English Subject Centre Departmental Projects

English Subject Centre

SCOPING THE NEEDS, CAREER ASPIRATIONS

WORK EXPERIENCE OF ENGLISH STUDENTS

Catrin Davies University of Hertfordshire

August 2007

The English Subject Centre Royal Holloway, University of London Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX 1 Tel 01784 443221 Fax 01784 470684 Email [email protected] www.english.heacademy.ac.uk Enhancing Careers Services to English Students

It is a widespread view that English graduates are not good at ‘selling’ themselves to employers. This is not to say that they lack the skills, attributes and enthusiasm that employers seek: research conducted by the English Subject Centre shows that English graduates are doing as well as, if not better than, most other graduates three to four years after graduation.

Employers value the skills in critical thinking, communication and analysis that English graduates usually possess, but our students tend to underestimate the relevance of these skills to the workplace. (The ‘student profiles’ project undertaken by the Subject Centre produced a template which helps students link the skills listed in the English Benchmark Statement to those typically sought by employers.) English students need assistance and encouragement in articulating, in a way that is interesting and relevant to employers, the skills and attributes they have developed whilst studying and engaging in extra-curricular activity.

For this reason, the English Subject Centre has sponsored small projects in Careers Services which tailor materials or events specifically to the needs of English students. About ten projects were undertaken, covering such activities as interview technique workshops, alumni presentations, web-based resources and careers open-days. Details of all the projects can be found on our website at: http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects/archive/careers/careers6. php . This document is a report on one of these projects.

The English Subject Centre Royal Holloway, University of London Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX T. 01784 443221 [email protected] www.english.heacademy.ac.uk

2 SCOPING THE NEEDS, CAREER ASPIRATIONS AND WORK EXPERIENCE OF ENGLISH STUDENTS 2006-2007

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The University of Hertfordshire project will: i) scope the needs, career aspirations and work experience of students of English across the university; ii) develop and run a workshop at which English Studies alumni would speak on their work, how they entered their profession, and how they now draw on skills and knowledge from their degree; iii) write up this input as case studies for wider dissemination (e.g. via Subject Centre newsletter or report), and to evaluate the impact of the event for the students; iv) target students of English Language and English Literature, all levels (pool of 350 students; single honours, major, joint).

Benefits to English students

Many University of Hertfordshire students of English, in common with others both from the discipline and outside, particularly in post-1992 universities, face specific challenges in accessing the graduate labour market:

1. perception of limited range of options open to graduates from non- vocational degrees; 2. difficulty in articulating their skills and experience and in pitching the benefits of hiring them to a potential employer; 3. poor self confidence; 4. prolonged transitions to graduate careers. The University of Hertfordshire’s latest DLHE statistics demonstrate that of the Hertfordshire Humanities graduates who are in employment 6 months post-graduation, 56.5% of them will be in non-graduate level posts. (No comparator statistics are available from other institutions.) However Hertfordshire Humanities graduates are more likely to be unemployed at the 6 months snapshot date than Humanities graduates in England overall (7.29% vs 6.2%), and also more likely to be unemployed than Hertfordshire graduates overall (7.29% vs 6.7%).

The project would:

3 . help students of English to explore a broader range of career options while still at university;

. help overcome the fear that these are not open to graduates of English by explicit messages from alumni;

. articulate pathways into the career, highlight development opportunities for immediate action and signpost support within the university;

. pilot career development work with alumni within the institution, possibly, in the medium-term, leading to a bank of mentors for English students;

. provide audiovisual resources and written case studies to inform future cohorts;

. serve as a catalyst for other bespoke careers activity over the year (e.g. piloting a workshop on Interview Skills for English students; establishment of internship programme.) Outline Plan of Activities

. Baseline audit to learn more about our students of English (level 2 & 3) - questionnaire on levels of self awareness, opportunity awareness, decision making and transition skills; career aspirations; and current work experience (role, sector, hours) – to be handed out/gathered in lectures, offering prize for those questionnaires drawn. (Oct 2006)

. Analysis of audit, mailshot to alumni (Nov 2006)

. Mailshot to students (to home address over Christmas to harness parental influence), and targeted follow-up weekly emails;

. Half-day workshop for students (levels 1-3) with English alumni speaking on their work, sector, day-to-day realities, how they entered their profession, tips to success and how they now draw on skills & knowledge from their degree. Where possible speakers will be chosen from as broad a range of career paths as possible, and in particular to present options beyond the usual suspects. We are aware that the Subject Centre has already done some work in this area and would plan to build on this (February 2007).

. The presentations will be filmed and written up as case studies to inform future students. Production of case studies by end April 2007.)

. Evaluation of workshop and its impact by student questionnaire at end of workshop to inform future activity; at end of 2007 we will carry out a comparison between the graduate destinations of this cohort and the previous.

Desired outcomes

. In-depth snapshot of vocational aspirations and preparedness of English students at University of Hertfordshire to inform future activities;

4 . Students inspired by alumni role models to take active steps to manage careers before graduation;

. Engaged pilot group of alumni enthused to work further to mentor English Studies students;

. Initial resources developed to address specific career management issues for English Studies students.

Other information

Project Team This will be a joint initiative between Catrin Davies, (University of Hertfordshire Careers Service), Dr Andrew Maunder (Subject Leader for English Literature), Dr Marjolein Groesfma (Subject Leader for English Language) and Elizabeth Paine (University of Hertfordshire Alumni & Development Manager).

PROJECT REPORT

BASELINE AUDIT A questionnaire was circulated to level 2 and 3 students of English Language and Literature in November 2006, seeking to gain baseline data on levels of self awareness, opportunity awareness, career aspirations and current work experience. Distributed in core modules, an impressive 148 questionnaires were completed and returned, 116 of which (78%) were completed by level 2 students.

Analysis of responses upheld the team’s initial assumptions outlined in the project proposal. A significant majority of students were not well established in their career exploration, and many were planning to enter careers in which they would draw on the skills developed in their degree, but without clear understanding of the additional skills and expertise they would need to cement their application in a highly competitive market.

Thus most popular career paths cited (multiple responses possible) were directly subject-related:

 Teaching (52% of respondees, 77 students)  Media/Journalism (24%, 36 students)  Publishing (13%, 19 students)  Speech therapy (6%, 10 students)  PR/advertising/marketing (6%, 9 students)  Writer (5 %, 8 students)

With minorities also interested in  Film/tv (4%, 6 students)  Directing/production (2%, 3 students)  TEFL (2%, 4 students)  Theatre/arts administration (1%, 2 students)

5 A small minority at the project outset were also considering broader alternatives in which their skills might be deployed:

 Police (4%, 7 students)  Accountancy/Finance (4%, 6 students)  Law (3%, 5 students)  Civil service (2%, 3 students)  Property (2%, 3 students)  Miscellaneous (catering, philosopher, sports coach, curator, HR, fire fighter, social work, translation) – 1 response each

Work experience The questionnaire asked which work experience the students had, for how many hours they worked a week in term time, and to what extent they were also involved in their local community/voluntary involvement. Responses were analysed by the Careers Consultant, and assessed in order of effectiveness against the individual’s articulated aspirations:

- work experience in the sector to which aspired; - quality work experience in another sector (including independent working, supervisory or management roles, voluntary work of a complex nature); - casual experience only (e.g. retail, without supervisory responsibilities); - no work experience at all including any voluntary work

A significant number of students reported quality work experience in another sector (36%, 54 students) including e.g. as Chairperson of an Anti-Bullying Group; as Student Trainer on the NSLP programme; Deputy Manager in betting shop; Youth Worker with people with disabilities; Instructing Cadet Warrant Officer helping train Air Training Corps; Coach of an Under-6s football club.

Similar proportions held or had held casual positions without significant responsibility or independence of action (e.g. sales assistant in Gap; bar staff; personal shopper at Tesco), the vast majority in retail (34% or 56 students).

However, alarmingly, only 8.7% (13 students) had any work experience in the sector which they hoped to enter. This is worrying in particular given the large numbers hoping to enter highly competitive sectors in which one works one’s passage through unpaid or low paid work for a lengthy period of time (e.g. publishing, media, journalism, PR, advertising, arts administration, theatre/film/tv). This is compounded by the fact that very few (in single figures) reported any office-based work experience, while the stepping stone approach for entry into these professions would be through temping as an assistant while developing the occupational and contextual maturity for a more senior role.

On the positive side, those individuals who did have work experience linked to their aspirations and in a relevant sector had obtained highly impressive and serial experience. This included: experience at a sports business international

6 magazine and at MKTV; as a sub editor and regular contributor on student newspapers, and as volunteer PR/media officer for the Prince’s Trust. This demonstrates that with motivation and understanding the impact this will have, UH students can gain and juggle high quality experience alongside their studies.

Equally significantly for future work in this field, are the 8.7% (13 students) who could report no work or voluntary experience at all, even while at school. Several of these students nonetheless assessed themselves as informed on the requirements for entry to their future career, and in a separate question, erroneously, in my opinion, as prepared for entry (‘have researched skills sought and have identified several examples of how I have demonstrated these.’) Many of this minority (10 of them, 6.7% of total respondees) appeared misinformed on the value of a degree alone without underpinning evidence of application of their skills in the wider world, having also ticked the box -‘Am too busy concentrating on my degree to think about developing my career.’

Interestingly, in general, those students with more and more senior work experience were more modest in their claims to either understand the reality of work in their chosen field, or to claim to have the skills & experience to enter it. Those students with little or no work experience assessed themselves as well informed and prepared to meet the demands of their chosen field.

This initial research informed both the design of our practitioner input (in seeking to broaden realistic aspirations beyond teaching and speech therapy), and also specification we gave to our speakers (to focus on the reality of the role, their personal career path, levels of competition at entry level and significant experience which made applicants competitive.)

DEVELOPMENT Broadening Career Horizons was an afternoon event specifically for students of English which included:

. Four speakers from different professions . A series of presentations with time for question and answer sessions . The opportunity to meet speakers on an informal basis after the talks

The aim was to give English students the opportunity to get an insider’s view on several different roles and working environments, and to allow them to consider how their own career ambitions and expertise matched the reality.

The speakers were:

. Director, Pickering and Chatto Publishers . Editor, Palgrave . HR Manager, Hertfordshire Constabulary . Award-winning Journalist, Newspapers and Radio.

PREPARATION FOR THE EVENT

7 Following planning meetings between the English Literature and English Language representatives and the Careers Service, a schedule of events was agreed and room and catering bookings were made.

During Semester A the principal task was arranging speakers for the event. This proved more difficult than expected. The recently established Alumni Office provided a database of 50 Humanities alumni who had declared themselves as interested to support student career development. However it became clear that while the project team had requested a grab of alumni who had specialised in English Language or English Literature, the alumni database did not permit this level of differentiation from graduates of the wider Humanities degree. A repeated mailshot to 50 of these Humanities alumni proved unsuccessful, in part because the contacted ex-graduates in Philosophy or History had little interest to speak to our students of English. We then contacted several more recent English graduates who we knew were working in interesting posts (e.g. theatre administration, customs & excise, race equality, recruitment). They were willing to attend but work commitments and relatively junior positions meant that they were unable to negotiate time off during the day. In the end, the team drew heavily on personal contacts in publishing and journalism, finding speakers who were enthusiastic about taking part and sufficiently senior within the organisation to negotiate this within the working day.

Efforts in January and February were mainly concerned with publicizing the event through the School, with both students and staff.

MARKETING OF THE EVENT The event was advertised to students of English in the School of Humanities, who follow a variety Single, Major and Joint English programmes. Advertisement took different forms:

. Announcements in lectures and seminars . Notices on individual module StudyNet sites (StudyNet is the university’s managed learning environment) . Careers Centre website . Plasma screen messages in the main foyer

Despite this, there was some concern that few students would turn up. Although students have previously requested careers events when these have been organised, few turn up. However on this occasion repeated marketing and academic staff endorsement successfully broke the trend!

EMPLOYER MESSAGES The speakers sent out the following messages to students:

1.Getting into Publishing Mark Pollard, Publishing Director, Pickering & Chatto www.pickeringchatto.co.uk

What we look for:

8  Clarity on the roles in publishing. Are you interested in production work, editorial, marketing or sales?  Understanding of which skills the different roles need. ‘Why are you interested in the role?’ ‘I like books’ is not enough. None of the roles are about reading books for content, but about presentation of books – much more specific. Publishing is not the next best thing to being an author or to being an academic – again academic research is very different. For work in production applicants need technical abilities, ability to work with rapid developments, and have lots of hands-on abilities to shape the finished book. For editorial work people need very sharp grammar, spelling, attention to detail; ability to work with others and to prioritise. In sales applicants need people skills and a strong commercial sense.

Next steps:  Get at least 3 weeks’ work experience in publishing. This demonstrates commitment to the sector, and gives you a chance to understand better what is expected and involved in the role. However you must understand what you did, need to ask questions and reflect on what learning.  Applications. Research the organisation, their products, and the role. Tailor your application to their needs. Analyse your strengths and focus your application. What do you offer against the competition? Don’t expect employers to have to extrapolate what you mean from some key words, spell out the benefits of hiring you for them.  Expertise in different software applications is useful. Hobbies – consider what they have to offer this employer. If you enjoy bookbinding, or produced a society newsletter tell them about it.  Consider how your application is branding you and your work. If you are applying for a production role don’t use 6 different fonts and different spacing between all but one paragraph.  Interviews. Be punctual or only slightly early. 30 minutes early is as bad as 5 minutes late. Draw on your research on the company to inform your answers and pick good questions. Consider: how does the company make money? Have you seen one of their publications? If you don’t know this, why are you interested in the job? Editorial work: read and think about the company style guide (usually on their website). Be prepared to talk, and to listen. Be responsive – picking up on an answer you gave less well earlier on, and adding a bit later on is useful.  Understand the career. Publishing is less well paid than the police force. Work experience makes a bigger difference to entry chances than an MA. Pickering & Chatto gets hundreds of applications for each editorial post, with fewer for production openings.

9 2. Getting Into Publishing (2) Kate Wallis, Commissioning Editor, Palgrave Macmillan  Even at junior level, prospective editorial assistants need balance of following skills: - good editing; - excellent communication skills (liaise, negotiate, write well and creatively); - proactive; - business oriented; - balance of strategic role and attention to detail; - very strong multitasking, managing multiple projects at once. Editors will be hiring assistants to relieve them of pressure so organisational skills are key. Editors will also be seeking candidates who are insightful, with capacity to reflect, analyse and make positive suggestions to improve copy.

Skills worth developing: - e books/downloadable books are a major issue with which the sector is grappling. Any expertise gained in this field will repay itself. -expertise in blogging, building websites; -commercial awareness: could be developed by work in a library/bookshop as well as in publishing.  Getting to interview Quality of covering letter is key, must be tailored for role and focus on relevant skills. Key to have done research on company, - have been into bookshops, know the publisher’s list, have seen them, compared to lists of others, and have thought knowledgably about them. Vital to have already gained day to day understanding of context, - your questions at interview will demonstrate this too. Work experience in the sector, and a portfolio of your work will be important.  At interview: tasks might include: - an in-tray exercise to assess ability to prioritise & act effectively; - drafting: write the back cover copy for a book; - analysis: compare two textbooks, one from this publisher and from a competitor and identify the different markets for which intended.  Publishing is not: - glamorous, with long lunches. Editorial assistants spend much of their time filing and photocopying, with the opportunity to choose text design or draft the back cover copy a highlight after long service! - nor is it well paid.

3.Getting into Journalism Sharon Maxwell Magnus, Journalist

 Jobs in journalism & media generally are very competitive and so salaries are collapsing (from £12K at regional level, £17K on magazines, higher starting salaries in tv due to independent production companies).

10 Allow yourself at least 6 months unpaid experience before a paid job, and 2 years low paid experience first. However at senior level you could hope to be paid around £40-50K in editing or section editing work, with tabloids paying up to £250K. PR roles are better paid, and more openings, but again, different role. Most jobs are at local or regional level, or in business to business press/websites (eg Farmers Weekly, Management Today).  Different roles demand different skills sets. Feature Writing in journalism demands ease and accuracy with facts and figures, ability to talk to people and put them at ease, write well. Subediting requires skills in layout, grammar, spelling – as described in publishing.

 To succeed in journalism you need to be good at least of these: - writing in a journalistic manner – good spelling/grammar and consistency; - feeling comfortable with wide range of people and interviewing well (less important for editorial roles); - research – finding the right people and information which adds value to the bare facts; - brilliance with contacts.

 Getting started.First: show you can do it. Write now for student papers, local papers e.g. the Universe, St Albans Satellite or Welwyn Hatfield Times. Don’t stick with writing, move up the ladder, aim to become section editor, or editor (you choose what goes into a column each week). Consider any role, it could be putting together newsletter for residents association or developing a website – you need to demonstrate you can do it, as they won’t want to train you. You won’t get work experience without a portfolio, this all gives you a chance to develop one.  Identify your strengths/specialities – the gaps in the market you could fill. E.g. There are a shortage of science graduates in journalism. Do you speak Pashtun or other less widely spoken languages, which could get you into the BBC World Service? Are you the surfing enthusiast being sought by Surf Magazine?  Be strategic. There is a temptation to apply first to big publications, which receive thousands of applications. In practise it is wiser to start with smaller publications, build up a good portfolio and then move up. Use the Writers & Artists Yearbook for contact details (available in Careers Centre).  Stand out by being different. Start your own blog with journalistic stories – there is a shortage of journalists with web expertise. Enter competitions. Sharon won a student journalism competition for which the prize was paid work experience with Cosmopolitan, which then got her career started. Don’t deselect yourself before you even start by not even putting in an entry!  Read, analyse and think about the trade press: Media Guardian, Hold The Front Page (www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk), National Union of

11 Journalists website (www.nuj.org.uk), and the papers and magazines in which your favourite interviewers & columnists write.  I’m already near graduation without work experience. What should I do now? Take an NCTJ course if wanting to get onto local papers and again, be strategic. The course in the Lake District has fewer applicants and so will sometimes take applicants without work experience which those in the bigger cities don’t need to. If opting for magazines take a PTC course (9 weeks). Could consider the postgraduate courses in journalism eg with City University, but these are very competitive. Sign up for short courses with local colleges in web expertise (eg Dreamweaver).

4. Getting Into the Police Force Jenny Routh, Recruitment Manager, Hertfordshire Constabulary (www.herts-recruitment.police.uk)

Context: Herts Constabulary has 1400 civilian staff, 2000 police officers in a total of 500 different roles. It recruits 150 new staff per annum, in 6 week cycles.

Recruitment process:  Application form with competency based questions  Assessment centre  Fitness test  Doctor’s assessment  14 weeks on-the-job training

There is no age limit nor height limit for police officers. The job pays well, and every day is different. Roles can vary widely from in credit card fraud, murder and major crimes to community involvement.

Also opportunities as a Special Constable – all the powers/training of a police officer but on voluntary basis. Must make a commitment to be on duty for 16 hours/month, hours determined by individual.

EVALUATION 45 students attended the event, and 11 completed and returned evaluation forms. The low return rate for feedback was due to the fact that many students spent the time networking with employers rather than filling out the forms. The students found the speakers informative, particularly in the focus on the practical elements of getting work in publishing or journalism. The speakers did a very effective job of de-glamourising their work, stressing instead the hard work and sticking power needed to get that first break. Both representatives from Pickering and Chatto and Palgrave emphasized the competitiveness of publishing as a career, but made it clear, too, that if students marketed themselves effectively then it was certainly possible to get a foot in the door. Overall the feedback was positive with the majority of presentations being rated as “useful” and allowing the students to feel better informed as a result.

12 Comments, where students felt improvements could be made, included:

“hold one-to-one meetings” ‘”hold similar events which are fairly small and you can gain a good understanding of what different careers entail” “hold events earlier in the year” “greater variety of speakers” “more hard copy information”

In response to some of these comments:

It would good to get speakers from a wider range of occupations. Time constraints prevented this and, as previously indicated, the event was partly dictated by availability of speakers. People in senior positions find it difficult to give up time for this kind of random event in an institution at which they have no connection, unless recruitment is part of their job description. Publishers have no need to go on recruitment drives!

It is difficult to provide opportunities for one-to-one sessions with busy professionals. All the speakers made themselves available for individual discussions at the end, and some students took this opportunity

Supplementary material was provided by the speakers, including contact details. Copies of the speakers’ notes were published on the Humanities Careers website

Timing is worth noting for future events.

The event was not filmed as originally planned. This was because at UH the media staff can only film in the film studio and in certain other, then fully booked, smaller rooms. We opted to go for a larger audience in the appropriate room rather than a smaller audience in the film studio. The event was, however, digitally recorded, and will be podcasted next term. We aim for the talks to be downloadable from the jobs and careers pages on StudyNet (the University’s managed learning environment). The employer messages have also been written up for wider dissemination, and will be included in career management pack for English students (see above).

SUMMARY Securing speakers is a more difficult task than we first assumed. Ultimately it was more productive to find speakers through staff personal contacts than via the University’s Alumni Office.

Timing of the event is crucial – particularly in terms of the day of the week. There are no classes scheduled for Wednesday afternoons but this also meant that some students were not on campus at all that day.

13 While University of Hertfordshire has readily accessible video and digital recording facilities and staff to support their use, using these to record presentations with a large live audience proved problematic. The students were unquestionably highly motivated by the immediacy of the event, yet the size of the audience and room impacts on the quality of the recording for the podcast. For future events we will need to consider whether employers could be asked to deliver the same talk twice, once for the podcast to ensure recording quality!

Students are very interested in the idea of placements and work experience – an avenue which is not traditionally associated with Humanities subjects. At UH we are starting to think about how we can build up a network of contacts to be able to offer some students this opportunity on a regular basis.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE WORK Only a minority of level 2 English students have realistically assessed the competitiveness of their chosen career (applications for PGCE entry to teaching 9:1; applications for publishing editorial posts, hundreds of applications per vacancy), and identified the expertise which would prepare them for entry. Clearer messages on the labour market competition for popular options will need to be drip fed to students from induction on, supported by clear suggestions of actions they can take now to enhance their competitiveness.

In parallel the results and implications of this project are being considered at strategic level within the School of Humanities at both the Faculty Learning Teaching Employability and Assessment Panel, and the Deans Advisory Group. It seems probable that the findings may hold true for students of other specialisations within the School, and that similar audits of experience and aspirations could prove informative.

Spin-off actions under immediate consideration for next academic year include:

 Development of ‘Killer Facts’ statistics on popular options for English students and circulation to interested academic staff, to support appropriate drip feeding of messages;  Piloting ‘Making the Most of Your Vacation for Humanities students’ workshop during Autumn term, to support students keen to enter popular sectors (e.g. media, publishing, film, arts administration, academia) to become more strategic in their efforts, practise speculative jobsearch and investigate other options to develop occupational awareness.)