The impact of COVID-19 on student career planning

How and why have the attitudes of undergraduate students towards their career readiness and planning changed since the pandemic? Researchers from Lancaster University find out in this report funded by the Jisc careers research grant

Key findings

• While career thinking among first year students has not changed significantly over the years, a change in career thinking responses can be seen when comparing pre- and post-pandemic responses of year 2, 3 and 4 students, particularly since academic year 2020/21.
• The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have had a negative impact on students' work experience. There has been a 3% decline in the total number of third year students who have taken a placement while at Lancaster University in academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22, when compared with academic years 2017/18 to 2019/20.
• Lack of work experience opportunities during the pandemic were also expressed as concerning by third and fourth-year students across all focus groups, who felt this could potentially hinder their future career progression.
• A notable finding to emerge from the focus groups was the high value placed by students on achieving a balance between their work and personal lives, as well as enjoying work, over other factors such as salary or the location of their potential employer. This suggests that since the pandemic, these goals have become more important to students in their career planning, overtaking other considerations such as finance and promotion opportunities.
• The influence of peers in career decision making was another very strong theme to emerge from the focus groups. Students were inspired but also deterred when hearing about the experiences of others.

About the report

The aim of the research was to understand more about the changing attitude of students towards career planning, in terms of the perception of an increasing reluctance to engage with extracurricular careers provision, how, or if, this is impacting on their career thinking, and their changing priorities in terms of what is important in a future career.

The report addresses the following questions through a mixed methods approach. How has student engagement with careers changed over the past six academic years? How, why and if attitudes of UG students have changed since the pandemic towards their career readiness and their career planning? What are students currently looking for in the employability support that they receive from universities? What do they want support to look like? What do they believe is the most important aspect of support?

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