Dr Fiona Christie, director of research and knowledge on the AGCAS board, discusses the importance of practitioner-led research - and how it ultimately helps graduates achieve their ambitions
It is essential for careers professionals to have access to the latest labour market data and research so that they can guide students and graduates into meaningful employment.
To that end, one of Dr Fiona Christie's main objectives in her new role as AGCAS director of research and knowledge is to makes careers-related research more accessible.
A first step is to make the research that already exists more visible. 'There's an impressive body of knowledge produced by practitioners that is under-tapped. We want to create a repository on the AGCAS website to capture it', Fiona says.
A personal objective of Fiona's is to encourage practitioners who have conducted their own research to publish, making it easier to find and share. 'I'm very keen on getting people to publish if they've done research. If someone's published something, it has a sort of permanence people can return to'.
We're working with students and graduates who, whatever university they're at, should be able to hope to have meaningful careers
Fiona is particularly well-placed to do this given that she co-edited the book Graduate careers in context, which was published last year. Her aim is to be a champion of practitioner-led research. 'One of the objectives of the AGCAS Research and Knowledge Committee is to provide opportunities for AGCAS members to develop their expertise in research and knowledge capacities and to celebrate practitioners doing research,' she says.
One challenge of this approach is that some careers practitioners are better equipped to pursue independent research than others.
'AGCAS members will be at different points in terms of pre-existing knowledge and experience of doing research. There are those who are self-sufficient, research-capable, up and running, doing an awful lot of research. But the key is making sure we are inclusive. As a membership body we need to make sure we're not just relevant to those who have already undertaken a lot of research.'
To tackle this, Fiona wants the Research and Knowledge Committee to spearhead a peer mentoring scheme and to continue to develop 'how to do research' seminars at relevant AGCAS events and conferences, such as the annual AGCAS Research Conference.
There are a number of advantages to graduate labour market research being conducted by and for careers practitioners. Their hands-on interaction with students who are in transition from education to employment mean they are acutely aware of the challenges this group face - and, therefore, the key issues that would benefit from further research.
These interactions also have an impact on how practitioners approach, shape and conduct their research.
Researching to enact change
Evidently, careers professionals have other responsibilities in addition to their research pursuits - they see real students in need of help. While they might like to spend their time challenging what they see as damaging or unhelpful HE policies, they often have to give priority to the more immediate concerns of the students and graduates they work with.
'I think there are different people, different voices in this space. Certainly, academics can be a bit more 'big picture'; they can say 'these are the trends' and make observations', Fiona says. 'Practitioners can do some of that, but a lot of their work is practically-oriented as well.
'Academics make very strong observations about inequality in society. In reality though, as careers professionals, even though we may know things are unequal in the landscape, we've still got to get on with the job. We are in an important position to influence how things can be improved for the individuals we work with, and also in how universities manage employability for the benefit of all.'
She notes that when choosing what to research, careers professionals tend to opt not only for topics that are relevant to the students they are tasked with guiding, but also those research areas that offer the opportunity to enact solutions and change.
'I've looked at some of the [research] that practitioners have done and it's interesting that they'll focus on quite detailed things, such as how a certain module has worked in the curriculum. I think practitioners are led to look at the practical issues that they can do something about,' she says.
Fiona's new academic job as a researcher in the Decent Work and Productivity Research Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University puts her in a unique position to foster greater interactions between academic and practitioner research, which can be mutually beneficial.
Measures of success
As a result of their interactions with students and graduates, careers professionals are aware that post-graduation aspirations vary significantly between students. For instance, many students are not motivated by salary.
'People's measures of success are different,' Fiona explains. 'Obviously the government's measures of success are very much about people in professional/associate professional and managerial jobs at a certain point. All that stuff is useful and valuable to us. But people's success criteria do vary and I think that careers professionals are well-placed to understand that.'
This means careers work must be personalised to the individual, shaped by their perception of success after they leave university. A 'one-size fits all' approach doesn't work. Careers practitioners help graduates embark on a range of careers in a range of industries, depending on their personal aspirations.
As Fiona says, 'We are in a developed nation, one of the richest nations in the world - we're working with students and graduates who, whatever university they're at, should be able to hope to have meaningful careers, whatever that means to them.'
The employability ecosystem
Practitioner-led research, then, goes beyond the current obsession with employability metrics and graduate salary data, exploring topics that are of central importance to students and graduates themselves.
A focus on learning from practitioner-led research is part of a knowledge ecosystem with other voices from the academic community and government policymakers - both of which Fiona describe as 'very valuable and interesting'.
'[Careers services] are not working in isolation. They are part of a bigger employability ecosystem where there will be engagement from the academic community and employer input. We can and should all continue to work together.'
The fourth AGCAS Research Conference - Creating new knowledge through research: implications for policy and practice - will take place on 2 July in Newcastle.
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