How well are students engaging with the careers services at university?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Employability is a key concern for students and it is of increasing importance to universities with the inclusion of employability outcomes affecting performance in league tables and in the Teaching Excellence Framework. Universities typically teach employability either by embedding it within a course curriculum (embedded approach) or via the career services (parallel approach). This article explores the ratio of United Kingdom (UK) psychology departments adopting an embedded approach vs a parallel approach to employability and investigates how psychology students within a parallel department engage with their careers service. A survey of 258 undergraduate psychology students finds low levels of engagement with career service events, typically less than 50% attendance, despite increases in attendance over the course of student’s degree. These findings highlight how many students, in a parallel department are simply not attending events designed to help them explore their career options or assist them navigating the application process.