AEIAG0107

Written evidence submitted by Unite Students

Introduction:

Unite Students is pleased to submit evidence to the Education Select Committee Inquiry into Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG).

About Unite Students:

Unite Students is the UK’s largest provider of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), serving the country’s world-leading higher education sector. We provide homes for 74,000 students across 172 properties in 25 university towns and cities and partner with over 60 universities across the UK. Our accommodation is high quality, affordable and safe and secure. We are committed to raising standards across the student accommodation sector.

We own the buildings we operate giving us the flexibility to invest and make decisions, enabling us to deliver on our brand promises, including ensuring our students are safe and secure. Over the last 30 years of operating student accommodation, we have become a trusted partner for universities and students. Our experience, combined with our regular student research has allowed us to build a unique insight and understanding of students and their needs, not just in a practical sense but also their emotional journey.

Preparation for higher education

We know that, for some students, the transition to university and thinking through what that involves is challenging, affecting wellbeing and mental health, academic attainment and progression. In 2017, our Reality Check research, published in partnership with the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) identified a significant gap in student expectations of university life, for example highly unrealistic expectations about face-to-face teaching. In our survey conducted in June 2021, university applicants reported feeling unprepared and unsupported in a survey of 1,000 applicants conducted by YouthSight, showing a decline compared with 2017 figures. Just 36% felt ready (compared to 45% in 2017), 20% felt well informed (33% in 2017) and 27% felt supported (30% in 2017). In the 2021 survey, 60% felt anxious about going to university.

To support students, Unite Students has developed Leapskills, a workshop which can be developed in schools and colleges through which we can better prepare prospective students for living away from home. This workshop is based on our insight and student resilience research and can be run in as little as 45 minutes. Drawing on video content and a digital game, it introduces a number of student life scenarios to provoke group discussion on conflict resolution, problem solving and a general insight into shared living.

We run these workshops across the UK and collaborate closely with teachers, although Covid impacted its roll-out over the last two years. We are pleased that The Department for Education has endorsed and championed Leapskills. Sixty-four educational institutions have now signed up for Leapskills and over 3,000 students have already participated in the programme, to ensure they are better prepared for university. Overwhelmingly, young people report feeling better prepared for moving away to university after attending the workshop. We are currently in the process of relaunching the programme to reach more young people.

Careers Advice

In a drive to deepen our understanding about the student experience, we have commissioned research in partnership with the Social Market Foundation (SMF) on improving educational advice and guidance in England. The research, which included focus groups with both current students and adult learners, has informed our response to this consultation.

We undertook this research because we wanted to know more about the reasons why students choose higher education, given the greater variety of post-18 education and training options now on offer. We also wanted to understand more about the quality of the current provision of careers advice, especially in relation to adequate guidance in choosing the right university and course.

Key findings in the report:

The shape and quality of school and college IAG services is patchy

• People value IAG that is more personalised, and feel more comfortable accessing help if they have a sustained relationship with an adviser.
• Yet what they are offered varies substantially from school to school, college to college, ranging from infrequent and optional group sessions to mandatory, regular, personalised support. 

Support for those pursuing vocational options tends to be weaker, with students carried towards university by inertia

• Despite legislation to try and put vocational options on an equal footing, in many places university remains the default option in the eyes of teachers and families alike. 
• This bias can also be institutionalised, for example in schools that expect all students to fill out university applications but only provide detailed information on apprenticeships on request.

People tend to favour anecdotal information over hard data, but even those using formal information avoid official government sources

• The people we spoke to had greatest confidence in ‘experiential’ knowledge gleaned from conversations and visits over impersonal information.
• Hardly anybody used the Government’s ‘Discover Uni’ website – its neglect symbolised by the fact even the gov.uk website refers to it by a previous name. 
• In contrast, many made use of third party apps like Unifrog, and online resources brought up by simple Googling.

There is a mismatch between the grand ambitions of IAG and the reality of what people expect and can be delivered

• Careers professionals envisage careers as a deep, holistic process of building general skills and self-knowledge that sets people up for the rest of their lives.
• Young people receiving IAG tend to see it in more pragmatic, functional terms, just wanting help with the next step into education or employment.
• That can lead to some confusion, with young people particularly unsure about the purpose and value of IAG at younger ages when it seems less relevant. 

Adults are largely unaware of IAG services, and face significant barriers to accessing them

• Most of our adult focus group participants had never heard of the National Careers Service, which is intended to support them, let alone used it.
• Negative childhood experiences with careers services, as well as stigma around IAG as being for the directionless and unemployed, prevent people taking it up.

Policymakers need to think more strategically about IAG

• Policymakers should be realistic about their expectations for IAG and provide appropriate resources to achieve them. Specifically, school leavers should have a minimum entitlement to three one-to-one sessions with an adviser.
• Schools and colleges should be better incentivised to improve their IAG provision: careers provision should be added to the four ‘key judgements’ on which schools and colleges are rated by Ofsted inspectors.
• Addressing inequalities in the level and quality of IAG should be a priority, for example by tasking the Careers and Enterprise Company to reduce inconsistency in provision as part of its Grant Funding Agreement with the Department for Education.
• More should be done to interrupt the inertia that leads young people to default to university by setting up local platforms for apprenticeships and integrating these into the UCAS system, which should ultimately list all apprenticeship opportunities.
• Recognising that its official sources have little traction, the Government should partner with established trusted private brands such as Unifrog to ensure reliable information is easily accessible.
• The Government should engage in a large-scale outreach programme promoting adult education and careers services through both traditional advertising and word-of-mouth ambassadors offering reassurance it is for “people like them”.

SMF policy recommendations:

The Social Market Foundation recommends that policy makers should:

1. Ensure every school leaver receives a minimum level of personalised careers support by offering an entitlement to three one-to-one sessions.
2. Add careers provision to the four ‘key judgements’ on which schools are graded in Ofsted inspections.
3. Set the Careers and Enterprise Company the objective of tackling inequalities between schools in the level and quality of information, advice and guidance.
4. Aim to ensure all apprenticeship opportunities are listed on the UCAS system, perhaps by establishing and integrating local platforms.
5. Partner with trusted private apps and websites to ensure official government data and information is easily accessible.
6. Engage in a large-scale outreach programme promoting adult education and careers services.

The needs of care leavers and estranged students

The Unite Foundation is a registered charity founded by, and funded by, Unite Students. It works with universities across the UK to provide accommodation scholarships to care experienced and estranged students. To date, over 500 students have benefitted from free accommodation and wrap-around support for up to three years of their degree course. The Foundation also provides a sense of community and a voice for care experienced and estranged students, supporting them to campaign on matters that are important to them.

The Unite Foundation has identified a gap in knowledge about the extent to which care-experienced and estranged young people are affected by a lack of understanding and an assumption of low expectations by those who are advising them.

• The research report “Positive Impact?” commissioned by the Unite Foundation found that young people estranged from their parents were not always signposted to resources and information about financial support available to them.
• Drawing on the Positive Impact report and other research, Dr Neil Harrison from Oxford University has drawn attention to feedback from care-experienced young people that their advisors expect them to have poor outcomes, and that this is demoralising for them.

Conclusion

Unite Students is committed to supporting students transition to higher education through its Leapskills programme to ensure students make the most of their time while at university. Our regular research programme into student experiences gives us feedback on applicant and student expectations, wellbeing and experience. That is why we have worked with the SMF on their report into careers advice, and why we are committed to Leapskills and the Unite Foundation. We believe that all young people should have the best opportunities in life.  We urge the government to implement the SMF’s recommendations, consider the role of schools in preparing students for the next step, and to consider the needs of students with experience of the care system within the scope of this inquiry.

March 2022