Early Careers Survey 2021: Careers advice and guidance

The final part of our Early Careers Survey examines how students have interacted with careers services during the pandemic and where else they turn for advice and guidance

Trends 2021

• Careers services have shifted to remote provision, but a significant number of students lack confidence and there are digital exclusion concerns.
• The internet is by far the most common source of careers advice, followed by family, teachers, social media and friends.
• After the internet, school students are most likely to ask their family for advice (70%) and a significant proportion of college/sixth form students (60%) also rely on families.
• For students in their final year, researching national and local companies is the most popular careers activity.

Introduction

In a year of such challenge and change, effective careers advice has never been more important. As significant numbers of young people change their career plans as a result of the pandemic, are they getting the careers advice and guidance they need to support their decision-making?

The Prospects Early Careers Survey 2021 looked at the proportions of young people receiving careers advice and the types of advice sessions they had attended, both before and during the pandemic's restrictions, then zoomed in on the advice school pupils and college/sixth form students had sought during the first year or so of the pandemic, finding disparities between where they had been looking and where they actually found advice.

As expected, the internet loomed large, as did families, but so did proactive research of potential employers (both for jobs and for work experience), online job quizzes and even traditional print literature. However, during that year, only about a third had engaged with professional careers advisers which, as this report shows, has equity implications for those from less advantaged backgrounds.

This is the third in a series of reports by Prospects on our Early Career Survey 2021, providing insights into the student voice and early careers. The previous issues looked at jobs, apprenticeships, and postgraduate study, and at how work experience was undertaken during the first 12 months of the crisis. This issue focuses on the careers advice offered to young people.

Data explained

Users of Prospects.ac.uk were surveyed between 12 January and 26 February 2021 to find out about their career plans. The analysis in this report is based on responses from 7,189 people, including school pupils, sixth form/college students, university students, graduates, apprentices/trainees and those not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

The majority (78%) of respondents were aged 16-24 and predominantly identified as female (74%) and white (65%). More than a third (35%) were BAME students.

Whether a student is the first generation in their family to attend university is a common indicator for identifying those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. Half of university respondents were first generation students.

How the pandemic changed careers services

In the past year, careers services have embraced virtual careers fairs, offered advice and guidance by Zoom or Microsoft Teams, set up virtual assessment centre practice sessions and generally adapted quickly to remote provision.

However, while research by the Institute of Student Employers reported that the majority of its members had moved to online recruitment methods, 60% of final-year students said they were worried about virtual interviews and assessment centres and 72% wanted help and advice.

The digital divide - students without sufficient access to the technology they need to use remote services - is also a concern. In the UK, according to polling from the Office for Students for its Gravity Assist report, 52% of students said their learning was impacted by slow or unreliable internet connection, with 8% 'severely' affected; 71% reported lack of access to a quiet study space; and 18% were impacted by lack of access to a computer, laptop or tablet.

Looking specifically at careers advice, rather than learning more generally, research by Handshake UK on the effects of online recruitment found that 22% of students did not have the technology required to access careers services since they had moved online and 91% of students had experienced issues with online interviews. The most common problems encountered during virtual interviews were a poor internet connection disrupting a video interview (34%), being worried about somebody else in the household walking in (28%) and poor equipment like microphone or laptop causing issues (26%) - all of which are problems that tend to disproportionately affect applicants who are less well off.

'I wanted to gain more experience and knowledge of the publishing industry by attending a fair but couldn't do so due to lockdown.'

'I meant to attend some events in March that would have allowed me to do some in-person networking, the most effective one in my sector, which opens countless doors. Those events were suspended, and the rest of my plans with them. I am trying to make up for it with LinkedIn, but it's not really a valid substitute in my field.'

'I was hoping to join the army, started working in a garage while I worked on my fitness and decided on a role. Lost my job due to the pandemic and ended up working in a warehouse instead. Unsure how to progress to the army now as information is best obtained from a careers office but they are mostly shut due to the pandemic.'

What careers advice did young people seek?

There was significant variation in the proportions of school pupils, college/sixth form students and university students who said they received careers advice, with more than three quarters of school of pupils saying they received advice compared to well under two thirds of university students. 

These proportions changed when only the responses of those in their final year were considered, with students in their final year of college/sixth form (75%) and university (66%) most likely to say they received careers advice. 

Of the types of careers advice sessions attended, in person or online, two thirds of respondents said they had attended talks about courses delivered by college and university staff. By contrast, only just over half reported attending career talks by employers. More generally, more than half of all respondents attended at least one form of careers guidance and 59% attended careers events such as job fairs. However, fewer than a third attended sessions preparing for job interviews.

The most popular sessions for both university students and sixth form/college students were talks by college/university staff about courses. The next most popular for university students were guidance on CVs, cover letters and job applications, and careers events such as job fairs. For sixth form/college students, the next most popular was careers guidance appointment with a careers adviser/teacher. Popular sessions among school pupils were careers guidance appointments with a careers adviser/teacher, and careers lessons/workshops.

'I am considering self-employment more and more, but not sure where to find the right help and a mentor.'

Who did young people turn to for guidance?

Narrowing survey results down to just the 12 months between early 2020 and early 2021 (i.e. predominantly during the pandemic), and considering only school pupils and college/sixth form students, the internet was comfortably the most common source of careers advice, followed by family, teachers, social media and friends. Slightly under a third said they had turned to careers professionals (e.g. careers advisers and life coaches) for guidance - however, both school pupils and college/sixth form students said these, together with the internet, were the most helpful resources.

School students were most likely to ask their family for advice (70%) and a significant proportion of college/sixth form students (60%) also relied on families.   

There is a marked contrast between the places where school and college/sixth form respondents said they actively sought careers advice and which careers activities they had actually done. Reading what other people with a similar background had gone on to do and researching national companies, and the types of jobs they had available, were jointly the most popular activities, favoured by more than two thirds of school pupils and college/sixth form students. Only a third said they had talked to a careers adviser, a figure similar to the number who had reported actively seeking advice from a careers professional. But where only 17% said they had actively sought advice from printed guides, magazines or leaflets, nearly half of school and college/sixth form respondents said they had actually read such information.

For students in their final year, researching national (71%) and local (66%) companies, and the types of jobs they had available, rose to be the most popular activities.

Respondents' internet use as primary source of career information ties in with data from Deloitte's recent large survey on the aspirations of graduate jobseekers across central Europe. According to the First Steps Into The Labour Market survey, social media sites account for the two top sources that young people use to find information and insights about potential employers and jobs. LinkedIn is the first choice for 27% overall.  Facebook is the primary source of information for 20% of those surveyed, being equally popular among female and male respondents and slightly more popular among less experienced and younger respondents aged under 22 (22%).

This is mirrored by employer behaviour, according to the Handshake UK survey, which found that 65% of businesses became more reliant on careers and jobs sites during the pandemic, 20% became less reliant on university careers services and 33% became less reliant on careers fairs.

Restrictions around in-person recruitment were given by 63% of employers as the reason for increasing use of online professional networks such as LinkedIn, while more than half said they used word of mouth recommendation more. A fifth of HR decision makers said they preferred to hire graduate and student candidates they already knew, as they're 'less of a risk in the current environment'. And 33% of students believed that job applications and interviews are biased towards people who have existing connections.

This is worrying, particularly when linked to the second most common source of careers advice mentioned in in this Early Careers Survey - family. School students were most likely to ask their family for advice (70%) and a significant proportion of college/sixth form students relied on them as well (60%). Clearly there are inequitable social capital concerns here, with research showing that graduates who relied on family connections to find jobs created a 1.5% advantage (on a baseline 6.1%) over graduates, with the same degree from the same institution, who used methods other than personal networks.

Conclusion: implications for employers and career professionals

The Prospects Early Careers Survey 2021 has shown that significant numbers of young people are feeling uncertain about their careers and they are changing their plans. Their routes to careers advice to inform those changes are also being transformed. Careers advice services have moved online, interviews and internships have become virtual and, in some cases, employers are bypassing university careers services and fairs altogether to focus on online professional networks.

However, digital confidence in making applications virtually, succeeding at online interviews and navigating virtual assessment centres has been highlighted as a key issue, and one demonstrated in the increased numbers of users accessing content relating to these areas on Prospects.ac.uk. The risk of excluding those without access to the technology and quiet spaces to participate remotely is also a very live issue. With two-thirds of employers saying that they will continue to conduct more of the recruitment process online, post-pandemic, there is a clear imperative to focus on even more training and support in conducting interviews and interacting with employers online.

Employers' increasing use of online networks, such as LinkedIn, for recruitment also raises a challenge for equality, diversity and inclusion, and for careers professionals who, traditionally, have a role to play in levelling the field.

Also in this series

• Early Careers Survey: Work experience during a crisis
• Early Careers Survey: Jobs, apprenticeships and postgraduate study

Written by

Michelle Pauli