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The impact of the Covid-19 restrictions and socio-economic effects of the pandemic on the careers of the Futuretrack cohort

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 21:03:00 GMT

The Futuretrack Stage 5 research was conducted in summer and autumn 2019, but as the research team analysed the data collected and began to write the Stage 5 report, employment and social life more broadly were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This presented unprecedented challenges to employers and employees as the cohort of graduates who had entered the labour market in the wake of the 2008-9 financial crisis, around ten years after graduation, mainly moved beyond early careers to settled professional employment or self-employment and reached the family-building stage of their lives - over a quarter having already become parents. As we analysed the responses and particularly, the interview accounts given by those we had spoken to, we were aware that respondents ranged from those likely to be at the front line of essential services in healthcare and other areas, to those who had recently become self-employed or who were in precarious employment, or working in sectors where the restrictions were already leading employers to make staff redundant and rationalise their activities in a way likely to increase the vulnerability of employees. it seemed essential to go back to respondents to investigate the impact of these restrictions and economic trends, and allow them to update their accounts of their career development and perceptions of the options available to them.

Futuretrack Stage 4 research report

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:20:41 GMT

Futuretrack Stage 4: transitions into employment, further study and other outcomes (2012)

The Stage 4 research report examines graduates' experiences of the labour market and further study five and a half years after they first applied to higher education.

Last week of Futuretrack survey – have you done it?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:31:20 GMT

Survey closes Friday 2nd March

We are now in the last week of the survey, so if you haven’t yet taken part, we invite you to do so NOW, before it is too late! You could win one of our cash prizes, but more importantly, you will be contributing to building a full picture of the labour market and a deeper understanding of the relationship between higher education and employment.

We’ve had an impressive response rate so far, but we want to be as representative as possible. Please pass this message on to anyone you know who is eligible to take the survey – remember, it is open to all who applied to full-time higher education through UCAS in the academic year 2005/06.

Remember, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for up-to-date news and discussions about the issues that matter to you.

Click here to complete the survey

Uncovering the student experience - Podcast

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:20:01 GMT

In this third instalment of our podcast series Professor Kate Purcell and two students discuss their HE experience - the highs and the lows.

Futuretrack and UCL's Malcolm Grant: first or fail?

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:04:13 GMT

Aaron Porter, the former president of the National Union of Students, writes about Futuretrack in the guardian.

A first for the timing of the latest graduate destinations survey, but a fail for the president and provost – although does he deserve one?

The Value of a Degree - Podcast

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:30:24 GMT

What is a degree worth?

Professors Kate Purcell and Peter Elias have been conducting research on the graduate labour market for more than twenty years. The Futuretrack survey will reveal the latest evidence on this topic, but in this podcast, they talk about the issues more broadly.

Futuretrack survey

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:26:48 GMT

Futuretrack is open to anyone who applied to enter full-time higher education through UCAS in 2005/06. If this is you, and you have not yet participated in the survey, don’t be left out – do it NOW!

Click here to complete the survey .

You could be in with a chance to win a cash prize: there are ten of £1,000 or one hundred of £100 prizes to be won!

If you have problems opening the link, copy and paste the following link into your browser: https://www.snapsurveys.com/futuretrack?u=wier.

If you were a 2005/06 UCAS applicant, you are part of the study, whether you started a course in Autumn 2006, deferred and re-applied, had a gap year, completed a course, dropped out or did something different instead.

Don't miss your chance to make your views count and contribute to a deeper understanding of the labour market!

Have a look at our FAQs for more information, and see the Institute for Employment Research's privacy statement for more details about how your data will be used.

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Futuretrack Stage 4 Survey has just gone live

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:52:04 GMT

Did you apply for a full-time undergraduate course in 2005/06? If so, you are a member of the FUTURETRACK cohort. If you have already participated in this important independent survey conducted by a research team at Warwick University on behalf of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU), you’ll know that it is investigating students’ progress through higher education and their experiences in the graduate labour market.

The Stage 4 questionnaire is now available, and existing participants have been sent an email inviting them to fill it in, so if this means YOU, check all your email accounts! All eligible respondents who complete the survey have the chance of winning cash prizes: ten of £1,000 or one hundred of £100. If you haven’t received it, or you are a 2005/06 applicant who would like to join the survey now, you can register here.

Please pass on the message to all your classmates with whom you are in contact, so that we can develop as full a picture as possible about the experiences of this ‘recession generation’ to inform policy and practice in higher education. You can find out more about Futuretrack here: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/futuretrack.

You can also follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Students’ Skills Development and Perceptions paper now available online

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:16:32 GMT

The working paper on Skills Development and Perceptions from the Futuretrack project is now up online! This paper looks at final year undergraduate students’ perceptions of the skills they have to offer and the skills they think are sought by employers.

In particular, the issues discussed are:

• Students’ beliefs about the extent to which they personally possessed key skills

• Students’ perceptions of skills developed on courses

• The main skills students considered employers seek in graduate recruits

• The extent to which students believed they had the skills and qualities that graduate employers seek

Key findings include:

• The majority of final year students rated their skills as at least adequate in all areas and most were confident of their skills and knowledge.

• Between 80 and 90 per cent of students reported that their research skills, specialist knowledge, critical analysis, and ability to apply knowledge had been developed ‘very much’ or ‘quite a lot’ as part of their course.

• Almost three quarters of final year students thought that the experience of being a student had made them more employable than they would otherwise have been, and more than 80 per cent agreed to a greater or lesser extent that the experience of being a student had enhanced their social and intellectual capabilities more broadly.

• As they approached the end of their undergraduate courses, over 80 per cent of respondents believed that they have the skills employers are likely to be looking for when recruiting for the kind of jobs they wanted to apply for.

Read the full paper here: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/futuretrack/findings/ft3.1_wp4_skills.pdf

Job Search and Motivations paper now available online

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:32:05 GMT

The working paper on Job Search Strategies and Employment Preferences from the Futuretrack project is now up online!

We looked at the process of searching for post-graduation employment and examined the sources final year students used to look for this employment. We also looked at the motivations Futuretrackers gave for looking for particular types of employment. These included the characteristics of the employer they hoped to work for, as well as the content of the job itself, and the locations where they were willing to work.

Key findings include:

Just over half of the final year Futuretrack students had started searching for employment at the time they completed the survey.
Opportunities for promotion was the most important job attribute when students were considering what kind of job they would look for. Flexibility for work-life balance, long-term security and opportunities for further training were all more important to the Futuretrack students than a competitive salary.
While the availability of employment was an important consideration for students when considering the locations where they might work, constraints such as needing to consider the needs of family members and the overall cost of living in an area placed particular constraints on certain groups within the Futuretrack cohort.

Read the full paper here.

http://go.warwick.ac.uk/futuretrack/findings/ft3.1_wp2_job_search_and_motivations.pdf