Boosting work experience engagement among students with mental health needs

A pilot project by the University of Sussex's Careers and Entrepreneurship team and the School of Psychology aimed to improve engagement with work experience among students with mental health conditions

The study, funded by the Jisc careers research grant, was in response to findings that only 15% of students with mental health needs completed work experience, and an overall graduate outcomes gap for these students. Researchers explored whether a thoughtfully designed referral process between academic faculty and career consultants could make a difference.

Key findings

• Increase in engagement with careers appointment - 60% of referred students attended a careers appointment, this compares well to the typical 10% careers appointment engagement rate of self-booked appointments among psychology students with declared mental health conditions.
• Improved confidence and awareness - post-appointment surveys showed increases in students' confidence (+12%), awareness of work experience options (+24%), and preparedness to apply (+28%).
• Positive student feedback - participants valued the personalised support and expressed increased motivation to pursue work experience. Although none had engaged with university-supported placements at the time of reporting, these students will continue to be tracked beyond the end of the project period.
• Faculty support - the Faculty and Student Experience (SE) team, who played a direct role in the referral process, demonstrated good engagement and expressed satisfaction in being able to extend additional support to this student cohort.

About the report

The aims of the research were to discover how effective a referral process between faculty and careers consultant could be in getting students to attend an initial support meeting, whether the meeting helped increase confidence, knowledge and interest in work experience opportunities, and how many of these students went on to complete work experience.

Pre- and post-intervention surveys measured students' level of career confidence, while semi-structured interviews with staff were used to review their experience of the referral process. Monitoring of the university's internal CareerHub system will reveal whether the students involved went on to complete work experience.

This research was funded by the Jisc careers research grant. If you're a careers professional planning to undertake research, you may be eligible for funding of up to £5,000.

Written by

Victoria Raynard

Careers consultant

University of Sussex