Careers Advisers and the GDS

9:00 – 9:45

Bruce Guthrie (GCA) & Joanne Tyler (Monash University)

Careers advisers are a key user group of GDS data Labour market information is used in advice for current

and prospective students◦ Names of employers◦ Type of employer◦ Type of work◦ Salaries◦ Job search details◦ Work-study relationship

Careers Advisers

Careers Advisers get final Tables A & B at the conclusion of the data processing period

They also get access to Tables C-J when they become available

They get the CoP and offers of advice from GCA They are encouraged to discuss the data with SMs Presentations at national conference (NAGCAS) Careers Advisers also get the AGS reports

Careers Advisers

Careers Advisers also get cut-down data files showing◦ Employment-related (incl. job search) details and employer

names◦ Further study details◦ Spreadsheets with value labels rather than codes◦ Careers advisers analyse and make lists by sorting on variables

These files are copied to Survey Managers for information with encouragement given to both SMs and CAs to communicate about the use of the data Do SMs have any concerns with this process?

Careers Advisers

Careers use is less about stats and more about lists and reports – breakdowns of employer name or occupation by FoE, for example

Currently no careers adviser representation on the SRG

AQHE report suggests possibility of bigger response rate requirement for GDS to meet careers needs for richer data◦ Hybrid model proposed

Careers Advisers

Feedback from Uni Adelaide re SM and careers services working together

“an ongoing and valuable work relationship”“We receive a number of reports from David including tables on how our graduates found their current job, what methods they used to look for work in the past year, how important their program or field of education was to their current job, and their occupations by field of education [and] … a listing of employers who have hired our graduates.”

Careers Advisers

“I refer to this information when I am preparing presentations for students and staff of the University of Adelaide and it is always received with interest by the audience. I could be confident in saying that some aspect of the GDS is included in every presentation I make and I see it as an extremely valuable tool for Careers Service staff to utilise. If I want to use the information for an external presentation, I request permission from David Hirst, but this would be very rare. The GDS data adds validity to the work of Career Service staff and is one of the ways we can measure our performance.”

Careers Advisers

UK analysis of their FDS data for careers use concentrates on professional and non-professional employment whereas we concentrate on full-time employment only.

We do analyse the level of reported occupations in terms of professional, managerial, etc., but it’s subsidiary to our core reporting model.

Careers Advisers

Where to deploy scarce resources Where can we make a difference Advising re course development Major employers – by

university/campus/faculty/cohort Importance of cell size: a census not a

sample!

Working with stakeholders

Sophisticated decisions – small cell sizes no help!!!!!!

Centralised processing helps

A census not a sample

Using your degree – informed choices Private benefit and public good Major resource for open day Students and parents want real information ...and we want our students to stay – high

cost of attrition

Prospective students – marketing the university

Agents want real data not gloss % gaining employment in Australia Off shore outcomes A census not a sample Importance of international education to the

economy What information do competitors provide?

International student recruitment

Outcomes by campus/faculty/cohort Advise the university: analysis of data Marketing versus spin: code of practice New course design

Where to make a difference

Knowing who the stakeholders are Rankings by number of graduates Always some surprises Employer engagement approaches Operational planning

Employer data

Place on survey reference group? Analysis of industry trends Data needs to be digestible

We are stakeholders

Questions?