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PRESS RELEASE (12/07/2021) - Graduate careers - what a difference a year makes (click here for full copy)

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 10:55:00 GMT

A new report reveals the impact of Covid 19 restrictions on mid-career graduates, the persistence of the gender pay gap, and the potential longer-term implications for the nature of the graduate labour market

The report captures the impact of the pandemic on a national sample of graduate workers in their early thirties, the majority of whom had by 2019 achieved reasonable job security, and many of whom were balancing work and parenting or other caring roles when the pandemic hit.
The findings reveal how the pandemic has affected mid-career graduates’ working lives and economic security, reshaped their motivations and aspirations, and affected their mental health.
Experiences of the pandemic have reinforced existing inequalities in terms of access to secure and enjoyable employment.
The gender pay gap revealed in this study of mid-career graduates is unchanged from that shown in a study undertaken in 2002.
Working from home creates new potential for discrimination, particularly in access to training and promotion
Graduates with confidence in their employer’s concern for the welfare of their staff coped better with the challenges of the pandemic
These graduates had faced a difficult start to their careers thanks to the 2008 recession, with some still scarred by the experience, but many reported that this had made them more resilient to the challenges of Covid. Their experience has implications for graduates now leaving higher education, and for policymakers and employers.

What a difference a year makes: the impact of Covid 19 on graduate careers, captures the impact of the pandemic on a national sample of graduate workers in their early thirties, the majority of whom had by 2019 achieved reasonable job security, and many of whom were balancing work and parenting or other caring roles before the pandemic hit.

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.

Degrees of Advantage: A longer-term investigation of the careers of UK graduates

Thu, 29 Mar 2018 14:07:00 GMT

We are delighted to announce the new stage of the Futuretrack study, which will be catching up with the Futuretrack cohort of students who applied to university in 2005/2006, most of whom graduated in 2009/10, eight to nine years after their graduation. This is the fifth stage of the Futuretrack longitudinal survey, and is funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Precarious pathways into employment? What was the impact of internships and work experience?

Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:40:12 GMT

In an increasingly competitive youth labour market, young people's early labour market experience has become progressively more protracted, unstable and fragmented. Between education and employment, unwaged work, temporary work and involuntary part-time work have become a more common for job-seekers, whatever their qualifications. As employers demand evidence of 'employability skills', work placements and internships have become an integral part of secondary and higher education and of early labour market experience.

In Futuretrack, we identified the increasing importance of unpaid work, temporary work, work experience placements during courses and after graduation, in students' and graduates' pursuit of career opportunities and the 'employability skills' that graduate employers seek when recruiting. In this major new ESRC-funded project, we are following up a sample of Futuretrack graduates who had experience of these forms of unpaid work and 'precarious employment', also tracking the experiences of young people who did not enter HE, and investigating the perspectives of employers, in an intensive study of employement opportunities in the Midlands in current and recent years. Members of the research team are also comparing young people's transitions from education to employment during previous periods of recession and comapring these, and the policies and practices that facilitated or obstructed then in their job-seeking, with those of young people today. See www.warwick.ac.uk/paths2work for more information.

What is the impact of studying while being a mother with dependent children?

Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:20:40 GMT

The aim of this project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation has been to track student mothers aged 21 and over from their initial applications to Higher Education (HE) in 2005/6, following their experiences of studying and eventually into employment. Building on Futuretrack, the quantitative analysis of the four waves of the Futuretrack survey and the interviews is examining student mothers’ choices of courses and places of study; aspirations on entry into HE and whether these changed over time; why some student mothers dropped out of HE; final qualifications and career destinations; and the key factors which helped or hindered them during their studies, comparing their experiences with those of other students from the same cohort.

Project Start Date: 01/06/2013 Project End Date: 31/10/2014

For further details, contact. Dr Clare Lyonnette: C.Lyonette@warwick.ac.uk

EHEA Futuretrack graduates -The transferability of (under-) graduate knowledge gained in UK HEIs within the EHEA

Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:13:59 GMT

A small follow-up research project, funded by the Society for Research into Higher Education, eanbled Drs. Heike Behle and Charoula Tzanakou to undertake secondary data analysis of the existing Futuretrack survey data set and conduct additional interviews with a sub-sample of European mobile graduates (EMGs) to answer the research question: Under which circumstances is the production of knowledge in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) transferable within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in terms of integration into the labour market or further training?

The research aims to: (i) Develop further knowledge of the motivations behind the migration of EMGs, (ii) Map the career development of EMGs of UK HEIs and assess the opportunities and challenges faced by them in accessing the labour market and further study, (iii) Assess the extent to which a gap exists between demand for different employability skills and the development of these skills by EMGs of UK HEIs.

The project was funded between 01/01/2013 - 31/10/2013

For further information, contact Dr Heike Behkle; heike.behle@warwick.ac.uk

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.

Futuretrack Conference: The changing relationship between HE and the graduate labour market

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:43:14 GMT

Watch online for free – Wednesday 7th November 2012 (10.15am-4.30pm)

Futuretrack is an academic research study funded by HECSU and undertaken by IER. Futuretrack has been tracking how students develop over a six year period; it surveyed 130,000 students at the time of UCAS application in 2006, twice during their period at university and finally two years after graduating. It is the most comprehensive research of the relationship between higher education and the graduate labour market ever undertaken with unprecedented levels of data.

They applied to university in 2006, and after three years of full-time study the majority graduated into one of the worst recessions in history. So, what influenced their career journey and where are they now?

HECSU will be exclusively broadcasting the findings of the Futuretrack studies at their conference on 7th November and invite you and your colleagues to watch the presentations (not the round table discussion groups, sorry) online and submit your questions to the panel via Twitter. IER Professors Kate Purcell and Peter Elias will be making presentations in a session on "From application to graduation and beyond".

Register your interest now by emailing v.miles@prospects.ac.uk. The conference is free to view online and you can follow us at www.twitter.com/futuretrack2006

See the diversity of the Futuretrack sample, reflected in the Stage 4 prize draw winners!

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:44:33 GMT

If you want to get some insight into the range of experiences of the Futuretrack 2005/06 UCAS applicant population and the amazing diversity of subjects studied UK universities, click on the Prize draw winners link on the left. Some winners have answered a few questions about what they are doing now: a tantalising glimpse of the survey findings to come........

Graduate employment in small businesses

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:40:49 GMT

What do graduates do in small businesses?

What do graduates do in small businesses? Daria Luchinskaya has a short article in the Spring 2012 issue of Graduate Market Trends looking at first-degree graduates in employment using the Futuretrack 2005 pilot study.

These initial findings from the Futuretrack 2005 (FT05) Stage 4 survey should be interpreted with caution, as the pilot dataset does not have enough observations on which to perform robust statistical analysis. However, this indicative analysis very broadly implies that, despite the variation within SMEs, those FT05 graduates employed in SMEs were more likely to report being satisfied with their job than those in larger businesses, particularly with the opportunity to use their own initiative, the relationship with their superiors and with the type of job they actually do. FT05 graduates working in SMEs were also less likely to say that they never used particular skills as part of their job. This raises some interesting questions about what causes these differences and how they vary between SME sizes and across sectors. It will be interesting to see whether that very considerably larger main Futuretrack2006 survey, currently being prepared for analysis, reveals similar findings.

If you are a FT05 or FT06 participant working in an SME or a small business owner, Daria - who is doing a PhD on this topic - will welcome your comments and feedback on this article or on your experience of graduate employment. You can get in touch at d.luchinskaya@warwick.ac.uk or leave a comment on her blog.