Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

Prepared by Ed McLean December 2010

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Table of Contents
Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 3 Executive Summary.................................................................................................. 3 Methodology............................................................................................................. 3 Findings : Summary.................................................................................................. 4 Services attitudes towards student engagement ...........................................................4 Managing/planning student engagement......................................................................4 Resources ................................................................................................................4 Techniques ...............................................................................................................5 Findings : Complete Results ..................................................................................... 6 Services attitudes towards student engagement: chart 1...............................................6 Services attitudes towards student engagement: chart 2...............................................7 The biggest challenges we face in relation to engaging students in the careers service are; ........................................................................................................................8 Do you have a written plan/strategy for increasing the number of students using your service? ..................................................................................................................9 Do you have quantitative targets for increasing the number of students using your services?............................................................................................................... 10 Do you have access to the email addresses of ALL students at the university? ............. 11 Aside from on-the-job experience in a careers related role, within the careers service does at least one person have at least the following amount of full time experience in: ......... 12 Do you intend to use the following methods of supplying careers guidance more or less often over the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months?.......................... 13 Do you intend to use the following methods of promoting the careers service more or less often over the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months?.......................... 14 Do you intend to use the following online/new media methods of promoting the careers service more or less often over the next 12 months?.................................................. 15 If you measure the effectiveness of your engagement techniques in any way please explain how........................................................................................................... 16 Please share any techniques or initiatives that you have found have been particularly effective in engaging students with the careers service. ............................................. 17 Please share any engagement techniques or ideas not listed in this survey that you are considering using. .................................................................................................. 18 In the event of an increase in the total number of students using the service, we would prefer them to use the following methods:................................................................ 19 Recommendations .................................................................................................. 20 To pursue increased engagement: Yes or No? ............................................................ 20 Plan the engagement strategy .................................................................................. 20 Emulate the success of small business marketers ........................................................ 20 Investigate funding potential .................................................................................... 20

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Introduction
Student engagement is defined as the practice of raising awareness of and prompting students first use of the careers service. This report investigates services attitudes and approaches to engagement, the resources they have at their disposal and the engagement techniques they employ. The aim of this report is to begin a conversation within the HE career guidance community around the importance of engagement. It is not intended to be a definitive academic investigation.

Executive Summary
There is a disconnect between the reported importance of engagement and the planning and resources heads of service are able to give to it. Services should consider whether increasing the number of students engaged is in line with their mission and, if so, should plan, set targets and allocate resources appropriately, wherever possible. Efforts to increase the number of students engaged by the careers service are hampered by a lack of resources. Services should seek to emulate the well-documented success of small businesses that reach their target markets on a limited budget. 70% of heads of service believe that showing an increase in the number of students they engage would help them justify their funding. Services should investigate whether the number of students engaged could become a performance measure for funding bodies.

Methodology
The survey was conducted using the SurveyMonkey online survey facility. Heads of university services who are AGCAS members were informed of the survey via email. 26 heads of service participated fully, providing results which should be considered indicative.

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Findings : Summary
Services attitudes towards student engagement
Increasing the number of students engaged is a high priority but funding is limited
93% of respondents agree that increasing the number of students using the careers service is considered a high priority for career services and 89% would like their staff to spend more time on encouraging first use. However, only 12% of heads of service disagree that finding funding is one of their biggest challenges in relation to engaging students.

Respondents believe that increased success in engagement may be a survival/growth strategy for the career service itself
70% of career service heads agree that showing increases in the number of students engaged would help them justify their funding.

Confidence in the services ability to engaging students is high

96% of respondents believe that their effectiveness in engaging students is the same or higher than three years ago.

Managing/planning student engagement

Many services do not formally plan an engagement strategy
Although almost all career services consider increasing student engagement to be a high priority, one third have no written plan for increasing the numbers of students engaged. The written plans of the remaining two thirds are usually part of wider-reaching strategic plans, however one service had a dedicated Marketing and promotions plan. Only one third of services have any kind of quantitative target for student engagement.

Resources
There is a lack of formal engagement know how in HE careers services
Many services cannot afford to prioritise the selection of staff based on their engagement skills and/or training, which has resulted in 42% of services employing no one with any sales and marketing experience from outside the service itself. However, respondents are making up for this by adopting a make do approach, focused on innovation, with 67% regularly employing new techniques to increase student engagement. Service heads comment: It's amazing what you can pick up on the job! We are constantly reflecting on enterprising ways to access students.

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Techniques
The channels for reaching students are constantly changing
74% of services use different techniques for reaching out to students than they did three years ago.

Many have yet to try new internet channels

In comparison with responses to the questions about offline engagement channels there are overall many more Have never used and Will use more responses. The immediate priorities as stated by heads of service are improving and developing the careers service website (61%), Facebook (46%) and other web 2.0 tools (54%).

Necessity is driving the use of low cost engagement offline techniques

Services intend to increase their use of low cost techniques of promoting their services. Top among these: Encouraging referrals by lecturers (61%) On-location drop in / advice (e.g. a stall outside the student union) (50%) Press/PR in student publications (61%) Word-of-mouth (61%) One extension of such techniques that was not included in the original question was the use of student brand managers. Numerous verbatim responses indicate great enthusiasm for this technique.

Proactive techniques may provide significant gains

A handful of services anecdotally report significant increases in engagement as a result of shifting from reactive (waiting for students to approach them) to proactive approaches to engagement: o Taking careers resources to the students' dining room and setting up 'shop' there once a week this has led to an increased use of our service, interviews booked, resources downloaded, etc.. o We set up CV doctor sessions along the lines of Street Doctor from TV

Services are seeking to deliver career guidance at a lower cost per student
HE career services are moving towards favouring cost efficient methods of delivering guidance to larger groups of students, with services intending to use more information and guidance on website (55%), career modules (48%) and workshops (59%) as their top three methods of supplying careers advice and guidance.

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Findings : Complete Results

Services attitudes towards student engagement: chart 1

1
Answers

To what degree do you agree with the following statements?

1. Increases in the number of students using the careers service would help me to justify the departments funding 2. It is easier to get students to use the careers service today than it has ever been in the past 3. We struggle to keep up with and master new technologies for interacting with students, for example web 2.0 technologies like Facebook 4. Increasing student engagement in the careers service is considered a low priority by university management 5. We regularly employ new techniques to encourage students' "first use" of the careers service

Verbatim responses
We pilot new techniques on a small scale but don't have the resources to develop them as we'd like to If levels of student engagement were low, then university management would take a big interest in what we're doing wrong We are based in the Library and IT Dept, with a lot of access to e learning staff and web experts. It would help to have a dedicated Web 2.0 staff member

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Services attitudes towards student engagement: chart 2

1
Answers

To what degree do you agree with the following statements?

1. Increasing the number of students using the careers service is considered a high priority 2. Our effectiveness in engaging students is decreasing 3. My staff is highly skilled in techniques to successfully engage students 4. I would like my staff to spend more time on encouraging students "first use" of the service 5. On the whole, we use the same techniques to reach out to students that we did 3 years ago

Verbatim responses
Staff are highly skilled in engaging students once they visit the service, but not necessarily in enticing them in! We are always aware of non-users, however this is increasingly difficult to determine as students can describe themselves as 'non-users' but use our website extensively nevertheless. We are more reliant on technology. We engage with our students from day one through the Induction and the Academic Programmes The more channels we use to get our messages out to students but students seem more disinterested in the services available.

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

The biggest challenges we face in relation to engaging students in the careers service are;

1
Answers
1. 2. 3. 4.

Staying up-to-date with new methods of reaching out to students (Facebook, etc) Finding funding/resources for engagement initiatives Lack of know-how in engagement methods Engaging hard-to-reach student groups

Verbatim responses
Funding is a major issue, but new free technologies make this easier I don't think (lack of) student engagement is an issue for us Our big challenge is funding. We can use the technology but we lack focused marketing expertise and support

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Do you have a written plan/strategy for increasing the number of students using your service?

Verbatim responses
Employability strategy action plan - in production We don't want to increase the numbers coming through the door, but do want more awareness and 'distance learners' We've got xx,xxx already using our Service - there aren't many students who need us who aren't using us We are constantly reflecting on enterprising ways to access students. Part of Student Affairs strategic planning Service Development Plan 09-2012 Marketing and Promotions Plan

Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Do you have quantitative targets for increasing the number of students using your services?

Verbatim responses
We check on patches of low engagement, whether department, year, nationality, college or whatever and then target that group I have to note this in annual report

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Do you have access to the email addresses of ALL students at the university?

Verbatim responses
Students must sign up to our interactive system in order to book appointments/events etc. so we capture their emails that way Data protection - can only use signed-up students (about 50% have) We use this facility only for very important items and use Blackboard announcements and Facebook instead Some courses get better response than other by email We can email students by School; I would love to be able to email all students, but we do not have the facility to do this. We're allowed 2 or 3 mail outs per year We email carefully selected info to all students, to avoid overload.

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Aside from on-the-job experience in a careers related role, within the careers service does at least one person have at least the following amount of full time experience in:

Verbatim responses
Graphic design is covered by the University's Design and Print department. Close links are maintained with the University's Marketing and Communications Section and it is vital that the Careers Centre adheres to University corporate strategy in this area. It's amazing what you can pick up on the job! We are constantly reflecting on enterprising ways to access students. Experience gained in their current roles and also previous roles, before joining us

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Do you intend to use the following methods of supplying careers guidance more or less often over the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months?

Note : Percentage values excluded for brevity and clarity. Available on request.

Verbatim responses
Due to embargo on staff recruitment and losing approx 30% staff, activities will have to be curtailed Some of the above is dependent upon resource and demand, so may, in the event, vary. We are developing a VLE based e-module which will form the basis of CEIAG in the coming years (Anonymous university) doesn't provide students with curriculum-based careers teaching, lectures or mandatory sessions We are a very small Careers Service but would like to develop more resources for students

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Do you intend to use the following methods of promoting the careers service more or less often over the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months?

Note : Percentage values excluded for brevity and clarity. Available on request.

Verbatim responses
(Anonymous university) covers a wide physical footprint - there is no one place all students gather Employment of Campus Brand managers will increase 'word of mouth' Careers lanyards

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Do you intend to use the following online/new media methods of promoting the careers service more or less often over the next 12 months?

Note : Percentage values excluded for brevity and clarity. Available on request.

Verbatim responses
SMS only used for DLHE We've already got 87% of finalists engaged with our service - additional marketing isn't a priority for us also use the learning space / Moodle We use an interactive e portfolio, PebblePad with links to web 2.0

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

If you measure the effectiveness of your engagement techniques in any way please explain how.
Verbatim responses
Count web hits, Facebook fans, focus groups to discuss web provision etc. Numerous ways, including measures of impact We survey students attending events and ask how they found out about the event. Surveys and evaluations (e.g. on First Destination Survey, final year groups, at fairs), occasional focus groups, monitoring feedback from clients Only through annual evaluation process Questions on feedback forms on how heard about us. Occasional focus groups Asking how students found out about the service and its activities Our only formal measure is asking those who come for guidance where they heard of the service. We also occasionally (every few years) carry out a survey. Feedback forms We measure student use of our service across half-a-dozen measures including attendance at events, appointments, website registrations, personal visits to our building etc. We can 'cut' this date by year, gender, course, College, nationality Review at Team Meetings We run focus groups and send a survey monkey Matrix quality review, annual on-line evaluations. Employer events evaluation, employers and students. Measure both quantitative and qualitative data through trend analysis and comparison between methods also use it for timing of events and service provision We always measure how the students found out about talks, workshops, presentations or other events that we run and feed these back the academic schools and back into our marketing plans Feedback from students, employers, partners

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Please share any techniques or initiatives that you have found have been particularly effective in engaging students with the careers service.
Verbatim responses
Ran a joint 'employability week' with the SU, which allowed us to collect lots of detailed feedback from non-users who it would otherwise have been hard to reach 'Careers on Tour' Events, particularly fairs. Seminars where academic staff are also engaged in delivery and promotion, once-off events responding to imminent need e.g. closing dates Integrating careers management skills sessions within core modules of programmes Creating an interactive careers resource on Blackboard and getting academic staff to use it as well (e.g. in their own CV workshops) - and using its announcements facility for particularly interesting opportunities. Also getting the SU to follow one of our projects on Twitter - they've put a live feed to their newspaper web page. Informal word of mouth recommendation amongst students has the greatest effect Through lecturers or their course website VLE - Careers and jobs pages written specifically for each School of study Free lanyards with careers website on Plasma screens, recommendations through lecturers via the Staff newsletter, which re-enforces the messages we send out via the students' intranet; face to face stands work very well, too. Direct email Emails Personal referral is best. Graduates access our services through a funded HEFCW project. We also benefit from the pan Wales HEFCW funded Go Wales SME employer programme. Feedback. Electronic booking. Themed road shows. Students ambassador. Promotion leaflets under doors of residences. CV doctor sessions along the lines of Street Doctor from TV. Academic Embedding; targeted e-marketing to specifically advertise an event or a job; Tutor / Academic Referral and / or embedding Taking careers resources to the students' dining room and setting up 'shop' there once a week this has led to an increased use of our service, interviews booked, resources downloaded, etc. Talking directly to all returning 2 year and final year graduates at Induction for 30 mins about options after graduation and reinforcing the support networks and resources available

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Please share any engagement techniques or ideas not listed in this survey that you are considering using.
Verbatim responses
Student representatives in academic schools More informal 'chats' offered in Departments VLE We're allowed to use Student Union Facebook paying them Working with students at entrepreneur boot camp. Travelling to India with students on a cultural programme. Regular Tour Desks which we run across the campus Meet the Employer Events which we run during March - June

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

In the event of an increase in the total number of students using the service, we would prefer them to use the following methods:

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Student Engagement in HE Career and Employment Services

December 2010

Recommendations
To pursue increased engagement: Yes or No?
Services should consider whether increasing levels of student engagement is the right strategy for them, their funders and those they serve. Answers to questions such as the following may help provide insights: Is increasing the number of students engaging with the service in line with our mission / raison dtre? What might be the knock on effects of increased engagement (better outcomes for graduates? Over-stretched resources? A requirement to shorten interventions?) If a strategy of increased engagement is pursued, what changes need to happen within the service to facilitate an increase in engagement?

Plan the engagement strategy

Services that consider engagement a high priority should create a first draft of an engagement strategy, detailing: o The desired outcomes of the initiative. o The anticipated knock on effects of increased engagement and how the service will prepare for or react to. o Measurable targets in order to track and report success / failure. o A programme of engagement activities, against a timeline. o The resources that will be committed to these activities. o Areas of weakness / lacking and how they can be addressed.

Emulate the success of small business marketers

Although many have already used their ingenuity to great success Its amazing what you learn on-the-job!, services would benefit from emulating the well-documented marketing strategies and tactics of small businesses with limited resources. Books like Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson provide numerous tips for engaging target markets at little or no cost. Forums should be set up for the exchange of ideas and experience. Learning should feedback into the services engagement strategy.

Investigate funding potential

Services should investigate whether the number of students engaged could become a performance measure for funding bodies.

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