The executive director at AGCAS discusses the organisation's new strategy, brand relaunch, and the opportunities that the new Graduate Outcomes survey will bring to its members
What is your take on AGCAS's current voice and role in the sector?
Our role has definitely become much more important as the representative body for the HE careers sector. There's so much happening in higher education policy that members have views on, and it is really important that AGCAS ensures that we contribute these views to the debate. Often we hear about the need for the students and graduates voice in policy discussions, AGCAS members work closely with students and graduates and so hear their views.
As an organisation AGCAS has never been stronger. We're working really hard together, members are more engaged than they were and I would say at the moment it's a great place to be. We're growing our voice and this needs to continue as things get busier in the next couple of years.
You had a new website and brand relaunch recently. Has this had a positive effect?
Yes, it's part of a bigger picture for us. We launched our new strategy in December 2016 where we built on five core pillars of activity. They are represented in our branding and on the website in our new pentagon-shaped brand logo.
That's really important because it demonstrates those five pillars of activity, which are what AGCAS do: advocacy, our community, professional development, which we call our learning strand, our quality strand which is about developing our professional standards, and the research and knowledge strand. All of these areas have grown in the last two years and our website and brand have been part of that bigger picture.
Your personal background is in running membership organisations. How do you feel this knowledge and experience have shaped AGCAS?
For me, it has been really useful in how we organise AGCAS’ governance. Over the last two years we've done quite a lot of work around our infrastructure. We revisited our articles of association and our charitable objects, which was very important as it is the document which defines what we do. Reviewing and updating our governance structure has enabled us to be in the position we are, in order to move forward. I brought with me into this organisation my knowledge of how other membership organisations are run which has been useful as AGCAS has developed its structure which has been really important getting ourselves into the right position to deliver on our strategy.
everybody wants everybody else to succeed, which is a fantastic culture and I believe, quite unique and critical to AGCAS’s mission
What are the biggest challenges facing careers services right now?
Something that's both a challenge, an opportunity and really exciting is the new Graduate Outcomes Survey. This is so important to the sector, politicians and the media at the moment. It's really put a spotlight onto careers services and I think for AGCAS members it's quite exciting, because it gives them an opportunity to really demonstrate the things that we do, but also to work with colleagues in their institutions to make a difference for students and graduates in the UK. Although it's a challenge, it’s a great opportunity and one that we are very excited to grasp.
How do you think the new Graduate Outcomes survey will benefit careers services?
We have been very fortunate to work closely with HESA on the new Graduate Outcomes survey. We have a member of the AGCAS board whose responsibility is Graduate Outcomes and they've worked very closely on behalf of the association and the members with HESA, so I think we've had a huge opportunity to be part of that and to influence the direction and strategy. Members have worked really closely to ensure that we have got their voice and their views across. It will be interesting to see how the first year of this survey comes out, how it all goes forward and how it's used, but I think we will continue to work really closely with HESA on that kind of activity. A key part of the future is getting the right data out there.
Are careers services prepared for Graduate Outcomes?
I think they are as ready as they can be. There are still some unknowns and obviously AGCAS members are very keen to know what's going to happen next, how the survey will run and how it will operate. For example, we have a number of member services with staff who have focused on the DLHE survey, but at the moment it is difficult to assert the level of involvement in the new process. There are a huge number of unknowns and questions and we are working closely to get answers to them as soon as we can.
There are concerns about the effect of Brexit on the graduate labour market. How is AGCAS working with members, institutions and employers to ensure the best outcomes for graduates?
One of our strongest growth areas within our membership and our task groups has been our employer engagement task group. AGCAS members are working really closely with employers as they always have and will continue to do so. We are working closely with Prospects/HECSU around labour market intelligence and all of that becomes more and more important as we go into less predictable times. We also continue to work closely with the ISE and have recently jointly hosted a summit for careers services and employers to look at the challenges of social mobility. I think we will continue to collaborate with these groups as we always have.
The effect on those students who wish to work internationally will be interesting and not something I can predict. Again, we have a very strong group within our internationalisation task group who work really closely to ensure they're sharing best practice with members
As you can see, there isn't a straightforward answer to this question.
Where is AGCAS now with the regional agenda?
The regional agenda is very much a strategic theme for us and a really important part of our work for next year. Two of our strategic themes, in many ways, will start to run in parallel. The first is social mobility and the second is regionalisation. We are seeing, as many people are, similar issues in these themes, student mobility and social mobility are often linked with ‘place’ becoming a much bigger part of the debate. The Industrial Strategy has regional skills strategies. I think this will be really interesting and an area where AGCAS and our members can contribute. I was very fortunate to inherit strong regional networks in England and in the devolved nations with AGCAS Scotland and AGCAS Wales. AGCAS Scotland has been very influential around the careers agenda in Scotland. They are able to present a sector view on issues to Holyrood which has been incredibly valuable. AGCAS Wales are a relatively new group but we are looking to do a very similar thing in Wales because obviously the issues that affect HE in the devolved regions are slightly different, so we will be doing more to support members in these areas.
The regional agenda is an important part of the future. I think with the Industrial Strategy, regional skills agendas, city devolutions such as you’ve got here in Manchester, it's really important that AGCAS help members prepare for that and support them with it. This year we will be focusing on this strategic theme including our regional training groups, supporting advocacy and developing our research and knowledge on regional issues.
At AGCAS our strength is our members - their knowledge and expertise, so the more we can find ways to get them engaging in national debates the better
What have you learnt from going around the country and meeting careers services? Has anything particular stood out to you?
What I find really interesting is that each institution is different. There are similarities in the work that is done by the careers services, but you have to be conscious of context regionally, the cohort that they serve and the industries that they work with. I'm always amazed about the sheer breadth of what everybody is doing.
I don't come from a careers background myself and I always enjoy finding out what is important in individual career services, the projects members are working on and how much knowledge they have about supporting their students and the employers they work with.
I'm often asked 'what is best practice to fix this problem?' and my answer is always 'it depends on the context'. I've been asked a number of times over the last six months for best practice for supporting widening participation students. Whenever I put that out to members I'm inundated with case studies of programmes, all of which vary greatly. Almost 75% of our members have a specific widening participation programme of some kind. What’s impressive is the breadth of what's happening in the sector and the innovation that you see, and also the willingness to share that expertise with the wider community. Everybody that I've met within the careers service sector has been incredibly generous with what they want to share with other people – everybody wants everybody else to succeed, which is a fantastic culture and I believe, quite unique and critical to AGCAS’s mission. It’s a delight to work with AGCAS members.
Does AGCAS work with chambers of commerce and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS)?
Not at the moment, but it's something that I'd like to do more of. That's something that the AGCAS membership and the board have tasked me with – collaborate with more people and more organisations. They're part of that wider community of people that we need to work more closely with. In 2018/19 I hope to focus more on collaboration with external organisations because, as the regional agenda becomes more important, these communities will be key for understanding regional skills requirements. However, I can say with some certainty that whilst our direct links may not be there at the moment, across the regions, our members are heavily involved in their local skills agenda’s, connecting with their regional LEP and chambers.
Could you talk about the effect of GDPR on membership organisations and careers services?
It's really interesting. As a membership organisation I think we were as ready as we could be. Services spent a lot of time preparing and the AGCAS community have been talking about GDPR for a number of months. They will prepare for GDPR in the context of their institutional policies, so they are part of a bigger picture of information. At first it feels very restrictive, but I don’t think it will stop the work happening. I think we will all learn and get used to these rules as we did with data protection.
What have been the most notable developments in your two years at AGCAS?
Increased member engagement has been significant. Members have got more active over the last two years. We've had new task groups set up, a number of new working parties that have enabled us to focus on key strategic themes. Our social mobility working party is enabling us to focus across a national agenda that everybody is interested in. At AGCAS our strength is our members - their knowledge and expertise, so the more we can find ways to get them engaging in national debates the better.
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