5 minute read
THE STUDENT VOICE IN EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT
Inspired by articles in Phoenix 164,
‘Students as Co-creators' , RACHAEL STERRETT, Student Engagement Officer, and PAM PICKLES, Student Engagement Manager, Faculty of Science & Technology, Lancaster University outline initiatives introduced by the Student Engagement Team to ensure that employer engagement activities continue to be informed by, and created with, students. At a time when student engagement was falling, the team needed to ensure that the employer events offer remained attractive and relevant to students.
The February 2022 edition of Phoenix couldn ’t have arrived in our inboxes at a better time. We were looking for new ideas and initiatives as morale amongst employer engagement professionals was waning. After the great success of many online initiatives at the beginning of the pandemic, we were facing the growing reality of online fatigue, low student attendance at online events and a worry about how to move forward. Remaining relevant and in touch with our students was critical if they were going to engage with us in the numbers that they used to, pre-pandemic. And if we pride ourselves on the good relationships we build with employers, we were going to have to do something to help them to engage more fully again with our student population.
Two examples stood out, Edge Hill University who had employed students to conduct research into their careers service, and Leeds University who employed student employer engagement interns, increasing attendance at online events by 40%. Inspired by these examples, the following initiatives were developed to increase the input of our students to our employer engagement activities. “I’m happy we could contribute even a little bit to the work you are successful at doing for years. This piece of research helped me a lot and it’s a highly valuable experience for my future. “ Natalia Sienkiewicz, Student Research Intern
“I learned a lot during my internship. It was a wonderful opportunity. I'm very happy with the success of our research and I'm looking forward to presenting it to the Employabillity Forum in November 2022. ” Naomi Godber, Student Research Intern
A proposal was made to the Faculty Employability Forum to apply for widening participation research internship funding. We appointed two second year Psychology students to conduct the research, supervised by ourselves and the Programme Manager for Engineering.
They designed a survey to explore student views on employer activities and communication. They obtained respondents from across the university through their own student networks, other research interns and careers social media channels. 111 students completed their survey (up from 17 when staff conducted a similar survey).
The survey analysis resulted in some key findings and recommended actions.
Preferred employer activities identified by students were in-person
Timetabled events would improve engagement, indicate importance, and act as a reminder to attend.
Targeted communication via emails and social media were preferred to general all-student communications.
Conducting student-led research in this way has led to very positive outcomes in terms of our own understanding of where we can implement change. As staff, it has re-connected us with our student body, and it has given a valuable internship experience to two of our students.
The student-led research outcomes have informed and supported our planning for 2022-23. Most employer events will be held inperson and will not be recorded, as evidence showed us that recordings were not being watched and were a possible deterrent to attending.
We are in discussions with departments about the possibility of linking employer events to students modules/timetabling. Departmental social media and communication channels are being utilised to highlight relevant activities. We will be measuring the outcomes of these initiatives by the number of students attending events that we host, and the number of students from the Faculty of Science and Technology attending the annual careers fair.
Student events assistant roles
Inspired by the benefits that students might gain from being more involved in event delivery, two events assistant roles have been created to support setting up and hosting a series of lunchtime careers talks for Lancaster Environment students.
One role is employer communication, and one is student communication. The students will take turns to greet and introduce employers presenting the sessions. Students will increase their network through corresponding with and meeting the employers individually and will gain confidence from introducing employers to the audience each week. We also hope to benefit from increased student engagement through student-led communications for the talks.
These volunteer roles are designed to take no more than two to three hours each week and can contribute to various university programmes with a volunteering element. We will work with the department to convert them to internship roles for the next academic year.
Departmental Student Ambassadors for autumn careers fair
We have reinstated employing Student Ambassadors to target communication to each department in the Faculty of Science & Technology about the upcoming on-campus careers fair. Budget for this was not available during Covid.
RESULTS IN ACTION
Our recent Careers in Financial Services talk is the first event we have hosted where we have put our research outcomes to the test. This talk attracted approximately 70 students pre-pandemic. Last year, 20 students attended a hybrid version, where in-person, online and recordings were the options for participating in this session. It was timetabled for third-year students.
This year, the session was timetabled for third-year and postgraduate students. It was held only in-person, with no recording, and the invitation to attend was extended to all students in the department, with refreshed marketing materials created to promote it. The department was hoping to attract at least 50 students by introducing these changes.
The resulting 150 students who attended on the day filled the room to overcapacity. We now have the pleasant problem of needing to find a bigger room for the subsequent planned talks.
It is early days in measuring the impact of our student-led initiatives, but an increase of 650% attendance is not something you get to say very often. It is validation that listening to the voice of our students when planning employer engagement activities is critical to remaining relevant. The changes we have implemented have been relatively minor, but with significant impact. It is hard to beat the buzz of students eager to engage, and certainly gives a boost in morale to staff and employers that we may have turned a corner in our ability to reach our students.
r.sterrett@lancaster.ac.uk
Connect with Rachael on LinkedIn
p.pickles@lancaster.ac.uk
Connect with Pam on LinkedIn
