Thursday 4 May 2017
12.00 to 14.00
Room 731
UCL Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL
Education and Employers in conjunction with The UCL Institute of Education’s Centre for Post-14 Education and Work are hosting a series of seminars exploring careers education and employer engagement. The seminars will be of interest to teachers, researchers, careers practitioners and policy makers who are concerned with how schools and colleges can better prepare young people for employment.
Over the last twelve months, the Education Endowment Foundation published a literature review of the economic and educational impacts of Careers Education and Ofsted published new Inspection criteria for careers education provision in schools and colleges. The Department for Education has expressed a strong interest in reviewing careers policy; and a number of All Party Parliamentary Groups and Non-Governmental Organisation reports have called for greater focus on careers within educational provision.
This two-hour seminar presents and discusses two recent research papers that provide insights into careers education policy and practice. These will be followed by a discussion of participants’ ideas for the development of this work through further seminars at the UCL Institute of Education.
Seminar Programme
12 00 – 12 05 Chair’s Introduction: Professor Ann Hodgson.
12 05 – 12 35 Paper 1 Dr. Elnaz Kashefpakdel, Head of Research. Education and Employers.
Contemporary Transitions: Young Britons’ reflections on how and whether secondary schools prepared them well for adult working life.
12 45 – 13 15 Paper 2 Dr. Sean Richards. UCL Institute of Education.
Centre for Post-14 Education and Work. 14 – 19 Careers transitions. The Case for Employer Engagement: Impact findings from Learner Focus Groups with FE learners in London – to be published in June 2017.
13 15 Coffee break
13 25 Discussion.
Topic 1. What do these two pieces of research suggest might improve CEIAG policy and practice in the current UK context?
Topic 2. Which CEIAG research and discussion topics would participants like to include in future seminars?
14 00 Chair’s closing remarks.
Abstracts
Elnaz T. Kashefpakdel. Head of Research – Education and Employers.
Contemporary transitions: Young Britons reflect on life after secondary school and college.
This paper presents the findings from a survey of 1,744 young British adults aged 19-24. The survey undertaken on behalf of Education and Employers by YouGov investigates the experiences of respondents as they engage in transitions which take them from education towards the working world. The focus of the report is on work related activities commonly undertaken by schools and colleges to help prepare them for such transitions, relating specifically to employer engagement in education. Through the use of statistical analysis, insights for policy and practice emerge. Greater volume of school-mediated employer engagement is associated with better economic outcomes, demonstrating relationships between the number of school-mediated teenage engagements with employers recalled by young adults and significantly reduced incidence of being NEET and higher earnings. More highly regarded employer engagement is associated with the best economic outcomes. Access to school-mediated employer engagement is not fairly distributed. Arguably those with greatest need for employer engagement within education commonly received it least. Young adults who had experienced the greatest volume of school-mediated employer engagement activities came, on average, from more privileged backgrounds: from Independent schools, grammar schools, holding higher levels of qualification.
Dr Sean Richards – UCL Institute of Education
Careers transitions. The Case for Employer Engagement and double- loop CEIAG.
New findings on the impacts of EE and CEIAG from Learner Focus Groups conducted in in further and higher education institutions in London (to be published June 2017).
Reforms by HM Government (2014) made statutory the provision of free, personalised and impartial careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) in all UK schools and colleges, and now feature in Ofsted’s Inspection criteria. This has been seen as a move in the right direction for careers education, ensuring all young people are assisted by their school or college, to understand their career options and future choices for progression into work or further study, and to gain an understanding of their own skills levels and how they can develop these to become work-ready. International and UK-based research has consistently shown that employer engagement activities have positive measurable impacts upon learners’ work related skills development and preparation for work because such activities help students to connect the knowledge and skills they are acquiring at college, to the real world of work and to gain an understanding of how what they are learning relates to what they may do in their future careers.
But so far, there has been little systematic and detailed analysis of the effectiveness of these approaches in UK further education. This research is based upon the findings from eight focus groups held with higher education students and two focus groups with 16 to 19 learners in two FE colleges in London. The study analyses learners’ opinions of the impacts of employer engagement activities on their careers ideas. Many learners are also working part-time. This can be a useful resource for expanding employer engagement schemes and projects, and can also provide a baseline for assessing learners’ employability and work readiness skills and can contribute to what I term ‘double loop CEIAG’ whereby learners current work experience, skills and work readiness are evaluated against their short, medium and longer-term career aims and thus provides a safeguard against reinforcing low aspirations. However, further research into how well vocational qualifications in colleges embed activities such as work experience, work-readiness skills and other CEIAG and EE activities is urgently needed. This paper will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and policy makers seeking further evidence of effective approaches in careers education and employer engagement.
Spaces at the seminar are limited. To reserve a place, please email jordan.rehill@educationandemployers.org The seminar is free to attend.