Other research
Learning to be a graduate: employability and identity in the first year after university
In 2006-2007 thirty University of Reading undergraduate students participated in a research project with Maura O'Regan, a PhD research student funded by the Centre for Career Management Skills (CCMS).
The students were interviewed and completed a regular diary during their second year at university. Through this means they recorded and discussed their experiences of university, and their ideas and hopes for the future.
The Centre has been so interested in the early results from this research project that it has undertaken a follow-on study in 2008-2009.
We have retained contact with 22 of the participants of the original project during their first year after graduation. This is allowing us to gain a longer term perspective on how individual students change and adapt to new circumstances, and how their experiences at university may affect their lives in the longer term.
The document can be found here:
Graduate Transitions to Employment
For more detailed information, please contact Maura O'Regan or Julia Horn at CCMS. Details on the original PhD project are available.
Values at work
In 2008-9 Julia Horn conducted a qualitative research project to examine the establishment and development of careers education in the curriculum in higher education. The projectis co-funded by CCMS and HECSU (Higher Education Careers Services Unit).
The study aims to uncover the tacit knowledge and expertise which underpin current discourses and practices of careers education in higher education, notably from the positions of 'being a careers professional', and 'being an academic', as well as the new position of 'being a careers educator'.
Interviews with individuals who are involved in developing and teaching careers education across higher education institutions will be used to explore how individuals influence the curriculum, and how they perceive their relationship to careers, education and higher education in terms of expertise and practice.
The project report will be available from the HECSU website in summer 2009.
[1] Foskett, R. and Johnston, B. (2006). Curriculum Development and Career Decision-Making in Higher Education: Credit-Bearing Careers Education. Manchester: HECSU. http://www.hecsu.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Research_reports/Credit_Bearing_Careers_Education/p!ejFdgkp
Employability review of a degree programme
In 2008 Helen Williams undertook a qualitative research project with the School of Real Estate and Planning at the Henley Business School at the University of Reading to examine how an academic degree programme with a clear vocational focus defines and delivers career and employability-related education.
The project examined the experience of Reading Real Estate students from UCAS application stage through to destinations 6 months after graduation. It captured and examined any activity, curricular and non-curricular, that could be considered to contain any element of career education, employability activity, skills (generic, core, transferable) training, industry and professional experience and exposure and employer engagement.
The research included detailed interviews with students, academics and employers who actively recruit from the programme. Most critically the project identified what the department, students and employers consider should be included in the career and employability activities available through and around the curriculum and compared this with what is currently available. As a result the project identified clearly for the School specific recommendations for curriculum enhancement and for adjustments to non-curricular provision and suggested possible approaches to implementing these.
The School is currently pursuing these recommendations through a CCMS fellowship and their own curriculum enhancement review process. A presentation on the approach and some early findings made at the iCEGs Conference in June 2008 is available on the presentations page. For more detailed information on the project contact Helen Williams.