Rethinking support for graduates who aren't in their preferred role

Catherine Hamblin, Career Studio lead at the University of Gloucestershire, considers how best to support graduates who haven't moved directly from study into their chosen career - often as a result of financial pressures

When it comes to planning meaningful graduate support for 2024 and beyond, there are things to celebrate. Firstly, according to Prospects Luminate's Early Careers Survey 2024, student engagement with careers support appears to finally be improving, which gives careers professionals hope that graduates will be feeling more prepared and certain about their next steps as a result.1 Secondly, the number of surveyed graduates wanting to quickly leave their first graduate job dropped from 40% in 2022 to just 20% in 2024.2 Graduates are, we hope, feeling more stable about their early careers.

However, there are still plenty of challenges facing new graduates, as we found while creating fit-for-purpose graduate support at the University of Gloucestershire (UoG). Our experience backs up survey findings that due to the cost of living crisis, an increasing number of graduates are forced to consider careers outside their area of study or to leave their early careers in pursuit of higher-paid roles.3 We have found that industry placements are also impacted, with many students prioritising paid parttime work over industry-relevant placements.

For these students, providing support in exploring a wide range of sectors and understanding how to broadly apply and articulate their skills will be key. At UoG, we are focusing on supplementing our evergreen CV and application support with lifetime access to individual career coaching in our peer-to-peer Career Studio. For graduates, being able to identify their needs and barriers is a useful starting point for building career confidence, particularly when considering a career based on financial reasons rather than fulfilment.

The importance of long-term support

Many higher education institutions may therefore be thinking about graduate support that focuses on improving resilience and building growth mindsets; fostering a positive approach helps graduates place value on the time they spent studying, even if their early career is unrelated. This is particularly important for encouraging loyalty, which may help increase Graduate Outcomes survey responses.

Another key issue to address is the increased number of international students attending UK universities in the past few years. Many HEIs are currently supporting large numbers of international graduates seeking professional experience in the UK. According to a report by Nuffield College's Centre for Social Investigation, ethnic minority British citizens need to send around 60% more applications than their white counterparts to achieve a positive response.4 It is fair to assume that international students with no UK experience find it even harder to get into their preferred role. Discussions with professionals across careers services suggest that helping international graduates remain motivated is just as important as providing practical advice.

In the face of these challenges, targeted graduate support can be hugely valuable. Many institutions are tackling this head on by supplementing existing graduate resources with practical interventions such as graduate internships or professional mentoring programmes. These could be particularly useful given that students cite industry professionals as the most helpful source of careers advice, leading to higher levels of career certainty.5 They also help to address the lack of industry placement activity for some students.

At UoG, we are yet to see the full impact of our lifetime career promise or our graduate internship offer, but providing longer-term support may end up being particularly useful for the increasing number of graduates forced to prioritise financial security over fulfilment. In time, the urge to return to their area of study and a drive for job satisfaction may see a wave of career changers in need of help.

This article was first published in the 2024/25 edition of What do graduates do?

Notes

1. Early Careers Survey 2024, Prospects Luminate.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Why your name matters in the search for a job, BBC, 2019.
5. Early Careers Survey 2024, Prospects Luminate.

Written by

Catherine Hamblin

Career Studio lead

University of Gloucestershire