students and graduates responded to our survey. It shows that after two years of disruption caused by the pandemic – from the shift to online learning and the cancellation of exams to the impact on social lives – it is perhaps not surprising that mental health and motivation are now students' biggest challenges as we move through 2022. These challenges can have many different impacts on career planning. When comparing the findings with last year’s data, the proportion of university students attending careers activities such as events, guidance appointments and help with job applications has declined. However, careers professionals shouldn't necessarily be overly concerned about this drop in engagement. Careers services reported increased engagement at the height of the pandemic and the shift to virtual provision. Interest may rise again when the novelty of returning to face-to-face interaction has worn off. Highlighting the benefits of virtual appointments, such as flexibility and accessibility, could improve interaction when promoting services.
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VALUABLE RESOURCE The data also highlights the importance of careers services, which cannot be overstated. The pandemic saw increasing numbers of students and graduates turn to careers professionals for reassurance and guidance and they remain a valuable resource. The majority (87%) of survey respondents who actively sought advice from careers professionals said that they found them helpful. Those who attended a careers guidance appointment were also more likely to feel prepared for getting a job or apprenticeship (64%), compared with those who hadn't (56%). Careers services should feel encouraged that during times of crisis students and graduates turn to them for support.
SECTOR RESEARCH At the start of the year we launched the Jisc Research Grant, with £50,000 available to careers services professionals. Florence Reedy at AGCAS and Charlie Ball at Jisc gave feedback to the applicants, with the University of Chester among the successful applicants. They will use the grant to explore the principles for innovation by career guidance practitioners, within a Northern UK ‘Cathedrals Group’ higher education institution. While Lancaster University will research the impact of Covid-19 on the career thinking of university students and the implications for careers services, the University of Sheffield will map overseas employers and alumni experiences to better understand international student employability. We also have a collaborative project with MMU, University of Lincoln, University of Huddersfield, University of Leeds, University of York and University of Nottingham. They will identify differences in the career planning needs and behaviours of widening participation and non-widening participation postgraduate taught students. Applications for next year’s research grant will be open from January 2023, with further information available closer to this date.
LOOKING AHEAD This year we have also made additional investment in strengthening our bond with AGCAS, with funding available to careers professionals who support Prospects services. AGCAS members will be able to apply to become part of a paid pool of professionals for writing content, featuring in videos, and attending events. The details are currently being refined and more information will be available in the new academic year. As we gear up for a new cohort in the autumn, we are working on an improved version of our career quiz Job Match. At the moment, Job Match looks to match users to groups of careers that offer similar purpose, interest and reward. Among many improvements to be made is that users will be able to filter on careers where their subject studied is required or useful. We would love to hear from any careers professionals interested in helping us improve this service. Contact gemma.pearson@jisc.ac.uk for more information. Registering for this resource and creating an account on prospects.ac.uk for a personalised experience is as useful for freshers as it is for finalists, helping to steer and clarify the right career choices. Please encourage your students to sign up. Job Match in particular is a great way for opening conversations with careers professionals.
Prospects Luminate Prospects Hedd
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VIEW PHOENIX THEMES AND ISSUES
next issue OF PHOENIX
NOVEMBER 2022
THIS ISSUE INCLUDES CONTRIBUTIONS FROM AGCAS MEMBERS AT THE FOLLOWING SERVICES: City, University of London
The University of Edinburgh
University of Leeds
Liverpool John Moores University
The University of Warwick
University of Liverpool
London South Bank University
University College Cork
University of Nottingham
LSE
University of Aberdeen
University of St Andrews
Queen Margaret University
University of East Anglia
Writtle University College
The Careers Group, University of London
University of Greenwich
