Be all that you can be

Those who leave higher education often face the challenge of deciding upon a suitable career and finding work within the chosen sector. Deciding which career path to follow is an extremely important and complicated process. Seeking career advice is always and researching the different options available will provide a good starting point for and graduates entering the labour market.

While at university it is very easy to believe the various myths about careers and the labour market that create either a favourable or unfavourable picture of reality. Therefore it is important to approach relevant centres of advice regarding the industry or career, where options can be explored and the myths broken.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency figures show that at least two thirds of recent graduates find employment within the first 6 months of their graduation in the UK, while the rest are divided over unemployment, overseas employment and further education. Considering that high proportion of graduates find employment after university, it is vital to make sure that they have the right access to advice and that they seek it.

The number of those that do not find employment in the first 6 months after graduation has been falling slowly but steadily over the last few years, indicating that a high level of education is a good way of ensuring long term employment and career progression.

Though higher education leads to more opportunities in the employment market, ensuring that you are in the right career for you is still highly problematic and requires a lot of thought and research.

Finding the career you want after graduating can be a daunting and difficult process, and it doesn’t matter whether you are a young graduate from your first degree or a an older graduate leaving university in your thirties.

It’s difficult to know where to begin with your research into jobs and although looking at vacancies is often the usual starting point it is worth bearing in mind that most vacancies are not advertised in that way, and so you are likely to get a skewed vision of what the graduate employment market is like.

Also, deciding what career is right for you can be problematic. If you are unsure you would do well to think about your interests and whatever expertise you may have and think how they may apply to a career. Keep in mind any constraints upon your time or mobility before applying for certain jobs. Children and disabilities can make some jobs less viable for you than others.

Once you have a profile of what you want from life and what you think you have to offer in terms of skills and knowledge, you can use this to narrow down your search for jobs, further courses or whatever else you might want to do after graduating.

Be brave. Your mantra should be “who dares, wins” and “it doesn’t have to be forever”. In other words, if you are free to do so, take a risk. If you aim for the stars and miss, you might still hit the moon, and if you aren’t sure that in 5 or 10 years you will continue to like the career you’re going for now, remember that you can always change careers providing you plan well. Never feel trapped by your circumstances. There is always a way to change them, even if they are in ways that you would not have expected or thought of under normal circumstances.

Once you have a good idea of what you want to do having graduated from university, think hard about your feelings about further education and/or training, what skills and experiences you already have, what sort of working environments may or may not appeal to you and the sort of life you want to live.

Once armed with all this self-reflective knowledge, go out there and start asking around, but try to do so in a focussed and structured way.

Here are some examples of ports of call during your enquiries:

- University careers adviser.

- The information garnered by Prospects, particularly the ‘What jobs would suit me?’ section (found at: www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner). This service offers CV checking, careers advice and details for a whole range of regional graduate services in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

- Psychometric tests. These are often offered by university careers offices and are an excellent way of analysing oneself. They test numeracy, literacy and diagrammatic reasoning, and show your strengths and weaknesses in these areas. Some companies and organisations (like the Civil Service) require candidates take psychometric tests, and research shows that practice actually improves performance, so never be disheartened by a poor first showing after one such test.

- Prospects.ac.uk also offers a wide range of tests and self-assessment exercises for you to peruse at your leisure. Take a look at www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Online/Tests.

Employers more often than not look for skills as well as education.

If you have been taking psychometric tests or any other recognised character development tests or courses, use what you have learned, any qualifications you have earned and any work experience that you have to produce a personal profile.

Your profile should provide evidence that you posses competencies that your potential employers are looking for. They will want some sort of evidence that you posses skills and experience for a wide range of jobs.

You should make a list of the skill and competencies that you already have. Here are some ideas of the sorts of things you might include if you think they are relevant to you:

• can you plan time effectively?
• are you good at working under pressure and to deadlines?
• how are your reading, analysing and synthesising skills for large amounts of text?
• can you work independently?
• are you adaptive to new circumstances?
• are you good at problem solving? (can you give examples?)
• are you capable of thinking originally and imaginatively? Like how?
• do you take the initiative?
• are you articulate and can you express your ideas clearly both in writing and orally?
• do you have experience presenting information in many ways, such as through seminars, under timed examinations, projects or presentations, group discussions, lab or technical reports?

All of these are potentially relevant to your potential employers. All of that said, be sure to tailor make what you are writing to suit to job you are applying for. Be honest of course, but you need not dwell too liong in your personal statement about your skills as a brick layer if you are applying for a new job as a computer programmer, say.

Both careers centres at universities and even government advice centres can help you write an appropriate CV.

Before you decide on which university to go to it might be worth looking at the League Tables that are printed every year by the Guardian (you can also find them online with a search).

These tables will show you how well your potential university is performing in terms of how many graduates they have and at what level, although bear in mind that these tables do not always specify down to departmental levels, so a slightly lower scoring university overall might have a better specific department than a higher scoring university.

If you look on the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) website and on the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) website you can find a list of university departments that qualify for ESRC and AHRC recognition and funding, which means that they excel in those fields at least.

A final point to consider is that just because you might be attending a University or department that is recognised as being at the top of its particular tree does not mean that you will be guaranteed better grades. All the work and dedication will still be yours and all a good university will be able to offer you is good facilities and good academics to teach you.

So you can count on a high graded university to have all the facilities you need, but you still need to be sure that you want to dedicate up to 4 years of your life studying full time.

Many university courses provide given the option of some kind of professional work placement, which might be an incentive (or disincentive) to take up that course.

These placements can take various different forms, the two most common being:

- A one full-year placement, most often between the 3rd and 4th semester or second and third year

And,

- Two 6 month placements one in the 2nd year and one in the 3rd year.

If you have never worked in the field that you wish to become qualified in by returning to university, a course with a work placement is an invaluable way of introducing yourself to that sort of work and will also look good on your CV when you come to apply for the sorts of job you want after graduation.

Professional work placements offer the added benefit of giving you a break from full time studying, which can get rather monotonous after a while. You could return from your work placement having had an interesting break that has provided you with new perspective and momentum to finish your studies.

There are even courses with work placements in other countries, giving an opportunity to see a bit more of the world and potentially even to learn another language if you want – always a bonus in our globalising world!

One very important thing you should check in advance of applying for a course with a work placement is age limits. Although not always the case with university courses that have implicit work placements, some work placements are open to people only up to certain ages – so you should be sure to get any potential restrictions spelled out in advance.

First and foremost, if you are returning to university as a mature student the chances are you already has a reasonably good idea of the sort of course you want to take up. Although reading prospectuses is important, you will have to read beyond the prospectus to get a clear picture of exactly what you can expect from the course and what the course expects from you.

There are so many courses available that have the same or very similar names, but this doesn’t mean that they actually teach quite the same topic. I have a friend who went to university to study Strategy and Intelligence, thinking that he would be learning existent military strategies and means and laws of intelligence gathering, as was the implication of the prospectus. What he ended up getting taught was a far more historical course with an emphasis on researching the circumstances and dates of particular events and the names are histories of the people involved.

Also remember that most degrees in the UK are modular, which means that instead of spending all day every day studying one topic, you can pick different topics within the same academic sector – or you can even sometimes mix radically different modules, like theatre studies and pure maths.

Finding out the teaching style for the course in question is another very important factor in you deciding whether or not to take it up. Check to see how much coursework is expected from the coursework and whether it is exam based or dissertation based.

If you find that you can’t concentrate in exams and tend to perform at a sub-optimum level under that sort of pressure, clearly you might want to consider looking for a course that relies mostly on coursework – unless of course your reason for going to university is to challenge yourself by facing such fears, in which case more strength to you!

Things to look into:

- How much of the course is exam based?
- How much coursework will be involved?
- How much lab-time or group work is involved?
- What is the marking system at that university?

If you consider all these factors carefully before making any binding decisions you are more likely to find the course that is right for you, whether that is in of its actual content or its teaching style or examination methods.

Surf the internet. Look at the online university prospectuses. Go to the department websites and chase up any more information that you can – it’s even worth looking up which academic is teaching your subject and seeing what his or her research interests are. Your never know what you might find helpful or revealing.

If you are still unsure, call the department and ask. It’s more than likely that you will be able to chat with the module convenor and get an even better picture of the course.

It isn’t just the course and the teaching style that you should concern yourself with. There are a number of other factors that are worth considering if you are planning to go back to university:

Where will you live - are you prepared or even able to study away from home? If not, how far and for how long are you willing to travel each day?

Can you commit to the length of time needed to complete the degree? This is usually three years for an undergraduate degree (BA, BSc etc), one or two years for a postgraduate degree (MA, MSc, MPhil etc.). Research degrees and doctorates tend to take longer, between 3 and six years depending on the type of study you are signing up to.

Do you require specific facilities from your university, such as an office, car park, technical resources/labs or a gymnasium?

Do you have the academic skills and qualification required, or would an access course be advisable?

Can you afford the university fees and other expenses associated with attending such an establishment?

If living away from your usual home, does the university you are looking at have separate accommodation for mature students or do you share with school-leavers? Does that idea bother you, bearing in mind that school-leavers are likely to have just left home for the first time and so may be a little excitable?

Would private accommodation be better for you?

Once you have decided to go to university you have to decide precisely what course you want to start (there are so many available, some very similar) and at which institution

Choosing the right university for your needs is vital. It doesn’t matter if you have an offer from Harvard University if you do not have the means or the time to go to the USA! Likewise, there isn’t much point in attending the nearest college if it doesn’t offer the course you want and need or if it has poor standards as an institution.

Although age is not a barrier to entry at a university, you should also bear in mind that most admissions tutors will want to be sure that you are sufficiently prepared to start a course at their institution, and they will probably ask you to show some sort of evidence academic abilities. Some courses or departments require qualifications in particular subjects before you start, particularly in the course you wish to start on has scientific, mathematical or foreign language base. But again, it is worth researching potential universities and colleges thoroughly, because in many cases personal experience and other expertise of mature students are accepted in lieu of formal qualifications.

If you have the opportunity, it is a good idea to attend an open day at a university or college that you think might be suitable for your needs. Then you will be able to meet the academics who will be teaching you and other students face to face. They are generally happy to answer your questions – that’s what the open days are for after all!

For 16 to 19 year olds there are a wide range of courses and training available to you, on both full and part time bases and most education providers like schools and colleges, either state or privately run, can offer interesting and flexible courses for most needs.

Depending on the type of qualification being sought and whether the course is full time or part time, available courses can be anything from just a few weeks long to several years, which if you have a child means that you can invariably spend more time with it rather (although you will be expected to attend a certain amount of hours at the establishment that is hosting/teaching your course).

Generally speaking it is good to attend classes as they give you both the support and impetus to continue, where working from home can prove difficult. If you are holding down a job or looking after children, then it is often possible to find evening classes for when you return from work or for when someone else becomes available to look after the children.

If you are unsure as to what sort of course you would like to take up, you can contact a Connexions advisor for help, even just browse the Connexions Direct learning homepage for ideas.

This site not only offers advice and ideas for further education and learning, but also for childcare options, jobs, housing, relationships, your legal rights and lots more useful information.