How are students engaging with their careers services?

Are your students engaging with your careers service? We’ve used responses from the 2019 Trendence UK Graduate Survey to show what students really think of their careers services and how they are engaging with the resources provided to them.

Here are some of our key findings:

Careers services’ websites ARE a useful tool
The students who had engaged with their careers services’ website found it to be a useful tool, with 69% stating that they had used the website to research and find information on their future career. This emphasises the importance of having a website that is functional, informative and easy to use. However, don’t neglect the marketing of the resources available on your website – 11% of the students we surveyed didn’t even know that there was a website for them to use! 

University careers fairs lead to powerful engagement 
In a previous article published on our insights blog, we stated the importance of engaging first-year students at freshers’ fairs. The fairs are popular with first-years, with 63% of students reporting that they attended their freshers’ fair. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of students also attended their university’s careers fairs, with 62% stating that engaging with an employer at a careers fair would make it more likely they would apply for a role. This shows the importance of fairs as a promotional tool for employers as they seek students for placements and graduate roles. For careers services, fairs provide a platform to encourage students to engage with potential employers. 

Digital channels are still important tools to engage students 
Despite careers fairs being the preferred method of engagement for students with employers, digital platforms still play an important role. Half (50%) of the students surveyed said that receiving an email from their career services promoting roles would also make them apply to an employer, while 31% said that getting a personal message or seeing a post on social media (28%) would encourage them to apply. To emphasise the importance of a multi-channel approach to engagement, 20% of students said that seeing a video about a company on YouTube would increase the likelihood they would engage with an employer. 

Most importantly, students are largely satisfied with their careers services 
A clear majority of students surveyed were satisfied with their careers services – 65% of students were satisfied or very satisfied with careers fairs, 56% of students were satisfied or very satisfied with the employer fairs and 64% were satisfied or very satisfied with the availability of appointments. However, students were less satisfied with the scope of opportunities offered by their careers services in terms of part-time work and opportunities specific to their field of interest.

To conclude, students are engaging with the resources provided to them by their careers services. The combined approach of fairs and digital communications is successfully encouraging students to reach out and engage with employers. However, there is room for improvement, particularly in the scope of opportunities offered to students in terms of part-time work and for specific fields of interest. 

Read the full survey here.

Trendence UK
The Trendence UK Graduate Survey is now its 12th year. In early 2019, 74,748 students took part, making this the most comprehensive assessment of how satisfied students are with the support provided by careers services. To find out in even more detail what your students think of your careers service offer, what uniquely motivates your student population when it comes to careers (and how this differs from other UK undergraduates) and how you can increase the level of participation and engagement amongst your users.  For a demo of this type of in-depth analysis and an opportunity to use our data to help improve the outcomes of your graduates please contact sales@groupgti.com or call  020 7654 7220.