Higher Education Careers Advisory Services Review 2000
A NIACE Response: September 2000
NIACE supports the establishment of the Higher Education Careers Advisory Services Review 2000. Given the increasing diversity of the HE student profile and the developing role of higher education in lifelong learning, the contribution of HE Careers Services will be critical in enhancing student employability. NIACE is active in work with adult learners across the spectrum of both further and higher education, and would be happy to offer any further assistance appropriate to the Review.
The Terms of Reference are welcome, in particular the focus on raising standards of information, advice and guidance and developing models appropriate to meeting the needs of the current profile of higher education students. The remit of the Review appears to be comprehensive and will give the Group the opportunity to consider the full range of issues relating to learners, employers, and institutional/sectoral position.
There are a number of issues we would like to raise in relation to the individual tasks of the Remit
A. Student experience and entitlement
Mature Learners
 | It is important that the Review pays particular attention to the needs of mature learners, both full and part-time. Many Careers Services are still modelled on the provision of a service to young people. Despite evidence of efforts to respond to the needs of individual mature learners, there is an urgent need to develop new models will enable an accessible, effective and comprehensive service to be offered to the wide range of older learners and graduates. To this end, we would like to endorse the comments of the National Association for Educational Guidance for Adults (NAEGA). |
Part-time Learners
| The ratio between full and part-time learners in HE is steadily changing, with increasing numbers of learners studying alongside work or other responsibilities, and growing numbers studying on a distance-learning basis. The experience of learning, in both cases, is very different from those of full-time students. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the part-time learning experience, while research which has been undertaken indicates that lack of access to key support facilities is a common source if dissatisfaction. The growth of learner choice, in addition to growing international competition between providers, are both factors which focus attention on the need for a more effective level of support for these constituencies. |
Diversity of needs
| The prime function of traditional Careers Services has been to service the needs of undergraduates to find employment. However, in the context of widening participation policies, there are increasing numbers of learners who are participating in short or intensive HE programmes which may not be leading directly to a degree. These may include, for example, adults participating in taster courses, accredited training courses or non-award-bearing programmes within local communities. It is important that Careers Services are responsive to varying levels of advice needed and take responsibility for developing appropriate mechanisms for offering advice to students at this level, either directly, or in liaison with other local providers. |
Employability of non-traditional students
| Mature students, particularly those who are seeking to enter a new area of employment, have needs and expectations for accurate, honest and up-to-date information to inform their choice and expectations. Careers Services have a key role to play in communicating this on a regular basis to guidance providers. This may include information on the current barriers to employment in specific areas for mature students relating to, for example, age or health-related issues. |
| Balancing this, Careers Services have an equally vital advocacy to play in relation to these students, and should be working pro-actively with local employers to develop better understandings of the qualities and experience offered by mature graduates, in particular those who have come to learning via non-traditional routes and who may not therefore be able to offer an orthodox CV. At national level, this work should be vigorously pursued with professional bodies controlling entry to particular areas of employment. |
B. Strategic role in relation to Employability and Widening Access
| NIACE endorses Point Four of the Terms of Reference, which aims to integrate the work of HE Careers Services more closely with the new Connexions Service and the local Adult Information, Advice and Guidance Partnerships. However, we believe that this vision needs to extend beyond these two organisations. There is an urgent need for the development of a strategic role for HE Careers Services which links them in closely with wider institutional and regional policies on both employability and on widening participation. While there is evidence of some good practice in individual HEIs, the standard image of HE Careers Services is still of an internally focused service responding to the needs of new graduates. |
| The strategies to develop these two functions should be closely tied in with the Widening Participation strategy of each HEI. Performance indicators could be usefully devised to enable Careers Services to measure their progress in responding to the needs of the different constituencies of adult learners. |
C. Collaboration of Careers Services within higher education institutions
It is unclear how broad the remit of the Review will be in relation to the types of information, advice and guidance offered within and alongside HE Careers Services. There are a number of parallel activities, often separate, but sometimes subsumed under ‘careers advice’. The obvious example is educational guidance in higher education, for which a range of models exist, often linked in with widening access and/or teaching and learning activities. There is clearly a close and considerable overlap between the careers guidance and educational guidance, and it is imperative that a high degree of professional co-ordination exists across the two areas. However, activities of guidance and choice are appropriately targeted at learners at the pre-entry stage or seeking advice on their existing course of study. We believe that this separation is appropriately separate, and enables attention to be paid to the motivations and circumstances of individual learners broader than the vocational.
Nevertheless, in line with effective education guidance services, NIACE believes that, in order to be genuinely effective and influential, HE Careers Services must be closely integrated with the central teaching and learning activities of HEIs and tied in to institutional widening participation policies.
