Engagement Early careers
Early Learning
Rachel Johnson, Head of Careers at UCAS Media thinks employers should treat early careers engagement as an education exercise rather than a recruitment drive if they want to inspire tomorrow’s talent pool. Here she explains how it is not about matching established skills to a specific need, but about getting to understand your target market – and that means intelligent use of data…
But even in ‘real life’, putting pressure on youngsters to choose a career path does them few favours. That said, there’s a genuine need for early careers engagement. According to our recent research*, less than 33% of 16 year olds felt they had enough exposure to employers. By contrast, 43% of 21-25 year olds felt they had sufficient exposure.
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Employers keen to reach those aged 15 to 25 need to carefully consider how to make the best approach. Helping young people navigate careers is a long-term commitment, and getting an in-depth understanding of your audience first is key to success.
The knowledge A good example of approaching early engagement with a view to learning about prospective graduate employees is The High Fliers Research survey. It asks final year students about their career expectations and job aspirations, rather than pigeon-holing them based on what skills they have. Similarly, research company, trendence uses barometer studies to assess the main trends in both national and international graduate markets, which gives graduate employers the chance to look at themselves in the mirror to assess their attractiveness as recruiters.
Our own annual UCAS Media lifestyle survey asks students about topics such as technology, music, retail, finance,
he entertainment world is littered with tales of former child stars burning out in adulthood.
travel, and accommodation, to help us gain valuable insight into their behaviour – understanding how they go online and how their use of social media can be particularly relevant to recruiters.
The latest trends Following trends from an early age through to graduate, job seeking age could unlock patterns in trends – what will the next trend be? Do trends move in cycles? How will this affect you as an employer?
When planning your recruitment strategy, think about what applicant trends combined with other factors could tell us. For example, a drop in birth rate could mean a lower volume of applicants. As more females currently go to university than males, should you be focusing your recruitment efforts on courses or jobs that typically attract males? Following a specific trend in isolation can often blind you to other – potentially more relevant – recruitment opportunities.
That’s why targeting the right audience, at the right moment, with the right message is so important – particularly when you’re tasked with reaching a broad age demographic with varying degrees of interest in careers, and numerous influencers.
The opportunity for employers Given that students as young as 14 are tasked with making some pretty big education and training decisions, there’s a real opportunity for careers professionals
When planning your
recruitment strategy, think about what applicant trends combined with other factors could tell us.
to make a positive impression and provide a valuable service – filling in gaps left by teachers, advisers, peers and parents. Our research discovered that 94% of young people would like employers to visit their schools, colleges and universities to run interactive workshops and present potential job opportunities**.
Using a variety of tailored communications is crucial – not just to get a youth audience’s attention, but to ensure that their influencers (peers, parents, teachers and advisers) are engaged too. The majority of those we surveyed felt that face-to- face engagement supported by online communication would be beneficial for all concerned parties.
‘Early engagement’ might seem to be the latest careers buzz words, but giving young people, and those supporting them, an insight into career paths sooner makes perfect sense. Those that don’t are missing out on a valuable opportunity to showcase their employer brands in a favourable light to the talent of the future. But remember – use the intelligence available to you and get to know your audience first. n
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Graduate Recruiter |
www.agr.org.uk
*UCAS Media Careers Survey: March 2015 ** MyKindaCrowd survey (12-25 year olds) -
www.mykindacrowd.com/Blog/Details/Have-you-heard-the-news
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