Paid employment ‘biggest barrier’ to rolling out work placements

New survey data has added weight to concerns that students’ need to undertake paid employment could prove the biggest barrier to incorporating work experience into degrees.

A road map published by Universities UK earlier this month set the ambition for every undergraduate in England to have access to “meaningful work-based learning” by 2035, with an interim target of 50 per cent of students by 2030.

But student representatives have called the proposal “tone-deaf”, highlighting that two-thirds of undergraduates are now in term-time employment and describing an expectation for them to take on additional labour as “absolutely ridiculous”.

These concerns are given additional weight by a survey of higher education staff published on 23 September by the Graduate Futures Institute, which found that the “need for sustained paid employment” was seen as the greatest barrier to increasing participation in work-based learning among under-represented groups.

This was cited by 81 per cent of the 238 respondents, ahead of “confidence” on 74 per cent, and well ahead of other options, such as lack of awareness and academic workload.

The findings are particularly notable because the types of work-based learning identified as being most beneficial were also among those demanding the greatest time commitment. Internships were the most popular option, cited by 78 per cent of respondents, ahead of placements on 73 per cent. Mentoring, projects and “micro-internships” were mentioned by roughly half of respondents.

Thirty-seven per cent of respondents said that paid work experience in bursary-backed opportunities had been reduced in the past two years because of financial pressures.

The report, published in partnership with the University of Leicester, says higher education institutions must nonetheless seek to design work-related learning “around student constraints”, highlighting paid internships, hybrid models, flexible placements and curriculum-linked projects as worthy of consideration.

Ninety-six per cent of respondents described work-related learning as being essential or very important in reducing the challenges faced by disadvantaged students in the employment market.

Martin Edmondson, chief executive of the Graduate Futures Institute, said he was “very supportive of the overall goal” when it came to UUK’s work experience ambition.

“What is now down to universities to do is to find a range of approaches [in relation to] what that work experience or work-based learning is,” he told Times Higher Education.

“In some cases that will be placements, internships, or short-term digital work experiences…But it also might mean looking at students who are doing part-time work and helping them [by] thinking about creative models of teaching and learning so that all the skills development and experience that’s taking place in their part-time work [bears credit and comes into] assessment.”

The report, From Access to Graduate Success: The Next Phase of Social Mobility, finds that universities often use their access and participation plans or Graduate Outcomes data to identify disadvantage and target careers support.

But it says that this means that some groups, such as refugees and carers, can sometimes be overlooked.

And it says that, beyond the difficulty of engaging time-poor students, budget constraints and staffing capacity are the biggest obstacle to delivering effective careers support to under-represented students.

UUK chief executive Vivienne Stern said she welcomed the new report “as it highlights the specific interventions that are necessary in order to redress the current imbalance in graduate employment opportunities”.

“Our Future Jobs Roadmap is about how we can all work together to support all graduates, regardless of background, into good jobs, drive business growth and meet the skills needs of employers and the UK economy,” Stern said.

“Work-readiness is where the biggest opportunity lies and this new report underlines this fact.”

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com