This event is hosted by the Student Access and Experience and Employability, Enterprise and Work-based Learning Networks.

This joint event will bring together researchers and practitioners to explore the dramatic changes in graduate careers likely to have been brought about by the pandemic. It provides evidence from the UK on the early impact of the pandemic, looking at the experiences of graduates. Further, it draws on the experience of careers professionals to explore how careers advice, information and guidance has changed with social distancing, as well as reflecting on the broader labour market context. 

Scott Hurrell, Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow, will present some early findings from the “Graduating in a pandemic: The Class of 2020’s careers, wellbeing and hopes for the future” project on behalf of the research team. This project investigates graduates’ experiences of the transition from education to employment or to other activities during the pandemic, their feelings about their careers and their life in general. It focuses on leavers from colleges and universities across the UK, with a special focus on Glasgow and Preston. The project team are: Scott Hurrell (PI), Belgin Okay-Somerville, Andrew Dorrance (student intern) University of Glasgow, Pauline Anderson, Daria Luchinskaya and Dora Scholarios, University of Strathclyde. Project website: https://graduatinginapandemic.wordpress.com/

Kate Purcell, University of Warwick Emeritus Professor, on behalf of the Warwick Institute for Employment team (Peter Elias, Gaby Atfield, Rosie Day, Erika Kispeter, Lynne Marston and Stef Poole) will discuss “The 2009/10 ‘recession grads’ generation: secure or stuffed?”, based on the Futuretrack longitudinal study. Futuretrack explores the relationship between higher education participation and labour market outcomes, having traced a diverse sample of UCAS applicants to UK higher education institutions from the point at which they applied in 2005-6 until 2020-early 21. In this presentation, key findings of the two latest investigations: Stage 5, conducted in 2019 and the Stage 6 ‘Covid follow-up’ between September 2020 and January 2021, will be presented, hot off the press, for discussion. Full details of findings from the longitudinal projects and published reports, hopefully including the Stage 6 Covid and Graduate Careers one by the 16th June, can be accessed via https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/futuretrack/findings

Susan Bird, Careers and Employability Manager at the University of Edinburgh, will briefly reflect on the new model, The Careers Compass, that underpins their work at the University of Edinburgh Careers Service. She will then look at the impact of COVID on the graduate labour market and internship opportunities, and discuss recruitment practices and the impact for future employer engagement. 

Rachel Firth, Employability Consultant at Sheffield Hallam University, will reflect on how they have altered their service to deliver careers advice and guidance entirely remotely, what they have learned about remote delivery and what this might mean for how they offer their service to students in the future. She will also discuss some of the ways that different student groups have been affected by the pandemic. 
 

Event schedule: