Friday 13-12-2024 - 11:46

 

 

Your Academic Representatives attended their first Faculty Forum at the start of the term, and they fed-back on student experiences with the Careers Fairs.

 

 

In total, 143 students (80% undergraduate, 20% postgraduate) took part in a snapshot survey.

From the responses, 28% of respondents agreed that Careers Fairs offer a suitable and diverse range of future employers (Figure 1). 29% of respondents also said that they would be likely to pursue a career with an employer that they had seen at a Careers Fair (Figure 2).

However, some students also expressed their frustrations with the lack of diversity and relevance at current Careers Fairs, and noted the extensive wait times, queuing, and business of the space used. Some students also highlighted difficulty in accessing the stall holders, with a distinct lack of support for international and postgraduate students.

Q4. Do Careers Fairs Offer a suitable and diverse range of future employers?

	Number of Responses	Percentage
Yes, this is my experience with Careers Fairs	40	28%
No, this is not my experience with Careers Fairs	52	36%
I have not been to a careers Fair	51	36%

Figure 1

Q5. Are you likely to pursue a future career with employers present at a Careers Fair?

	Number of Responses	Percentage
Yes, I am looking to pursue a career with an employer I have seen.	42	29%
No, I am not looking to pursue a career with an employer I have seen.	58	41%
I have not been to a Careers Fair	43	30%

Figure 2

Here is a broad summary of what your Academic Representatives said by Faculty:

FASS
Representatives from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences expressed a greater desire for more ‘arts’ related organisations, particular those from the non-profit and charity sectors. They also highlighted the need for increased focus on Postgraduate students, with some suggesting a Postgraduate Careers Fair. Representatives praised Careers Fairs as good opportunities for students to expose themselves to interacting with employers, but questioned the relevance of employers present at Careers Fairs for their own career aspirations.

FST
Representatives from the Faculty of Science and Technology would like to know more information about who is present at Careers Fairs in advance, advertising which types of employers are present ahead of the fair. They would like to see more sustainably oriented employers and employers who are more local and independent. “Diversity needs major improvement” and there needs to be a “mixture of smaller and bigger businesses”. FST is a large faculty, and the representatives appreciate that a Careers Fair will not be able to accommodate everyone.

FHM
Representatives from the Faculty of Health and Medicine felt there is little representation from employers regarding the sorts of careers they would like to pursue at Careers Fairs. As a result, there was little interest from students in their faculty. The feeling is that the fair could be a good start point for students, but only if employers present offered relevant careers to Health and Medicine students. 

LUMS
Representatives from Lancaster University Management School felt that staff representatives who are present at Careers Fairs were junior in their roles and lacked sufficient depth in information regarding the companies that were present. As a result, Information found online was just as relevant as what was provided at the Fair. Non-native English speakers struggled with accessing employers at the fair and the diversity of stalls were not representative of the range of careers that students in LUMS would like to pursue.

What next?
The Union will be working with student groups to use the data collected from the Faculty Forum to steer campaigns around influencing the Universities approach to Careers Fairs.