GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

ergo - Number 95 June 2004

Careers Services in the UK and Australia: A View from the Outside

Over the next two editions of ergo, we will be featuring the stories of two Careers Advisers from opposite sides of the world, who swapped jobs, houses and cars for six months: Eleanor Berry from the University of Warwick, UK and Rosemary Sainty from the University of Sydney in Australia.

Part One of this feature is from Eleanor, who came to Australia in mid-Semester One, 2004; Part Two from Rosemary will feature in the September edition of ergo, number 96.

Eleanor’s Story
I arrived in Sydney a couple of days early to meet my exchange partner, Rosemary. My life felt like a “Reality TV” show as I waved farewell to Rosemary before moving into her family home. The highs, lows and new experiences would have been worthy of a television show – before departure I had convinced myself that there would only be minor differences between careers guidance in the two countries, but how wrong I was! These are the five most significant differences that I found between the UK and Australia.

Profile
The reasons why careers guidance has a higher profile in Britain than in Australia are covered clearly in Judi Green’s article “Fit for the Future: the AGCAS Biennial Conference 2003, Edinburgh” (see ergo issue 93). The two areas which are currently driving the agenda in Britain are the league tables and the introduction of Matrix.

British league tables are proving to be a mechanism which gains the attention of students, University management and academics. As in Australia, British students are adapting to higher fees. However, British students, or “consumers”, make vital decisions about study options based on league tables. The national newspapers publish different versions of these league tables derived from different sources, including The Research Assessment Exercise, Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Audits, and the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey.

In Australia The Good Guides Group publishes a type of league table, rating universities using a star system. Unlike in Britain however, the universities are not placed in order and the results are not published by the media.

The significance of the British league tables has meant that the Warwick University Careers Service has been able to use them to encourage developmental work with academic departments. Indeed, these departments are beginning to enthusiastically initiate new ideas, including tailored workshops and training for the academic staff in the role of the Careers Service. Having to address these needs has meant that we are rushed off our feet in the autumn term.

With Education Minister Brendan Nelson’s new initiative to “promote excellence in university teaching”, Australian universities may find themselves heading in the same direction.

The introduction in the UK of the quality standard “Matrix”, has reinforced the student-focused approach and improved the quality of services in different ways. The team at Warwick concentrated on the vision and goals of the service. Although we had always encouraged feedback, and based our future provision on the advice of our clients, this became even more central to our way of thinking.

Career Resources
Another important difference between Australia and the UK is the amount of resources available, for example the number of staff. Whilst an average careers service in Britain will have 10.4 staff (from an AGCAS Survey of 75 Careers Services) there are only 5.4 staff in Australia. I had two questions:
1 How does this impact upon daily work?
2 Is there a link between resource levels and the profile of a careers service?

At The University of Warwick there are three distinct teams: Information, Employer Liaison and Guidance; at Sydney University I found myself covering all three. Whereas in England I would only have contact with employers to enrich guidance skills, in Sydney I have been organising the Public Service Careers Fair, the timetable of employer presentations and guest lectures: complete with the administrative customer care (pre- and post-presentation). And this is on top of guidance work.

Six people at Warwick would have covered my work at Sydney. It was tricky dividing my attention between employers and students at a time when students needed my attention most. This difference applies specifically to these Universities, but it is clear that many Australian Services are more constrained in choosing between priorities. For example, some universities here have eliminated longer interviews or restrict career work to academic departments. Such strategic decisions are less common in Britain.

Even with a greater level of resourcing, Careers Services including Warwick have had to move from providing for those students who seek help, to aiming to ensure the employability of all students through mass and self-help provision. This is common to all services but approaches to solving the problem differ.

Warwick’s strategy has been to ensure that the students who need greater assistance with decision-making are the ones using more careers resources and those who require information are able to locate it. We also work more closely with departments, develop lifelong Career Management Skills and have restructured our website and library to encourage students to work independently, thus requiring less one-to-one support.

The level of resourcing clearly follows the profile of Careers work. The Government’s push to improve careers provision in Britain has lead to greater resources and improved standards.

Graduate Recruitment
I am beginning to understand how fierce the competition is between graduate employers in Britain. At Warwick over 80 employers gave presentations on campus. These presentations were worthy of the cinema and employers creatively compete for students’ attention, with anything from the latest gadgets to giving a deferred job offer allowing the graduate to travel the world for a year. One employer even constructed mysterious ‘careers pods’ on campus. It would be good to see some of the global employers sharing ideas internationally.

British recruitment has a lot to learn from the Virtual Careers Fair, an initiative from the University of New England which can be found at www.vcf.gradlink.edu.au
Vocational Degrees
In Britain 40% of employers look for a graduate with any degree. However, in Australia many employers look for specific degrees. Therefore, there is pressure to make vital career decisions before tertiary education. As a result, many Australian students seem unaware that they still have options open. For example, business students have a tendency to feel that their choices are limited to a few careers.

Sunshine
The purpose of Freshers/Orientation week remains constant around the world but it is easy to underestimate the effect of sunshine. I was amazed at the societies’ fairground booths that appeared on the lawn to advertise their activities. The outdoor version of Freshers Week consisted of bands and barbeques. How different from the cramped indoor alternative in Britain!

To summarise, there are similar challenges for career professionals in the two countries yet it seems these are more acute in Australia because the level of recognition is lower. I hope that the new education reforms, promoting accountability within Higher Education, will recognise and support the crucial role played by University careers services at the interface between education and the workplace.