AEIAG0038

Written evidence submitted by Institute of Student Employers

The institute of Student Employers (ISE) created this document to give the Education Select Committee an insight into the challenges employers face went recruiting young people direct from schools and colleges onto their non-graduate programmes. Our evidence suggests that employers experience greater difficulty attracting applicants for their school-leaver and apprentice programme vacancies than their graduate programme vacancies. Both the data we collect and the anecdotal feedback we receive from employers leads us to the conclusion that the current system of CEIAG in schools and colleges does not consistently meet the needs of either employers or students. If we want young people to fully understand all the career/education options open to them, greater access to quality CEIAG is required.

The ISE supports the Career Development Policy Group (CDPG) who believe that it is essential that citizens have an opportunity to access support in their careers. The CDPG will make a separate submission to the committee which we don’t need to repeat here. But we would like to emphasise the CDGP’s comment that there is the need for a much stronger signal to schools that the Gatsby Benchmarks are the minimum standard that is required, that the Baker clause should be adhered to and that career guidance is central rather than peripheral to schools.

How buoyant is the jobs market for graduates and school-college leavers?

ISE’s vacancy survey[1] conducted from September to December 2021 reveals graduate vacancies have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, increasing by 20% compared to 2019. When compared to data from 2021, vacancies for graduates in 2022 are set to increase by 22%, while school leaver vacancies are set to increase by 17%.

Considering school and college leavers specifically, all sectors are set to experience growth in vacancies since 2021, with retail and FMCG experiencing 55% growth, finance and professional services experiencing 37% growth, and the built environment sector experiencing a 30% increase in vacancies. School and college leaver vacancies for ISE employer members did not dip during the pandemic and have continued to grow.

What recruitment challenges are student employers facing in 2022?

We asked employers in January 2022 how the quality and quantity of applicants differed to

the quality and quantity of applicants for graduate and school/college vacancies in 2021.

For graduate vacancies, 48% of employers reported receiving fewer applicants than in 2020/21, with 44% of employers noting no change. 18% of employers noted reduced quality of applicants for graduate roles compared to 2021.

For school and college leaver roles, employers reported a more substantial decline in candidate quality and application rates. The majority (63%) of employers noted a reduction in the number of applications for school and college leaver vacancies while a huge 90% noted a lower quality of applications for these vacancies in 2022.

This evidence suggests that school and college leavers continue to be more focused on university, and therefore focus on graduate career pathways rather than non-graduate or apprentice pathways.

What challenges do employers face with working with schools?

One of the key ways that firms attracted candidates is by working with educational organisations. Prior to the pandemic, firms reported that on average they worked with 26 schools, 5 further education colleges and 23 universities. Employers often tell us that they find schools and colleges harder to work with. Partly, this is because there are far more schools and colleges than universities. But also, employers tell us that careers provision in schools and colleges is patchy[2]:

         We don’t have the capacity to work with individual schools, so how do we get in front of lots of students at one time?

         It can be difficult to engage with schools… all are run differently. Also, schools are so overrun with work that trying to talk to [them] can be difficult. The curriculum takes up so much time.

         Understanding of career opportunities needs to be more firmly built into each school’s activities.

         with a clear point of contact and a willingness to collaborate on the activity to suit everyone’s needs.

Employers source more of their non-graduate hires from schools than colleges. Source of hires for ISE member non-graduate routes:

         School 43%

         Further education college 37%

         Unemployed or NEET 7%

         Working in another entry level job 11%

         Other 2%

How developed is the career thinking of non-graduates compared to graduates?

School and college leavers are less likely to have developed their career management skills than graduates[3]. Whilst we’d expect those with more life experience to have a greater understanding of their career options, the data in table below demonstrates that employers have to work harder to create an understanding of the opportunities with school and college leavers than graduates. 

Do employers think graduates, or school and college leavers have the career management skills that they need (%)?

Does the current system of CEIAG help enough young people understand non-university career pathways?

The ISE’s 2019 Apprenticeships Paper[4] highlighted that several employers have been working closely with schools to raise the profile of apprenticeships. In some cases schools have been very receptive, but others remain focused on the academic track to the exclusion of all else. This means that even where young people have heard about apprenticeships many of them remain concerned that they do not offer good opportunities (or worse opportunities compared with higher education). Employers were keen to ensure that young people understand that there are a wide range of different opportunities within apprenticeships that could open up a variety of different careers.

Employers quoted in the report stated:

         Schools are still too focused on promoting universities to young people. They need to be able to explain the full suite of options available to students and be incentivised to provide apprenticeship starts.

         Schools are variable in the amount of support that they provide. Some are keen for us to come in to talk about apprenticeships. Others say that they don’t have the time.

         We need to re-invest in schools’ careers advice – as despite the measures taken to date, this

is still not moving on quickly enough. There is also a need to better join education policy and apprenticeship policy. While schools are still being measured against the number of young people they get into university it is difficult to get them to focus on apprenticeships.

         Parents and teachers also need to be educated around all the routes available.

How are employers tackling diversity in selection and assessment?

Employers are keen to expand their search for students to attract a more diverse range of candidates with 65% reporting that they had formal targets around diversity – although this means that 35% still don’t. The overwhelming majority of organisations (93%) have altered their selection process to maximise diversity in the candidates that they hire. The most common approaches were

diversity monitoring (70%), analysing the outcomes of previous campaigns to understand diversity (62%) and training staff involved in diversity and unconscious bias (58%). 27% used contextualised screening or selection approaches[5].

However, we recognise that the ISE represents employers with specialised recruitment teams that have the resources to develop comprehensive diversity strategies. Smaller, less structured student employers do not have this resource. As mentioned elsewhere in this document, the number of schools and colleges in the UK is a barrier to consistent employer led action that will impact all students from a disadvantaged background. Employers can, and should, do more, but they need structures to co-ordinate their engagement.

Who is the Institute of Student Employers (ISE)?

The ISE is the biggest student recruitment and development community in the UK. It is an independent, not-for-profit, membership organisation founded over 50 years ago on the principles of knowledge-sharing, networking and innovative thinking. It represents, supports and connects employers who are committed to the recruitment and development of entry level talent. It also includes educational institutions (universities, schools and colleges), and organisations involved in the student recruitment market as members. and fully committed to supporting our members in all aspects of student recruitment and development.

March 2022