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ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY: TRANSFORMING STUDENTS PERCEPTION OF THE CONCEPT OF AN 'EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONAL’
Anesa Hosein, Namrata Rao and Pat Hughes
OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
Destinations/ Employability of Education Studies Graduate at Liverpool Hope University
Background of the Study Methods of Data Collection Preliminary Results Conclusions Where Next?
LHU ED. STUDIES GRADUATE DESTINATION (2008/2009)
Destination PercentageUnemployed 6%Studying Only 19%Working & Studying 15%Working Only 56%Total 96%
Less than 35% go onto study, of which 19% are study only
The 19% study only would include those who probably go onto do a PGCE
LHU EDUCATION STUDIES GRADUATE JOBS (2008/2009)
Graduate job
Non-graduate job
Liverpool Hope 28% 72%
No. Of Universities (> 60%)
7 35
Total Universities 42
Most of the graduates work in the non-graduate sector
However, in 35 other universities over 60% of their graduates in Ed. Studies degrees also go onto to do non-graduate work
LHU ED. STUDIES EMPLOYMENTLiverpool Hope F/T P/TCaring personal service occupations 58% 50%Teaching professionals 13% 20%Social welfare associate professionals 6% 10%Sales assistants and retail cashiers 5%Elementary occupations 3%Customer service occupations 2%Secretarial and related occupations 1%Health associate professionals 1%Public service professionals 1% 5%Public service and other associate professionals 1%Admin. occupations: Gov’t and related 5%Total 91% 90%
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The challenge: Students on an Education Studies programme
see mainly one end job (our belief!): To become a teacher
Purpose: enhance employability of these Education Studies students
Method: Through one of the courses here at Hope: Educational Professional course Raise awareness of different job prospects within
the field of education Help to cultivate an attitude of thinking about
possible different jobs and their requirements
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Students take this course in their 2nd Year The purpose of the course is to:
Enhancing the awareness of the different professions within education
Roles: teachers, education and training in the community, and the wider children’s workforce, life-long learning
A push to creating a personal development plan
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS
At the beginning of the course, students are required to: Create/ update their curriculum vitae Prepare an action or personal development plan Optional: Look at job profiles on the internet or
newspapers Lecture on creating and keeping a reflective
journal
LECTURES IN EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONAL
Lectures designed to raise awareness of possible employment opportunities within the education sector:
Course Lectures Role of teachers: primary and secondary Role of teaching assistant and learning mentors Extended school services
External Lectures/ Activities Museum Education Further Education Prison Education Family and Community Education
PURPOSE OF STUDY
To ascertain what are the career choices of students on the Educational Professional course
To ascertain how they view an Educational Professional i.e. Do the students mainly view an educational
professional as someone who is a teacher? If so, to modify their view of an educational
professional in order to consider other career options
DEFINITION OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONAL
This presentation takes and extends the definition of an educational professional from Hughes (2009)
An educational professional is defined as any person who has a role and responsibility with working with children in schools and adults in life long educational settings.
These roles may be multi-professional (e.g. health officer, police officer) as well as multi-agency (e.g. health trusts, police force).
STUDY
Two Phases Phase 1: Longitudinal Survey (completed)
Survey 1: Beginning of the academic year Survey 2: End of the academic year
Phase 2: Interviews (to start)
STUDY METHODS: SURVEY 1
Beginning of the course, Education Professional: students filled in a questionnaire.
Students were asked three questions: What job or career (or other activity) are you
planning on pursuing at the end of your degree? Why this job or career (or activity)? What is your idea of an educational professional?
SURVEY 2: END OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR
End of the academic year Filled in the questionnaire with the same
three questions Additional set of questions on international
and cultural perspectives of an educational professional
PRELIMINARY RESULTS: SURVEY 1
Educational Professional Class 74 female students: 71% 30 male students: 29%
78 responses (approximately: 75% response rate) 63 female students: 81% 15 male students: 19%
69 (88%) of the respondents indicated they were considering a job in teaching or becoming a teacher Of which 32 (46%) specifically indicated they
wanted to become a primary school teacher Of which 6 (19%) of these were male students
SURVEY 2
42 responses (response rate: 40%) 36 female students (86%) 6 male students (14%)
27 (64%) of the respondents indicated they were considering a job in teaching Of which 11 (41%) specifically indicated they
wanted to work in primary education Of which 2 (18%) were male students
MATCHED SURVEY
This presentation concentrates on the matched survey
39 students answered the questionnaire twice 34 female students 5 male students
36 of these indicated a desire to teach in Survey 1
26 of these indicated a desire to teach in Survey 2
DEFINITIONS OF EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONAL (PRELIMINARY)
Definitions were coded as follow (one definition could be coded twice): Teacher Skills Qualification Generic Staff Identification Other
Purpose Payment Unclear
TEACHER DEFINITION
This was a definition oriented towards a teaching metaphor i.e. Information transfer
“An individual who has the skills to teach others and pass on their knowledge to other people” F, 20
“Somebody who understand peoples' learning needs that use a range of teaching methods” F, 20
GENERIC DEFINITION
This definition is more in keeping with the definition used in this presentation – i.e. Someone who works in an educational setting being multi-professional and multi-agency
“A person whose role includes working with children and young people to support learning in everyday life” F, 23
“Educational Professional as seen as someone who is employed in or school-based environment or someone who works in partnership with schools” F, 21
QUALIFICATIONS DEFINITION
This definition relates to the need of someone having earned a degree or certificate i.e. a qualification to be an educational professional
“Someone who is qualified in some area of education ... This can be in or outside of an education setting”, F, 20
“An individual with a degree or certificate working in a career with educational roles e.g. Police, teacher, nurse” F, 20
STAFF IDENTIFICATION
This is a list of possible educational professional jobs rather than a definition
“Teacher, TA, Ed Psyc, Admin staff, medical staff in school, social workers, school governors etc” F, 21
“Someone who teaches and encourages all aspects of learning, including current and life long. I also think this includes those who contribute anything towards education; officers; mentor etc.” F, 20 (also teacher definition)
SKILLS DEFINITION
This definition indicated the type of skills that an educational professional should have or a referral to the educational professional needing skills
“Well conducted (?) / good role model. Considerate to individual needs. Polite/ Well spoken” M, 20
“Educational professional is an individual that has the skills and knowledge to help and influence people” F, 19
DEFINITIONS
20 of the students were considered to have given a similar definition from the beginning of the year to the end of the year Survey 1: “Someone who works within the school
environment, aiding a child's progression” Survey 2: “Anyone who has contact with a school
in an education context” F, 27, Generic definitions
DEFINITIONS
18 of the students gave improved definitions: Survey 1: “Everyone from teacher, tutor, admin
staff, who has contact with a student or a students' work day”
Survey 2: “Someone that works with an individual, family or school to help improve the quality of education, to improve their ideas of education. To improve attainment of not only children but parents and other adults too. To cross barriers that people may face.” F, 28 (Staff identification to generic definition)
NUMBER OF DEFINITIONS
Definitions Survey 1 Survey 2 Total
Teacher 12 1 13
Skills 2 1 3
Qualifications 8 2 10
Generic 14 34 48
Staff Identification 2 1 3
Other 2 2 4
Total 40 41 81
CHANGING IDEA OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONAL
The number of “teacher definitions” had fallen from Survey 1 (12) to Survey 2 (1)
The number of “generic definitions” had increased from Survey 1 (14) to Survey 2 (34)
But did this changing idea of an educational professional transform what students were thinking about in terms of their prospective careers?
JOBS
29 of the students in Survey 1 still indicated that they would like to do the same job by the end of Survey 2
26 of these students who wanted to teach in Survey 1 were still considering to teach Of which 3 were considering teaching but
something else as well 8 students were no longer consider entering
the teaching profession Learning mentors, social workers, prison
education, foster care, play therapists, speech therapists
WHY THE CHANGE?
Understanding the job description “After learning the job description I realised I
wanted to go into this profession” F, 19 (Learning Mentor)
Mixing interests “I have always wanted to teach but since leaving
school, I wanted to join the police and this is my way of combining them. I am serious about this as a career” F, 20 (Prison Education)
“Lots of what we did this year has made me question what I want to do. Speech and Language/ Prison Education interests me alot” F, 21 (Teaching/ Speech and Language/ Prison Education)
WHY THE CHANGE?
Non direct educational setting “Because I am interested in working with
children but in a non-educational capacity” F, 20 (Play Therapist)
“Would like to work with families to improve their children's education and attainment”, F, 28 (Family Mentor)
CONCLUSIONS
A majority of students are considering a profession in teaching
Considering the limited number of PGCE places they will be disappointed
Changing their concept of an educational professional, providing knowledge of other jobs and their requirements can probably help them align themselves better in the job market and avoid disappointment
Additionally, be able to show them how they can combine a number of their different interests
WHERE NEXT?
Interview students considering the teaching profession to investigate what other jobs they are considering if they do not get their first choice
Determine from interviews whether the choice of these different education professional jobs have made them more open to considering a non-teacher education job
Determine whether the creation of their curriculum vitae and personal development plans got them thinking about their different job prospects
Investigate why some students change/ not change their choice of job career
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