Title | Insight | Brief description |
Mann, A., Huddlestone, P, and Dawkins, J. (2012), Employer Engagement in English Independent Schools, report for Education and Employers (Link) | Understanding how to go about employer engagement | The report provides findings from an investigation into practices of employer engagement found in English independent schools. Data came from structured interviews with 15 staff in six different schools, a survey of 987 young adults (aged 19-24). The survey addressed what provisions are in place, the motivations and how schools go about these activities. For instance: 100% of the top 20 schools employ business coaches, often through extracurricular activities. 90% undertake 2 week work placements. 80% invite speakers. There were various goals, including to support career choices and university admissions. |
Hutchinson, J., & Dickinson, B. (2014). Employers and schools: How Mansfield is building a world of work approach. Local Economy, 29(3), 257-266. (Link)(Paid) | Creating the eco-system to run a local careers learning programme | This article describes a partnership approach developed in Mansfield where a consortium of local schools has worked with their business community and public sector organisations. A strategic careers learning programme was designed using feedback from students on their careers support requirements. The paper shows the role and inter-relationship of key players. The paper describes the creation of imaginative interventions. |
Mann, A., & Percy, C. (2014). Employer engagement in British secondary education: wage earning outcomes experienced by young adults. Journal of education and work, 27(5), 496-523. (Link)(Paid) | Making the case to students and school stakeholders for investment in employer engagement, particularly to elevate students with low social capital. | This paper provides a data analysis on students in England to understand the impact of employer engagement. Following studies in the US that found that such interventions could lead to 6%-25% salary uplifts later in life, the same sort of analysis was carried out in England: “A new 2011 survey associates wage returns and school-mediated employer contacts for 169 full-time 19–24-year-old workers on annual salaries within the UK environment – and suggests a link of 4.5% between each additional school-mediated employer.” The uplift in salary is attributed to social capital. |
Taylor, A. R., & Hooley, T. (2014). Evaluating the impact of career management skills module and internship programme within a university business school. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 42(5), 487-499. (Link) | Constructing a programme with a work experience component for school graduates
| This study evaluates the impact of an intervention on business school graduates’ employability comprising of a curriculum-based career management skills (CMS) module and an industrial placement year. The study uses data from the destinations of leavers of higher education survey to examine the employability of different groups within the cohort (no intervention, CMS module only and CMS module plus structured work experience). It finds that structured work experience has clear, positive effects on the ability of graduates to secure employment in ‘graduate level’ jobs within six months of graduation. Furthermore, participation in the CMS module also has a clear, positive effect upon the ability of participants to secure employment
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Jones, S., Mann, A., & Morris, K. (2016). The ‘employer engagement cycle' in secondary education: Analysing the testimonies of young British adults. Journal of Education and Work, 29(7), 834-856. (Link)
| Reviewing feedback from work placements to examine how it affects different students
| This article analyses and conceptualises testimonies that were gathered using an online survey of over one thousand young people in the 16-18 age range. “Emerging through young people’s perceptions of employer engagement is a complex web of human, social and cultural capital accumulation. Overlaps are frequent, with newly acquired forms of capital often activating others…” The authors argue that work placements benefit those with existing capital, perpetuating positive or adverse cycles.
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Mann, A., Rehill, J., & Kashefpakdel, E. T. (2018). Employer Engagement in Education: Insights from International Evidence for Effective Practice and Future Research. Education Endowment Foundation. (Link) | Understanding different international models and practices for employer education, to inform choices of approach by student attainment level. | This extensive international review examines the different approaches found internationally to employer engagement in career education, and creates a typology of approaches. Nine types of intervention were described. Past literature was reviewed to strongly suggest the efficacy of employer engagement activities. The paper includes a discussion of how such schemes imbue students with benefits. Work experience was found as the most effective intervention evaluated, though benefits varied by student attainment level. |
Inceoglu, I., Selenko, E., McDowall, A., & Schlachter, S. (2019). (How) Do work placements work? Scrutinizing the quantitative evidence for a theory-driven future research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 110, 317-337. (Link) | Reviewing the evidence for work placements and their potential limitations
| The aim of this systematic literature review is to evaluate the effectiveness of placements for career outcomes and to identify any underpinning core psychological processes and to offer a theoretically grounded framework for future research: "Work placements improve employment prospects, but evidence on subjective career outcomes is mixed... Most existing studies on work placements lack theoretical basis and empirical rigor.... Placements can be viewed as career transition events which lead to identity construction in the work context."
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Kashefpakdel, E., Rehill, J., & Percy, C. (2019). Motivated to Achieve: How encounters with the world of work can change attitudes and improve academic attainment. London: Education and Employers. (Link) | Creating a case - and then designing a programme - to enable students to engage with employers. | A robust, randomised controlled trial (RCT) that researched n=650 GCSE students in England is used to demonstrated between young people’s engagement with the world of work through career talks and their GCSE attainment. The intervention group received additional careers talks over and above their usual career activities. Improvements were also found in student attitudes, weekly revision hours, as well as GCSE results. Lower achievers and less engaged learners were found to benefit most from the intervention.
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Kuijpers, M. (2019). Career guidance in collaboration between schools and work organisations. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 47, 487 - 497. (Link)(Paid) | Integrating career guidance into the relationship between schools and employers | This paper reviews a two year project to review evidence of where schools and employers collaborated to over students insights into the workplace. The paper presents the results of a desk research on 17 performed studies, four case studies and 34 interviews. Results show that collaboration between schools and organisations takes place mainly through divided responsibilities rather than shared responsibilities and that a career dialogue with students is still often missing. Recommendations are ultimately made to elevate career guidance. |
Percy, C., Rehill, J., Kashefpakdel, E., Hodges, A., & Haskins, M. (2019). Insight and Inspiration: Exploring the Impact of Guest Speakers in Schools. Education and Employers. | Inviting speakers into schools | The report uses evidence from three UK datasets that had become available recently to understand the impact of bringing speakers from employers into schools. The paper reviews why teachers who invite guest speakers keep doing it, how they deliver talks, and the impact this can have on young people: Across various surveys, between 77% and 91% if young people said that the talks had helped. |
Tyszko, J. A., & Sheets, R. G. (2019, September). Co-designing assessment and learning: Rethinking employer engagement in a changing world. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA). (Link) | Establishing partnerships between employers and education to co-design pathways for students and work placement experiences | A partnership was described between the secondary education community and employer community, which facilitated the creation of new pathways for students to enter the world of work. This so-called “Talent Pipeliine Management” movement provides a framework for co-designing the pathways, and designing new work experiences for students. The model for collaboration was described as a way for employers to signal their need for students' capabilities to educators. Meanwhile, it allowed educators to signal relevant student learning to employers in a way that they could relate to. |
Huddleston, P. (2020). A short history of employer engagement. Once more round the buoy or set fair for a better voyage. Education and Employers. (Link) | Making the case for employer engagement, using lessons from the long history of initiatives. | The report provides an interesting review of the history of employer engagement as a means for informing (usually) young people who are yet to enter the workplace about the realities of work. By the early C21st, a “A growing body of evaluation studies, and some research, had identified the benefits to be derived from closer cooperation between education and the world beyond the academy.” The paper concludes by lamenting that the lessons of history are not always learned, and what is intended in policy has not always been enaceted. |
Poulsen, B. K. (2020). Insights and outlooks: Career learning in the final years of compulsory school. Education Inquiry, 11(4), 316-330. (Link) | Using employer engagement with self-reflection to retain/increase students’ openness to different options in later stages of secondary education. | This article reports from a Danish study about career learning in secondary school where the aim was to broaden perspectives about careers in the final years. In the programme, teachers and guidance practitioners worked with VET-schools, upper secondary schools and local companies in order for the pupils to both experience and sense different educational and occupational opportunities and systematically reflect on these experiences. Students came to have more positive views of vocational career paths as well as increased openness and curiosity. |
Lexis, L., Thomas, J., Taylor, C. J., Church, J. E., & Julien, B. L. (2021). Informational Interviews Help Undergraduate Students at the Midpoint of Non-Specialist STEM Degrees Confirm Their Career Aspirations. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 12(2), 299-315. (Link) | Confirming career plans with higher education students using employer engagements | The paper describes informational interviews held by Australian STEM higher education students some way through their degree - i.e. interviews with career professionals to confirm or challenge their chosen career plans. The nature of the intervention is described and students conclude that the exercise was a useful one. |
Otto, E., & Dunens, E. (2021). Imparting the Skills Employers Seek: Community-Engaged Learning as Career Preparation. Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education, 13(1), 39-56. (Link) | Helping students to acquire skills more strategically from placements, and then articulate them to employers | This US paper reported a community learning programme that involved college students taking placements. The research involved parties carefully reporting the skills acquired on placements. The researchers compared with the skills that employers were most seeking in the year of the study, This exercise provided a more detailed analysis at career readiness - at the level of specific skills - as well as showing how it could be then used to help students to articulate the skills they’ve acquired when seeking employment. |
Agcas (2022), Employer Engagement: A New Era. Phoenix, the Agcas Journal (Link) | Learning from current higher education practices | Examining the post COVID landscape, the report finds from a survey of career services that "university careers services, and the professionals that work within them, are firmly plugged into their local communities and playing a crucial role as mediators between students and graduates and industry representatives." Various modes of collaborative practice are described: "careers fairs, to building communities of practice, to cross-region and cross-sector steering groups." The report also covers equality, diversity and inclusion and the role of university career services on influencing how employers recruit towards these ends. |
Millward, W. (2022), International work experience practices: a rapid evidence review for Speakers for Schools, SQW (Link)
| Reviewing the international evidence on "what works" in work experience, and proving the impact for students. | As part of a programme called "Work Experience for All", Speakers for Schools commissioned SQW to undertake this international review of English-language evidence on international work experience practices. The rapid evidence review found that there were commonalities in work experience internationally, and that participation in short-term placements is associated with heightened self-confidence, motivation towards school and career aspirations in the short-term, as well as improved access to higher education and lower likelihood of becoming NEET in the longer-term.
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The Careers & Enterprise Company (2022). Employer engagement in careers education: Insights 2020/21. London: The Careers & Enterprise Company. (Link) | Encouraging employer participation and best practice to maximise the value of collaboration | This report presents key insights into how and why businesses are supporting the careers education of young people in England, based on surveys of ninety highly engaged employers. Employers are found to be strengthening their pipeline by working with schools and colleges, using digital innovation to provide experiences for students and actively working with schools and colleges to influence how the collaboration model works. The paper provides a range of activities that employers can engage in to contribute to students, such as promoting the role of teachers and sharing LMI with schools. |
James Relly, S., & Laczik, A. (2022). Apprenticeship, employer engagement and vocational formation: a process of collaboration. Journal of education and work, 35(1), 1-15. (Link) | Designing collaborations between employers and training providers to design high quality apprenticeships | This paper does cover employer engagement in guidance per se, but rather employer engagement in the formation of apprenticeships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers and apprentices from five businesses in the automotive industry and their further education training providers. The findings suggested a close collaboration and communication between the college, employer and the young person, based on high levels of trust. |
Zaidi, A. and Salis, S., (2022), Evaluation of the Employer Support Fund pilots, Report by ICF Consulting Services for the Department of Education (Link) | Identifying and overcoming barriers to employers providing work placements. | This report evaluates the employer support fund pilots in the academic years. The pilots offered grants of up to £750 to employers to cover the costs of hosting industry placements in preparation for the roll out of T Levels. This report described an evaluation that examined the barriers with employers providing placements, and then how the funding was used by providers and employers, the role it played in overcoming employer barriers. Finally, the impact on the quality and quantity of the placements was also described. The report described some barriers, particularly engaging employers, but concluded with the finding that the grant improved the quality of the placement in nearly all cases, |
CRAC (2023), Supporting local students and graduates: An evaluation of the Office for Students challenge competition: Industrial strategy and skills: support for local students and graduates (Link)
| Deriving local economic benefit and growing student career capabilities from partnerships between employers and universities
| This challenge project run by the Office for Students was launched in October 2018. The competition aimed to support universities and partnerships to deliver innovative projects targeted at supporting local graduates and students, and through doing so improve both graduate outcomes and local prosperity Around 6.5k students participated, in line with the initial targets. 89% of student or graduate participants were positive about their participation in the programme with improvements evident in relation to a series of confidence, capability and learning outcomes. |
The Careers & Enterprise Company (2023). Insight Briefing: The Potential of Teacher Encounters. London: The Careers & Enterprise Company. (Link) | Designing teacher engagements with employers to enhance careers education | The report is contextualised by the prospect that teachers will play a larger future role in career education Two small partnership projects are described that bring teachers together with local businesses.The results show increased teacher knowledge, a better ability to connect lesson content with careers, and greater commitment. Both employers and students also benefited. |
