English Subject Centre

WHAT DO ENGLISH GRADUATES DO

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LIFE AFTER GRADUATION

Hilary R. Whorrall

University of Sheffield

April 2007

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: . 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

H.E. Academy English Subject Centre

‘Enhancing Careers Service Support to English Students’

University of Sheffield Project – What do English Graduates Do?’

The overall aim of this project was to run a half-day event for students within the School of English focusing upon ‘The Employability of English Graduates’. This was run in close collaboration with academic staff from the School of English and incorporated a number of elements:

Completion of the ‘Career Fitness Checklist’ from the Windmill Programme.

An overview of the first destinations of recent English graduates from the University of Sheffield

An interactive exercise to raise students’ awareness of the skills developed through studying for a degree in English

A panel of recent graduates from the School, who each gave a brief presentation about their respective career pathway. This was followed by question and answer sessions with small group of students.

An introduction for participants to a specially developed on-line ‘Career Planning Pack for English Students’ accessible via Web CT.

Please see the full programme for this event in the Appendix.

Planning and Organisation

The Careers Service chose to engage in this project because of the interest and support received from the Careers Liaison Officer (CLO) for the School of English. The CLO Cathy Shrank agreed to take on the responsibility for targeting past graduates of the department with assistance from the Alumni Association, booking rooms for and publicising the event. She also converted the materials for the ‘On-line Career Planning Pack’ into web CT and organised an on-line booking system.

My role as the link Careers Adviser for the School of English involved liasing with the department through a number of planning meetings, putting the original bid together and structuring the programme for the event. In addition I produced the documentation for the speakers, drafted a template for case studies from our presenters and produced a flyer for publicity purposes. I also assisted with additional speakers for the event, production of PPT presentation for the afternoon and enlisted the support of Peter Lord, the Work Based Learning Development Officer for the Careers Service.

The majority of my time was spent collecting and developing appropriate resources to include in the ‘On-line Career Planning Pack for English Students’. This was initially through an email to H.E. Careers Service staff through the agcas-servicelink discussion list, which resulted in a great deal of useful suggestions. For full details of the materials included in the pack, please refer to the Appendix.

Student Participation

We had agreed to restrict the number of students at this event to a maximum of 60, to ensure that it as interactive as possible. The workshop was fully booked within a few days of being publicised and although a few students dropped out prior to the event, we were pleased with the attendance of 47 students. As predicted the majority of these were 2nd year students, but each of the year groups were represented (1st – 8; 2nd – 32; 3rd – 6; 4th – 1). In order to maximise the impact of this event however, all students in the School of English were emailed to encourage them to utilise the on-line career planning pack.

Student Feedback

Overall the feedback from the event was very positive, with the majority of the students finding the Alumni presentations the most useful element. There were a few suggestions as to how the event could have been improved:

A wider range of speakers drawn from some of the more unusual areas of work, which English graduates go into as well as some of the more competitive ones e.g. Marketing, Advertising. Publishing, Film.
There was a preference for a longer question and answer session with the panel of speakers, rather than small group discussions.
A suggestion that the elements of the event were delivered over a few days, rather than in a full afternoon session.

Appendix

Programme for the afternoon
Flyer
On-line Career Planning Pack – Index
Case Study Templates
List of speakers

Hilary Whorrall

University of Sheffield Careers Service

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