The Careers Group University of London Yearbook 2015–16
The Careers Group University of London Yearbook 2015–16
Welcome to the 2015–16 Yearbook from The Careers Group University of London – a celebration of the activities and achievements of member careers services and central projects from across the Group.
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Contents Overview Overview from the Director
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The mission of The Careers Group
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Updates from Member Institutions Activities and achievements from member careers services
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Practice Leadership Representing The Careers Group nationally and internationally
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The Professional Development Unit
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New module for careers practitioners launches
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The Careers Group Research Unit
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Leading the way on Learning Gain
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Content and Information Ensuring the provision of high quality careers information
Growing Greener Sustainability activities across the Group
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Overview of the Year A year of change, growth and innovation This has been a significant year of change and growth for The Careers Group, reflecting the continued importance of the employability agenda within higher education and the constant drive to innovate amongst our talented and committed staff. At the beginning of the year I set out a new vision for The Careers Group as a membership organisation. Our remit was clear: to enable each member service to be the best that it can be within the context of its institution, and to be a clearly recognised thought and practice leader in our field. The highlights captured in this Yearbook are testament to us delivering against that vision. In some of our member colleges there have been large scale investments this year, growing the size and capacity of the service to meet the growing demands of students, graduates and employers. With or without large-scale investment, our services have demonstrated repeatedly their capacity for innovation without investment. One of the most rewarding aspects of my role as Director is watching new projects emerge within very different institutional contexts as careers staff develop ideas that reflect the needs and culture of their college. It is also pleasing to see how ideas and innovations from one context are shared around the Group and developed for new environments, showing the power of the Group as a collective.
We are the only higher education careers service in the UK with its own professional development and research units
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This year has also seen the development of mutually beneficial relationships with departments in the central University of London. In the last few months we have been part of a successful Development Office bid to the Sir John Cass Foundation to support widening participation students on University programmes, started to develop provision for students on International Programmes in Singapore and made a successful bid into the University Convocation Trust to deliver the ‘Living History of Job Hunting’ project which will benefit students across the Group. I am also particularly proud of the many ways in which, as an organisation, we have committed to being practice leaders. We are the only higher education careers service in the UK with its own professional development and research units, and our in-house training is the envy of many of our colleagues across the sector. Watching the Research Unit grow from small beginnings to coordinating a major HEFCE funded project has been a highlight of the year, as has learning about the many times colleagues have represented us at national and international conferences and research events. The HEFCE project is an interesting example of working towards both aspects of our mission concurrently. The project will deliver practical support for evidencebased practice in our member services, whilst also ensuring that The Careers Group is an acknowledged leader in a crucial higher education policy arena closely linked to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The activities captured in this Yearbook reflect just a fraction of the continuous hard work and professionalism of the staff of The Careers Group and I would like to thank them all publicly for their ongoing commitment to the organisation and to our stakeholders. Dr Bob Gilworth Director of The Careers Group University of London
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Our mission The Careers Group is a membership organisation consisting of a range of higher education careers services supported by a central team within the University of London.
The Careers Group provides expertise, experience and high quality staff to work within member services to support undergraduates, postgraduates and research staff, as well as engaging with academic colleagues from all disciplines and graduate recruiters from all sectors. The Careers Group has existed since 1909 and is the UK’s largest higher education careers service. Our mission is to ensure that each of our member services is the best that it can be strategically and operationally in the context of its institution and to ensure that each service is demonstrably better as a member of the group than it would be if it were not.
The Careers Group provides expertise, experience and high quality staff to work within member services to support undergraduates, postgraduates and research staff
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As a collective, our group will be highly visible as thought and practice leaders in higher education careers and employability, nationally and globally. In turn, the leading edge thinking and practice will enhance delivery in member services and bring reputational benefits to the University centrally and to member institutions.
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Review of the Year Institutional Careers Services
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Education Consultancy
Education Consultancy provides on-site careers services to a range of smaller and specialist institutions of the University of London: • The Courtauld Institute of Art • Heythrop College • The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine • The Royal Veterinary College • St George’s, University of London • School of Advanced Study Additionally the team provide services to non-member institutions Glasgow Caledonian University London Campus and QAHE London and Birmingham, and lead on employability projects for the central University. Employability Health Check pilot We successfully piloted the Employability Health Check at St George’s and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC). This was very well received by the students and the relevant departments who have now linked its completion to the student transcript at St George’s and to e-portfolios at RVC.
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Careers Registration implemented Careers Registration questions were included within student enrolment for the first time at St George’s. The results for the medical course were presented at a national GP conference by the academic department lead and at the AGCAS Medical Careers Advisors Network (MCAN) conference by Victoria Wade, Head of Education Consultancy. Enhanced support for graduates A new GradClub initiative was introduced at the RVC, Heythrop and St George’s whereby recent graduates were contacted to receive 1:1 support and signposting to further resources and careers consultant help. This new form of graduate engagement was well received by the graduates, raising awareness of the Careers Services and supporting improved employability outcomes.
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A new GradClub initiative was introduced at the RVC, Heythrop and St George’s whereby recent graduates were contacted to receive 1:1 support and signposting to further resources and careers consultant help
Increased engagement in the Courtauld Association Careers Certificate The Courtauld Association Careers Certificate (CACC), devised in collaboration with Alumni Relations and the Student Union, has been successful in attracting and engaging students whilst increasing student exposure to employers; providing a good example of how certificate schemes can successfully work in smaller institutions. Internship opportunities and specialist information for Heythrop Two internship schemes have been initiated at Heythrop and the Content and Information team have helped to create new online resources for Heythrop students. New student careers ambassador scheme The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) piloted a student careers ambassador scheme for the first time. The student ambassadors ran employer events and/or collated relevant information regarding the sectors that their departmental cohorts would be interested in.
Brand new careers service for Glasgow Caledonian University London Campus Education Consultancy set up a new service at Glasgow Caledonian London campus this year which has included collaborating with a careers service outside of The Careers Group and demonstrating our expertise in careers support to a wider audience. New employability award scheme at QAHE Birmingham QAHE Birmingham ran an employability award scheme for the first time this year which successfully engaged students and contributed to raising the profile of the Careers Service. Central Education Consultancy initiatives The team successfully bid for funding from the University of London Convocation Trust to run a ‘Living History of Job Hunting’ project which will document the job hunting activities of a range of University of London students using video blogs and social media, supplemented by videos featuring advice from careers consultants.
The team are also working with the University of London International Academy (UoLIA) and the Development Office to set up the first student placements in Singapore, and supported the Development Office to make a successful bid to the Sir John Cass Foundation Trust to support widening participation students studying UoLIA courses by offering student scholarships. Education Consultancy will provide the careers support for the scholarship students as well as online resources. Education Consultancy have also been able to support the work of Queen Mary Careers & Enterprise by working with one of Queen Mary’s partner institutions, Wake Forest University in North Carolina, to develop an academic module for students studying in London whilst completing an internship. The new module, entitled, Internship in International Studies, was launched in September 2016.
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Goldsmiths Careers Service
New space on campus
Published outreach
On 29 February 2016 The Warden gave the keynote speech at the launch of the opening of our new space, The SPACE, on the ground floor of the Richard Hoggart Building: the beating heart of the college.
In 2015-16, we published the first edition of The Frame, which features the wide range of skills that students develop through academic study and co-curricular activities. The first three issues of The Frame enjoyed wide readership, both within college and across a broad external network, as a result of which we have been approached by Palgrave MacMillan with the proposal to write a Skills textbook. Issue Four of The Frame, focusing on enterprise, is due for publication in the autumn of 2016.
Research-informed practice
During 2015–16 we published the first edition of The Frame, which features the wide range of skills that students develop through academic study and co-curricular activities
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One of our strategic goals is to be a research-informed service and this year we have undertaken two major pieces of research: one looking at whether the benefits of undertaking work placements are brought back into the classroom and the other is a longitudinal graduate destinations research project looking at the employment outcomes of graduates from three Goldsmiths departments, from the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. In addition to this, we implemented Careers Registration at the start of the 2015–16 academic year. This September will see the second set of careers registration data emerge, thus giving us our first set of comparative data. Our HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Record) Coordinator is also involved in a research project with employers, to discover whether or not they are familiar with, use and value graduates’ use of the HEAR.
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Online learning for Leading the institution Practice leadership prospective HE students on a strategic approach Two of our careers consultants have widened their skillset by teaching on to employability Our Pre-Entry Careers Consultant, who was very involved in the creation and delivery of the University of London Employability MOOC, has now produced a MOOC specially designed for prospective HE students that launched in mid-July.
The Careers Service has been asked to produce the first-ever institutional employability strategy, the first draft of which is currently in circulation. Two departments have decided to work with us to embed employability in the curriculum: one department is piloting a careers module and the other is embedding careers activities across the academic year within their practice-based sessions.
the University of East London careers coaching programme and two members of the careers team achieved the ILM Certificate (an introduction to leadership) whilst another has achieved both the PRINCE2 certificate and the ‘Leading at Goldsmiths’ certificate.
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King’s Careers and Employability Expansion, innovation & global engagement New team members, projects and activities This year has seen a significant expansion of the King’s team across our careers education, employer engagement and global opportunities functions. We have also seen some notable innovation and new developments, highlights of which include: The creation of faculty focused careers and employability teams Following investment in the team we have been able to develop new faculty focused teams consisting of careers consultants, our new employer engagement and internships officers, and information officers – to provide an integrated and expert offering to all faculties. Initial projects have included increased SME opportunities for the Law School and exclusive bioscience internships with biotech companies. New Global Internships Programme Our flagship new Global Internships Programme launched this year, offering exclusive and fully supported international internship opportunities in Washington DC, Mumbai and Shanghai, including funding streams to support student access. Launch of the Careers Enrolment Survey This year saw the pilot of our new careers enrolment data survey, enabling us to collect meaningful data on the career readiness, work experience and sector interests of the vast majority of our students. The initial roll-out resulted in 28,000 responses across all degree levels and the data are already being used to target communications and inform careers support programmes with departments. Sector preferences data are being used to enhance our employer engagement strategy and individual student data is made available to personal tutors via the internal dashboard.
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New Department Careers and Employability Liaison role Following a review of the existing careers liaison structure a new role of Department Careers & Employability Liaison (DCEL). Individuals were appointed to the role within all departments to support the embedding of employability into the student experience.
#do1thing The #do1thing website launched to pull together as many opportunities, events, funding possibilities and services as possible, specifically for early career researchers. Developed in collaboration with King’s Centre for Research Staff Development.
Interactive technology-enhanced employability learning The team have focused on increasing student engagement through bespoke online courses delivered through KEATS, the College’s Virtual Learning Environment, including specific support for our international students. The King’s Leadership and Professional Skills Award Restructure We carried out a review and restructure of our skills award to offer students more flexibility through blended learning options which include online modules and credit for extra and intra-curricular activities. King’s Research Student Consultancy growing The King’s Research Student Consultancy, now in its second year, is a fully managed service connecting clients with King’s PhD student consultants for specific projects. King’s Internships Our various King’s Internships schemes have placed 129 interns this year, including 57 supported by Santander and just over 100 students placed via our accredited internships scheme. Intensive support for widening participation students We have been able to develop our support for different groups of students through partner-funded projects such as our UNITE care leavers programme. Online LibGuides and destinations information An enhanced suite of employability web pages bespoke to each department including graduate destinations statistics and LibGuides are now available to students across all disciplines.
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This year has seen a significant expansion of the King’s team across our careers education, employer engagement and global opportunities functions
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QMUL Careers and Enterprise External recognition and representation External recognition and representation QM Careers & Enterprise won the Guardian Employability Award for QConsult supported by J.P. Morgan, and our nominated employer J.P. Morgan also won the AGCAS Award for Engagement with Careers & Employability Services. We have showcased the team’s cutting edge work with widening participation students in the QConsult Supported by J. P. Morgan and QMentoring schemes through presenting findings at the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) conference, the Open University conference, and the Association of Graduate Recruiters conference. The findings will be further disseminated by a paper co-authored between QMUL and the TCG Research Unit, which will be presented at The London Conference on Employer Engagement in Education and Training.
Innovations Makers Market Makers Market launched this year, allowing student entrepreneurs to sell their goods at a market run by our Enterprise team. The market ran twice: once on campus and once in Tower Hamlets as part of the Festival of Communities run by our Public Engagement Team. International Job Search Guides Five new guides for the five largest overseas cohorts at QM were developed, providing advice and information about how to find a job at home including how to market the QM degree and network with QM graduates at home. New Careers Taster Scheme 70 students attended a series of workshops at employer offices, with business games, networking, and selection skills training as part of this new programme.
QHackney Ten students were paired with ten Hackney start-up charities for a three month QProject placement. Participants received group training and peer support sessions throughout, delivered by the four partners (T. Rowe Price, East London Business Alliance, Hackney Council for Voluntary Services and Hackney Volunteer Centre). The programme culminated in a celebration and skills building event at T. Rowe Price in the City. East London Social Hack This new event happened twice this year. Student entrepreneurs developed solutions to real issues in the Tower Hamlets area. A team of mentors and trainers guided students through a process of idea generation through to project refinement over the two days. The event culminated in a pitch event to a team of judges who awarded start-up funds to winning teams. Recognition for InQUBEate Mentoring & PhD Placement Scheme 30 students received 300 hours of mentoring via InQUBEate, our new start-up incubator which was short-listed for a ‘Wharton QS Stars Re-imagine Education’ award for innovation in HE. Our PhD placement programme that ran in 2014–15 received a ‘Highly Commended’ in the BBSRC Excellence with Impact competition.
Expansions We delivered the highest ever number of careers appointments in 12 months this year: 3,272 between April 2015 and 2016. The number of employer/alumni events was at its highest in this year, with 258 in 2015–16, and 205 students were placed into temp work over 12 months, an increase on the previous year. The Information Team created and successfully recruited for a new role of ‘Digital Information Officer’.
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Royal Holloway Careers and Employability New ‘First jobs in Arts Management’ Internship Project
This year has seen expansion and modernisation in the size of our careers team, our portfolio of activities, our marketing campaigns and our evidence-based practice. We are now ready to capitalise on our transformative move into our purpose-built new facilities in Royal Holloway’s new flagship Library & Student Services Centre in 2017.
Placement and Vacancies Manager, Adriana Dragu, and Recruitment and Vacancies Officer, Freddie Warner, harnessed Santander funding to design a ‘First jobs in Arts Management’ Internship Project. The project aims to introduce RHUL finalists to a career in arts management by offering a three month internship for two students after a competitive selection process and preparatory workshop with arts professionals which allows other students to benefit from the learning experience.
In September 2015 careers consultant Ed McLean developed the UK’s first interactive HE careers eLearning courses and has introduced a further three courses over this year. A total of 1,385 Careers On Demand courses have been completed, remotely delivering the equivalent of three months of 9–5 careers education through the college’s VLE. Students report an average gain in their career preparedness of 30%.
The courses and learning from this sectorleading project have been shared with other Careers Group colleges as part of the Group’s commitment to sharing best practice.
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Now encompassing 186 streams of cocurricular activities across campus and engaged with by over 4,000 students, our Passport Award celebrated its fifth birthday in June 2016 at a lively award ceremony hosted by our Principal, Professor Paul Layzell. As part of the ceremony two of our alumni provided an employer’s perspective. Katie Lawrence, Performance Engineer at Land Rover Ben Ainslie Racing and David Valoczky, Inflight Business Manager at British Airways, inspired students on the value of co-curricular achievement for graduate success. This year 274 students achieved a Passport award and 60 students achieved a Gold level award.
Marketing refresh following alumni-based research project
New Careers On Demand Moodle course launched
The team are also using a VLE tool that allows students to self-diagnose common career issues and receive tailored feedback and resources. The tool generates data on student answers allowing us to offer direct interventions to at-risk students.
Passport Skills Award celebrates fifth birthday with record number of recipients
A total of 1,385 Careers On Demand courses have been completed, remotely delivering the equivalent of three months of 9–5 careers education through the college’s VLE
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In Autumn 2015 we surveyed 900 alumni on their career paths since leaving Royal Holloway. We asked them about their job hunting experiences and career satisfaction since graduating and used their responses to inform the design of our employability programmes. We also asked them for some direct advice for current students and our favourite quote was “show that you are awesome!”. At Easter, Employer Engagement Officer, Lewis Sawyer, ran the #WhenIGrowUp social media campaign to engage with students and highlight how career aspirations can change over a lifetime. From the Principal to the members of the Students’ Union we showcased images of people revealing their first career aspiration and used the engagement to showcase the many different ways we help students achieve their career ambitions.
New Employability Communications role To ensure we keep evolving hard impact marketing campaigns, we have recruited our first dedicated Employability Communications Officer, Leia Farnan, who joined us in July, just in time to plan our new Career SuperHero campaign.
On the air, in print and award-winning Careers consultant Emma Baker appeared on a series of five radio shows on student radio station “Insanity” over the year. Emma and the student host discussed issues such as the value of work experience and what to do if you don’t know what to do. The shows included sound bites with advice from employers and alumni as well as tenuously related tunes! Careers consultant Ed McLean was awarded an Outstanding Staff Member Award by our Disability and Dyslexia Support Office for his development of new ways to meet the career development needs of our students with disabilities. Deputy Head Anne Delauzun had an article on her research project ‘A conceptual model of peer influence on career behaviours’ accepted by the NICEC journal for publication in October.
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St Mary’s Careers Service Strategic investment for the future
New events and partnerships
Towards the end of this academic year St Mary’s University agreed a significant investment in the development of the Careers Service.
This has also been a year of firsts for the St Mary’s team including:
This will see the service double in size over the coming year and we are looking forward to some exciting developments in 2016–17.
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Winning awards St Mary’s was in the ‘What Uni Student Choice Awards’ top 10 for job prospects this year. In addition, the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2016 has ranked St Mary’s University, Twickenham as London’s top university for student experience. This annual survey, which ranks universities on a broad range of topics around the student experience, has seen St Mary’s climb 24 places to become first in London.
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Expansion of campus careers events There was a significant expansion in employer-focused careers events this year. The team delivered the first university-wide careers show with record exhibitor and student numbers, deploying a novel approach to student engagement by providing students with a welcome briefing from a careers consultant on arrival to help them make the most of the event. The team also ran the university’s first virtual careers fair for secondary teachers to link with Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and teaching agencies. Over 37 organisations took part in the fair over a week which had 1,412 site-views and 338 unique visitors.
Year-round employer engagement and new business partnerships In addition to the careers fairs, the team also produced a year round employer engagement activity programme for the first time as a result of a new employer engagement role undertaken by Inis Fitzpatrick within the team. This post also enabled the service to develop new business partnerships such as that with Enterprise-Rent-a-Car, and the achievement of a 50% success rate in conversions of applications to acceptances. Significant increase in targeted vacancies This year also saw a 300% increase in JobOnline vacancies targeted towards St Mary’s students, helping the service to exceed financial targets for the year. Practice Leadership One of our Senior Careers Consultants, Vinny Potter, has widened their skillset by teaching on the University of East London Careers Coaching Programme. He specialised in disseminating knowledge of technology enhanced learning within a careers setting to a group of 14 trainee consultants. In addition, our head of service Magdalen Attwater has qualified to deliver MBTI testing (Foundation Programme parts 1 and 2). This will enable the service to support in-house delivery of MBTI testing to St Mary’s postgraduate Sports students. Leading the institution on a strategic approach to employability The Head of the Careers Service, in collaboration with the Director for the Centre for Workplace Learning, has produced, presented and gained approval of the first ever 10 year employability strategy for St Mary’s University. In the short term this has created stronger links between the two service areas and led to significant additional buy-in to the Careers Service by the Senior Management Team at St Mary’s.
New team members Two new members of staff joined the team this year. We created a new fixed term contract post for a student liaison officer as well as recruiting a new careers consultant, Joanna Pattison, to take over the work of an existing staff member, Kathy Williams, who was taking maternity leave. Both staff have made significant contributions to the service’s outputs in a short space of time. Global Peer Mentoring Careers co delivered a new programme to support St Mary’s International students. The collaboration with the International Partnerships ensured that current International students took trained mentoring roles to support the arrival of new international students. This was developmental for both mentor and mentees and the programme’s success will ensure it re-running in 2016–17. Launch of Careers Readiness pilot (HEFCE International Learning Gain Project) Careers Registration programmes are launching around many Careers Group sites and the St Mary’s team was quick to join in with their own pilot programme, run by Kathy Williams, for Screen Media students - ‘The Careers Readiness Survey’. A full reflective report was completed with recommendations for the year to come and the report has also been used to support the quality enhancement process in the University. Interactive technology enhanced employability learning The team developed a slicker and more effective set of modules for the Universities Virtual Learning Environment, ‘My modules’ on Moodle. This led to an increase in student numbers engaging with the content and provided a useful signposting to the main Careers pages on the university website.
St Mary’s was in the ‘What Uni Student Choice Awards’ top 10 for job prospects
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SOAS Careers Service Becoming a datadriven service
Economics Alumni Mentoring Scheme pilot
70% of SOAS students across all year groups and courses signed up voluntarily to the first Careers Registration pilot which has given us great data to work with. We have also just completed the third annual Student Careers Survey which informs our planning.
This pilot has been a huge success and greatly valued by mentees and mentors alike.
We have also started putting our usage stats on the doors of the service each week and published a monthly report of activity shared with the School and published on our intranet site.
Staff development and representation Claire Rees was appointed External Examiner for Dundee University for their careers module. Jo Cooper is now undertaking a further professional qualification - Certified Membership of the Association of Learning Technology (CMALT) and Alexis Fromageot is undertaking the Google Squared marketing qualification.
Mental Health Awareness Humbug the Careers Cat (featured with Jana, below) came in to help students during Mental Health week and Wellbeing for Exams month. Students loved him!
New microplacement scheme with nine departments We introduced a new microplacements scheme with 24 successful placements. The next stage of the project is to evaluate the effect of the programme on the rest of the cohort as it is primarily an education rather than a placement scheme. Thank you Royal Holloway for all your help in sharing best practice on this!
Internships record We have allocated all the Santander Internship funding in record time and have been given additional funding for a digital project (the SOAS Careers app).
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70% of SOAS students across all year groups and courses signed up voluntarily to the first Careers Registration pilot which has given us great data to work with
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UCL Careers
Development and innovations across multiple areas It has been a very busy year for the UCL Careers team. Some of our main highlights are below: An online offering for pre-arrival postgraduate students UCL Careers developed its first SPOC (Small Private Online Course) in the summer of 2015, reaching 1500+ engaged participants from 49 countries and receiving 100% positive feedback. The six modules of the SPOC covered career planning, making useful networks and finding and applying for opportunities. The SPOC, alongside other careers support for taught postgraduate students at UCL, was highlighted by the Australian Government in their report ‘National Research on Postgraduate Experiences’, delivered at a symposium attended by the Vice Provost (Education & Student Affairs). Non-academic career pathway website for postgraduate researchers Continuing the theme of online learning, we developed a resource website as part of the Doctoral School’s Pathway initiative for researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral research staff ) who wish to enter research careers outside of academia. The website includes over 120 case studies alongside videos of alumni and recruiters.
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Embedding work related learning & professional development UCL Careers is leading a pan-UCL group with representation from all faculties as well as professional services areas, to look at how work related learning should be embedded into every student’s experience at UCL as part of the wider UCL Connected Curriculum initiative. HEFCE International Learning Gain project UCL Careers are participating in the HEFCE International Learning Gain project to evaluate students’ self-perceived employability learning gain resulting from three types of international experience, namely Study Abroad, Work Abroad and our two week Global Citizenship Employability Programme (an on-campus experience). This Learning Gain project is as part of a wider Russell Group consortium. So far we have obtained ethics and data protection approval from UCL and will be interviewing pre-departure outgoing Study Abroad students shortly. Engaging employers in a global management summer school This year will be the second time that UCL Careers have collaborated with academics in the School of Management to deliver the ‘Global Management Summer School’, a two week programme where visiting international MBA and postgraduate management students from universities in Latin America, India and China study business and management issues in a European context. The Careers team are responsible for engaging with employers
The Careers Group Yearbook
UCL Careers developed its first SPOC (Small Private Online Course) in the summer of 2015, reaching 1500+ engaged participants from 49 countries and receiving 100% positive feedback
to facilitate sessions as well as sourcing high profile speakers from organisations including Bank of England, FCA, Cisco, SAP and IBM as well as successful start-ups. Feedback for the industry component has been excellent and cited as a factor in enhanced understanding of business and management practice in the UK/EU.
Expansion of the Internships, Placements & Vacancies team Throughout the last three years we have been growing the Placements & Vacancies team (currently seven people) via demand from specific departments/faculties at UCL. The importance of internships for all students, and the successful work of this team has now been acknowledged more formally within the new Education Strategy which includes a specific remit to expand existing support for non-academic internships and placements, led by UCL Careers. Support for students from nontraditional backgrounds In summer 2015 we carried out research into the difference in destination, salary and progression to further study of students from non-traditional backgrounds, as well as all BME students. This data highlighted areas to work on in the next three years and funding has been provided for UCL Careers to support such students and to support more outreach work.
Employer engagement in teaching and learning The employer engagement team facilitated a two-week ‘Disrupt Scenario Week’ as part of the Management Sciences programme. Working with Barclays, students had to develop ideas for new products or services to support the impact of an ageing population. This involved industry talks from across the business, open space networking and assessment of student presentations.
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City Careers
In July 2015 it was agreed that City University London would become a federal member of the University of London. As part of this transition the careers team at City joined The Careers Group as associate members pending a decision on whether to join as full members from summer 2016. Towards the end of the year the decision was taken and City Careers will become a full member of The Careers Group in 2016–17. It has been a busy year for the team, with some of our highlights outlined below: Cross-institutional working City Careers has been welcomed into the Student and Academic Services Directorate at City and has continued to work closely with the WP Outreach and Student Development teams that were moved from the careers service into the Student Experience Department following a restructure. We also collaborated with the alumni department on the launch of a new events series which brought together alumni working in specific market sectors and students wanting to access those sectors. New Head of Service Gemma Kenyon joined the team, firstly as interim Head of Careers before becoming a permanent addition to the team. Data-informed progress through careers registration We’ve been working towards implementing Careers Registration for the 2016–17 academic year and joined the Careers Group led HEFCE funded project looking at the link between Careers Registration and Learning Gain.
Award-winning collaboration We won the 2016 Vice Chancellor’s award for ‘collaboration between an academic school and a professional service’ for our microplacements scheme which ran in conjunction with the Law School and was particularly focused on widening participation students. Introduction of Application Advisers to the Service We launched the new application adviser initiative to recruit PhD students to deliver CV and application advice and feedback. Embedding employability within the curriculum We have continued to work with academics across the schools to embed employability into the curriculum; a stand out success has been working with Cass Business School to create a new first year employability module which is starting in 2016–17. Another successful year for internships and placements The Unitemps team successfully managed the placement of all Santander funded internships and placements with local employers this year.
In July 2015 it was agreed that City University London would become a federal member of the University of London
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Practice Leadership
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Practice leadership Representing The Careers Group nationally and internationally
Two papers were presented at the NICEC Conference in September: Laura Brammar presented New pedagogies, new potential: How careers professionals can harness technology to enrich the careers learning of their clients across the world.
Numerous colleagues have represented The Careers Group externally this year as part of our mission to share our expertise, raise our profile and bring back best practice from elsewhere in the sector: Bob Gilworth has commenced his second term as Director of Research on the AGCAS Board, whilst Liz Wilkinson has just been elected as Board Treasurer. Karen Barnard chaired an Inside Government event on ‘Graduate Employment & Employability’ in May. A research paper by Rachel Roberts and Laura Brammar - Hidden Gems vs Usual Suspects - was selected for presentation at the London Conference on Employer Engagement in Education & Training. Deputy Head Anne Delauzun had an article on her research project ‘A conceptual model of peer influence on career behaviours’ accepted by the NICEC journal for publication in October.
Bob Gilworth and David Winter presented Careers Registration: Can big data produce an evidence-based approach to employability support in Higher Education? David Winter was also part of a panel on innovative practice as part of the conference. Two papers were presented at the AGCAS Research Conference in July: Fiona Cobb and Bob Gilworth presented One methodology, many services: How different institutions are using the careers registration methodology and what impact it can have for institutional and national strategy development. Liz Wilkinson presented Careers Services as research labs. As Director of The Careers Group, Bob also presented at numerous conferences in the UK and abroad including: Innovation and Growth - London Enterprise Panel HE Event, City Hall, London.
Liz Wilkinson represented The Careers Group at the National Association for Colleges & Employers (NACE) Conference in Chicago in June.
The Data Revolution: Three Years On at the AHECS Biennial Conference in Cork.
David Winter was the lead trainer on the AGCAS Advanced Guidance course in May, and co-delivered the AGCAS Train the Trainer course in June. Bob Gilworth also contributed to the AGCAS Management course this year.
Developing Your Students’ Employability the European Academy, Berlin.
University of London Global Education Graduate Recruitment Conference, SEAAGE, Singapore.
Kate Woods presented her MSc research at the University of Warwick’s Career Studies Unit Research Seminar in June.
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The Professional Development Unit The Professional Development Unit provides an annual training programme for all staff using a mixture of in-house and external trainers, and supports staff attendance at external training events and conferences. Thank you to all our in-house trainers, listed below alongside this year’s courses.
Training courses run this year Adobe Connect Webinar training AGCAS - an introduction Basic guidance interview skills Building the enterprise agenda into careers work in HE Careers in Education Careers in Investment Banking Careers in Law - the essentials Careers in the Creative Industries College Services - collaborative working Community Interaction theory and careers counselling Disclosure issues in guidance Employability and parental influence Employability and widening participation: what does the research tell us? Employability assessed: how can we measure and grade employability skills? Employer engagement - graduate recruitment is changing, are you up to speed? Employment law for careers services Enterprise education and entrepreneurship Essentials of event management Excel training Get going with groupwork Giving feedback on CVs and applications Guidance engagement – unconscious career decision making How to find and read a relevant research paper How to prepare a webinar Impostor syndrome – why and how to address it Insight into the charity sector webinar Intermediate groupwork
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Intermediate guidance Introduction to the DLHE survey Introduction to using the wiki Listening techniques and questioning approaches in guidance Making the most of your allocation Managing performance appraisals Mental health awareness training Performance appraisals – for appraisees Photography webinar Planned happenstance Practice interviews SCC promotion process – for candidates SSC promotion process – for line managers Stakeholder engagement - how are you measuring the impact of your delivery? Student engagement - encouraging career resilience The University of London and the federation Understanding communication with a client Understanding league tables Understanding more about Dyslexia Using Narrative theory in your practice Working with international students The Professional Development Unit
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The partnership with TCG is enormously enriching for the students. It’s crucial that a programme such as this is grounded in current practice, and the thoughtful input of a range of such high quality practitioners grappling with these issues on a daily basis adds a vital dimension. Julia Yates Programme Lead
Our trainers Jalal Afhim Emma Baker Laura Brammar Trevor Bibic Karen Deadfield Elaine Denniss Anna Favalessa Vanessa Freeman Mara Gardner Mark Gilbert Bob Gilworth Petra Hajdu Louise Honey Rosalind Kemp
Helen Kempster Carla King Anna Levy Calum Leckie Simon Mantell Ed Mclean Sue Moseley Rachel Roberts Raj Sidhu Gemma Seabrook Victoria Wade Karen Watton Kathy Williams David Winter
New UEL module launches 2015–16 was the first year in which The Careers Group partnered with the University of East London to deliver a module as part of their MA in Career Coaching. The module, entitled ‘Career Coaching: The HE Context’, was originally designed by a working group led by Gemma Kenyon, now Head of Careers at City University, and Julia Yates, Senior Lecturer in Career Coaching at the University of East London and programme leader. The purpose of the module is to provide students on the MA programme with the opportunity to consider current issues relating to working as a careers practitioner within a higher education context. The module includes the following topics: • • • • • •
Careers in the curriculum Working with academic departments Supporting diverse cohorts Working with employers Using technology in careers education The role of data in HE careers work
To plan the module, Julia led an initial session for the group of staff involved to brainstorm content who then worked in pairs to design and co-deliver the sessions before acting as second-markers for any assignments written by students on their particular topic. The pilot year went very well with 11 students taking the module, and provides a platform for further developments to the module in the future. Thanks to our module contributors: Kulvinder Birring, Laura Brammar, Vanessa Freeman, Bob Gilworth, Helen Kempster, Laura Mackenzie, Sue Moseley, Kate Murray, Vinny Potter, Fiona Richardson, Morag Walling.
I really enjoyed last week’s lecture (from start to finish). There is so much to learn when it comes to Higher Education, but the session made me really excited. Student on the module
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Informing practice through research The conference was hosted by the Education and Employers Charity and the Edge Foundation, with support from the Department for Education (England), the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and Barclays Lifeskills, and presented new research on employer engagement in education and technical pathways. The research paper ‘Hidden Gems vs. Usual Suspects’ focuses on the multi-awardwinning QConsult Supported by J.P. Morgan programme at QMUL. Using a range of evaluation data, the research explores how such targeted employer engagement programmes in higher education can produce social mobility outcomes for less advantaged graduates, reputational enhancement for institutions and business development outcomes for organisations. The paper by Rachel Roberts, Laura Brammar and Fiona Cobb was selected by the conference organisers because of its relevance to the event as well as ‘applying robust methodologies to questions of interest to participants’. In terms of dissemination beyond the event itself, Rachel Roberts and colleagues from the Research Unit will also be invited to submit their paper in article form for peer-reviewed consideration to The Journal of Education and Work.
The Careers Group’s Research Unit continues to support the work of staff across the Group as well as contribute to sector-wide debates on employability themes through conducting primary research. Alongside regular research and policy digests for staff, the team have undertaken a range of commissioned research projects this year as well as launching a three-year funded HEFCE project looking at Careers Registration as one measure of learning gain.
Hidden Gems vs Usual Suspects: A QMUL-Research Unit Collaboration A research collaboration between employability staff at QMUL and the Research Unit was selected to be presented at a major conference in July 2016, The London Conference on Employer Engagement in Education and Training.
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Career Registration and Learning Gain: exploring links through a HEFCE funded research project A research collaboration between employability staff at QMUL and the Research Unit was selected to be presented at a major conference in July 2016
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Project Lead: Bob Gilworth and David Winter Project Coordinator: Fiona Cobb What is Careers Registration? ‘Careers Registration’ involves including employability-related questions into student registration processes. The registration data capture process is completed by all new and all re-enrolling students at the start of each academic year to provide annual data on each student’s stage of career development.
Careers Registration was pioneered by Dr Bob Gilworth at the University of Leeds in 2012 and is already a scaled and sustainable method of collecting information on students’ career thinking. The data enables institutions to measure students’ readiness to engage with career management support, which can then be categorised into developmental stages such as the ‘decide, plan complete’ model used at Leeds. The nature of the data allows for both cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis and can be used to inform how careers services plan programmes and activities. Why is it important? Learning analytics are becoming increasingly important in helping universities optimise the student experience and evaluate learning gain. The introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) may require additional robust data from HE institutions which measure the added value of degree programmes. With the direct link to student registration data we have the opportunity to map the employability journeys of particular student cohorts (e.g. widening participation students), explore links between career readiness and academic success, or measure the impact of specific employability interventions. How is The Careers Group leading on this? In 2015 a consortium of universities lead by The Careers Group secured HEFCE funding for a three-year research project to investigate the value of Careers Registration as a measure of learning gain in relation to work readiness. The project is being lead by Bob Gilworth and David Winter, and Fiona Cobb is the HEFCE project coordinator. The primary research question for the project is “Does Careers Registration provide a viable method for obtaining data that provides an indication of learning gain related to work readiness?” with a series of supplementary issues to be investigated. There are 14 partner institutions involved in the project at various stages of implementation of the CR methodology, including eight member services of The Careers Group.
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Content and Information Supporting high quality information resources across various media The central Content and Information team work with careers information specialists across member services to provide access to high quality careers information via various media including Careers Tagged, The Careers Group’s collective online resource library. This year members of the Content & Information team have: Hosted a workshop on innovative technology for AGCAS’ Technology Update which forms part of the AGCAS postgraduate qualification in CEIGHE. Facilitated sessions at the LinkedIn 3D for HE event held at the University of Birmingham, a conference on the use of LinkedIn throughout HE with participants from careers services, alumni teams, student recruitment and marcoms teams. Run 12 wiki induction sessions for new staff as well as provided ongoing advice and support around engagement with the wiki and other collaborative tools. Reviewed and updated, removed or archived hundreds of resources on Careers Tagged. Assembled and organised careers information and resources for the new Careers Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at Heythrop College. Developed new systems for checking that information content is accurate and doesn’t contravene copyright (including checking hundreds of photos and other resources for appropriate credits). Streamlined The Careers Group’s social media provision and trained and supported colleagues in managing their social media and blog writing. Colleagues across The Careers Group were also involved in the annual development of content for our GTI produced careers guide for students.
The central Content and Information team work with careers information specialists across member services to provide access to high quality careers information
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Growing Greener Alongside core work, teams across The Careers Group have been working to make their carbon footprint lighter and their working lives more sustainable: SWISH at Queen Mary Queen Mary Careers & Enterprise team have been working towards a gold Green Impact Award having achieved silver last year. The team has been incredibly committed to increasing their Green Impact efforts, with activities ranging from bulb planting, starting an allotment, cycling to Brighton to promote cycling, an increase in the number of people in the team running at lunch times, meat-free recipes sent out every Monday in March and the introduction of a termly Team SWISH (swapping clothes and other items rather than throwing them out). ‘Excellence in Sustainability’ Award - UCL Careers For the third year running, UCL Careers were commended for their sustainability initiatives in the UCL Green Impact Accreditation Scheme. This was for activities such as our wormery, sustainability lunches and ‘green noticeboard’.
For the third year running, UCL Careers were commended for their sustainability initiatives in the UCL Green Impact Accreditation Scheme
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Walking to work at St Mary’s The St Mary’s team made all their handbooks for academic schools available online this year to reduce paper usage and 50% of the St Mary’s team walk to work each day! Closing loops at King’s The King’s team achieved the silver Green Impact award this year. Some of the sustainable steps the team have taken include encouraging paperless meetings, providing reusable tote bags, instigating a meat-free team lunch once a week, and offering unwanted office furniture to other departments. We have made part of our sustainability drive about closing some of our consumption loops. For instance, rather than throwing away the organic waste, we collect this in a compostable waste bin to be added to one of our Sustainability Champion’s compost and use to grow fruit and vegetables (which may even be shared with the team!).
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Acknowledgements Thank you to all our staff for their contributions this year: Jalal Afhim Khalid Al-Muhandis Magdalen Attwater Emma Baker Cathy Balfe Beckie Barlow Karen Barnard Colin Baumgart-Osborn Weronika Benning Laura Beswick Charlotte Betts Trevor Bibic Katie Bisaro Katie Black Rachael Blundell Laura Brammar Cal Brindley Rachel Brown Martin Brown Kirsti Burton Eliza Burton Tracy Bussoli Lizzie Carter Dave Carter Mark Chadwick Liz Chapman Shak Chowdhury Melanie Christou Fiona Cobb Joanne Cooper Anthony Crowther Jana Dankovicova Tom Davies Mark De Freitas Karen Deadfield Dandie Debieux Anne Delauzun Rachel Demetriou Elaine Denniss Adam Dimitroff Ella Dodd Sophia Donaldson Robert Donovan Adriana Dragu Sabrina Duggan Catherine Dyer Susan Eldin Nick Elliott
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Dorothy Evans Anna Favalessa Laura Firmin Inis Fitzpatrick Chris Flanagan Natalie Flintoff Alice Forbes Max Fox Isabel Frazer Vanessa Freeman Alexis Fromageot Evgenia Galinskaya Mara Gardner Gemma Garrett Kate Gault Mark Gilbert Bob Gilworth Fergus Gleeson Krista Godfrey Moira Good Kathryn Goodfellow Jonathan Goodliffe Helena Goodwyn Kiren Gui Beth Guilding Stephen Gurman Fahmee Habib Petra Hajdu Phil Hardcastle Rachel Harland Scott Heather Emily Hogg Louise Honey Phil Howe Dan Hughes Emily Huns Olivia Hynes Camilla Imarisio Meredith Inman Nicole John Zita Kalman Rosalind Kemp Helen Kempster Gemma Kenyon Carla King Eva Kiss Gill Lambert Calum Leckie
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Anna Levy Katarina Lezova Caroline Lisser Jonny Lott Helen Lovegrove Alice Lucas Donald Lush Laura Mackenzie Jane Maddison Joanie Magill Irrum Magre Maaria Mahmood Reza Majid Simon Mantell Emily McGrath Alison McGregor Ed McLean Eloise McWilliam Maya Mendiratta Mala Mohindru Pat Molloy Alice Moon Candice Mooney Hilary Moor Sue Moseley Kate Murray Louise Ogle Diana Omololu Joanna Pattison Patel Payal Robyn Peel Chow Pei-sze Donise Perkins Nicola Persue-King Philippa Hewett Sophie Picard Susan Pidd Hannah Posner Vinny Potter Tisha Pryor Emma Ramsey Claire Rees Alex Reeve Fiona Richardson Rachel Roberts Shadae Samuels Jon Sanders Taranjit Sanghera
Lewis Sawyer Gemma Seabrook Abi Sharma Lindsey Shirah Raj Sidhu Sonia Singh Lucy Smith Jacqueline Steinmetz Susanne Stoddart Jon Strathdee Sarah Swain Rochelle Symons Amanda Taylor Kalhari Thinakaranthar Vicki Tipton Natasha Triay Aseosa Uwagboe Victoria Wade Morag Walling Andy Walsh Patrice Ware Freddie Warner Vivienne Watson Karen Watton James Weaver Natasha Weller Helen West Kirsty Whitelock Tina Whittle Aimee Wilde Liz Wilkinson Kathy Williams Rhiannon Williams Bryony Wills David Winter Kate Woods Sue Young Lisa Zampetti
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