Parents fill in ‘guidance gap’ over career advice for school-leavers

• 53% of parents felt they were the biggest influence on their children’s post A-Level education and career choices – more than their child’s friends and careers advisers

• 79% of parents felt that their child did not have a clear idea of what they wanted to do after finishing education

• Over three quarters of parents felt that extra-curricular activities were just as important as academic activity

LONDON, 11 August 2015: With A-Level results released this week, over half of parents say they will have the biggest influence over their child’s next steps, but most aren’t fully aware of the non-university options available, reveals new research from graduate recruitment company, GTI Media, and professional services firm, EY.

The YouGov survey of 1,018 parents looked at their role in giving careers guidance; their attitude towards schools; and whether young people are adequately prepared for the workplace.

When asked to rank who had the biggest influence over their children’s education and career decisions, the majority of parents - 53% - felt they had the biggest influence. This was followed by teachers on 23% and their children’s friends on 23%. Careers advisers were ranked in fourth place with 21%. However more than half of parents (64%) recognised that they needed better information and called for more resources to help them to support their children at this important juncture.

In addition to this, only 1% of parents said they knew ‘a lot’ about school leaver programmes; only 6% knew of ‘vocational further education courses’; and only 9% were fully aware of 'apprenticeships or higher apprenticeship programmes’.

Maggie Stilwell, Managing Partner for Talent at EY, comments: “The survey results suggest that there is a ‘guidance gap’ between what parents expect their role to be and the knowledge they have at their disposal."

“While parents are aware of their influential position over such an important decision, they are looking to be better armed with resources to help ensure they are able to give the best advice possible. In the absence of information and awareness about alternative career routes, such as an apprenticeships or school-leaver schemes, university can often become the default option.”

University continues to be promoted as favoured career route

The survey also looked at the perception of careers advice that young people received. Of those surveyed, 25% of parents were not aware of any career advice given to their child at school, and over half (51%) stated their child had received ‘some but not enough’. In addition to this, over three quarters (79%) of parents felt that their child didn’t have a clear idea of what to do after leaving school or college.

According to the survey, university continues to be the most promoted career route by schools with 37% of parents stating that their child’s school ‘promotes the university route as the best route to take’.

Matt Dacey, Director of Products and Services at GTI Media, added: “The research highlights the extent to which parents and schools still see university as a default route for young people. Employers are having difficulty in promoting alternatives to university, particularly at a time when professions from accountancy and financial services through to engineering are looking to increase their school leaver intake through the creation of exciting new alternatives. The need to engage and support parents with information about these would seem more important than ever.”

Maggie comments: “Regardless of whether students ultimately opt for university, a school leaver scheme, apprenticeship or another route entirely, it’s important that they are able to make well informed choices about their career path. This requires parents, schools and employers to work together to fill the current perceived guidance gap."

Parents concerned by employability skills

Like many employers, parents recognise the importance of work experience and other extra-curricular activities as a means of young people developing skills that will later benefit them in the workplace. Over three quarter of parents (76%) stated that ‘what their child does outside school is as important to their development as formal education’.

Despite this, only 39% of parents’ surveyed said their children had a paid part-time job or worked as a volunteer.

Maggie comments: “As the competition for talent increases, it is ever more important for school-leavers to have developed key life skills such as communication and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. These are some of the strengths that we look for as part of our recruitment processes."

"This doesn't have to mean a month-long internship though, or a gap year in Tibet. These are skills that can be honed at a Saturday job in a supermarket or even on the school football or netball team."

Download the full report from the GTI Media website. 

Read more here. 

The Employabiltiy Award

Loughborough student, Ali Materna is back with another blog, this time discussing her involvement in the Employability Award and how she sees it will benefit her in her future job hunt. 

As most finalist students would probably agree, this year requires us to consider the inevitability of our future. After two or three years of focusing on university and all it has to offer, suddenly we are faced with the frightening concept of the real world, without the comfortable cocoon uni provides for us. This provoked me to do something, anything, in order to ensure I was employable.

Participating in the employability award at Loughborough University allows me to hone my employability skills and, hopefully, receive an award to show this, signalling to future employers that I am an applicant worth pursuing.

The award is no easy feat. Initially, I applied for it with the idea in mind that it would be quick and simple; I would fill in a few forms and it would be completed, however, now I am at the stage of nearly completing it, I realise my naïve and lazy approach was wrong. But I am extremely glad I was wrong. At first I was encouraged to put time aside to complete the award and not just sit down and do it in a day. This did take time and concentration, but it has made me incredibly aware of my strengths, weaknesses and the covetable skills that employers will find positives in. Without realising it, by doing this I have already established some answers to potential interview questions. This will save me future time and planning, but will also make me consider the jobs that I may be more suited for when bearing in mind these qualities.

It also made me aware that actually, there are many things I had already done that make me employable. For instance, the fact that I am a TARGETjobs blogger in the first place! I used this to contribute to my ‘activities’ for the award, as each activity gains you points to help you achieve the award. Whilst I am still awaiting the number of points I will gain for being a blogger, it fits perfectly into the ‘employable’ categories they are looking for to give points away as being a blogger means I can communicate my ideas lucidly (hopefully!) and work to deadlines. This contributes to time management skills. After all, you must have evidence when you say you’re ‘organised’ or ‘good at writing’ as whilst writing this sounds impressive, though generic, it is your unique experience that suggests your employability.

Whilst I have only delved into one of the activities I have submitted as part of the award, there are numerous things that can be used. Good examples could be previous work experience you have done, a committee position at university, the fact you are a member of a sports team or theatre group or an example where you have participated in charity or volunteering work. I am sure most university students will have done one of those extra-curricular activities.

Finally, if your university has an equivalent of the ‘Employability award’ I would strongly recommend participating in it. Not only has it opened up my mind to my own strengths and weaknesses, but also it has assisted me in establishing what career path I wanted to pursue even though I had no clue where I wanted to end up. If your university doesn’t have one, maybe mention it to the careers department, or use this blog to help you recognise that, in fact, you are more employable than you think!

Thanks Ali, and good luck for your future, we have no doubt you will be very successful. 

If you too want to write for TARGETjobs please do get in touch with me: jackie.balchin2@targetjobs.co.uk