Degree to Career - Coaching students into the workplace

The Current Student Environment
The life transition from student to employee is significant and escalating in importance. This is fuelled by an oversupply of graduates than there are graduate level roles to fulfil and a greater number of graduates entering the world of work. Additionally a reduction in the amount of personal tuition and pastoral care provided to undergraduates combined with the advent of top up fees means that student’s university selection criteria now involves assessing return on investment. This is occurring at a time when the traditional career has not only become obsolete but that the typical employer of graduates has altered and the expectation for graduates to be primed and ready for work has intensified.

A New Dilemma
Traditionally universities had two functions:

1. To prepare the elite to govern
2. To provide an institutional basis for research

As a possible consequence, staff have been recruited for their academic practice and research potential. However the current customer base of those institutions has more specific objectives, which is that students attend university not to study a particular subject in depth, but to enhance their employment prospects. Research from the Association of Graduate Recruiters found that preparing graduates for employment is one of the purposes of higher education. The institutions themselves do not always recognise this fact, even though the new method of delivering education is now based on a commercial business model, where students should be viewed as discerning customers. This is particularly relevant when universities aim to recruit high numbers of foreign students who pay full fees as a commercially sound method to balance the books. They, even more than home based students, need more pastoral care and coaching time to assimilate them into an environment where they can succeed socially and academically and be highly employable.

Creating a Coaching Culture in Universities
Universities need to recognise that their students are now customers who have an expectation around what a degree needs to deliver for them. This is a move away from their traditional role, and academic staff will need help and support to understand this brave new world, Coaching individuals within universities who are responsible for the strategic vision of the institutions is one way of creating this new culture.
 

What Coaching Offers Students at this Life Transition
With more students feeling that there is a lack of focus and support from universities to guide them through the transition into the world of work, coaching can provide the following:

• An opportunity to have an equal relationship with an adult outside of the family and university
• An opportunity to explore life and career options in a non judgemental environment
• Practical help with CV, job searching and interview skills
• The experience of an evolving and on going relationship rather than a one off event such as university careers service interviews
• A blueprint for coaching relationships within the future world of work
• A confidence building exercise that can be positively translated into good job interview performance
• An opportunity to explore and test portfolio job skills

The Future of Student Coaching
The working and educational landscape is changing and the need for student support is increasing rather than diminishing. The disciplines and techniques of coaching are closely bound to established adult learning theories and therefore offers a context to take students from degree to career. A coaching intervention not only helps prepare for this transition but also has the potential to develop the capability and self-esteem of each undergraduate.

Universities would do well to recognise this need and seek to provide formal coaching programmes for their students. This would be seen by students as a value added service and will be taken into account when initially selecting an academic institution. Additionally professional coaches could also promote their coaching skills to this cohort of young people who will then act as champions and promoters of coaching as they progress in their own careers.
 

Useful References
• Association of Graduate Recruiters. (1995), Skills for Graduates in the 21st Century, The Association of Graduate Recruiters, Cambridge.

• Betts, M. and Calabro, P. (2005), Graduate Skills and employability: an integrated approach to student development, Higher Education International Seminar in collaboration with ESECT and The Independent.

• Cemmell, J and Bekhradnia, B. (2008), The Bologna Process and the UKs International Student Market. Higher Education Policy Institute. www.hepi.ac.uk

• Dearing, R. (1997), Higher Education in the Learning Society, London: HMSO.

• Leitch Review of Skills. (2005-06), Interim Report on Skills in the UK

Julia Cartwright Read Julia’s profile>>

Rock the Boat Consultant

juliac@rocktheboaconsulting.com