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DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2014.918934

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Evaluating the impact of career management skills module and internship programme within a
university business school

Antony Richard Taylor & Tristram Hooley

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the British Journal of
Guidance and Counselling on 23 May 2014.

It was originally published as: Antony Richard Taylor & Tristram Hooley (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, DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2014.918934

Abstract

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.

Keywords: career management skills; higher education; business school; graduates; employability

Introduction

Recent years have seen increasing interest in the employment circumstances of graduates in the
early months and years following their graduation. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
(BIS, 2009) indicated that universities would be expected to explain how courses contribute to
employability. Although future employment prospects are only one reason for students to enter
higher education (HE), it is for many a very important part of the decision (Purcell et al., 2008; Watts,
2006).

Levels of graduate employability have long been an important differentiating factor between the UK
universities. McNair (2003) identified the rising importance of graduate employability to universities
due to ‘the changing nature of the graduate labour market, mass participation in HE, pressures on
student finance, competition to recruit students and expectations of students, employers, parents
and government (expressed in quality audit and league tables)’. With the introduction of a new fee
and funding regime and the Key Information Sets [Higher Education Funding Council for England
(HEFCE), 2012], which encourage potential students to consider graduate employment in their
decisionmaking about HE, the importance of graduate employability only looks set to increase
further.

Graduate employability influences students choice both indirectly through the construction of
university league tables and directly through their use as shortlisting criteria by prospective students
using HE comparison sites such as Unistats (Hooley, Mellors-Bourne, & Sutton, 2013). Levels of
graduate employability as evidenced by responses to the destinations of leavers of higher education
(DLHE) are therefore business critical in the current HE market. DLHE measures a number of factors
but critical measures are those relating to employment and ‘graduate employment’ (Elias & Purcell,
2004, 2013). Universities are therefore keen to positively influence both of these factors and to

1
ensure that the minimum number of students are unemployed while the maximum number are
employed in roles classed as ‘graduate level’.

Currently around 40% of graduates are working in non-graduate jobs as their first destination and
more than 10% of graduates experience significant periods of unemployment (Purcell et al., 2012).
The specific cohorts discussed in this article were students within the business school of a university
in northern England whose portfolio of programmes is vocationally orientated. National statistics for
destinations of first degree business graduates from 2010/2011 show that 64.5% of graduates are in
employment six months after graduation (Higher Education Careers Service Unit, 2012). Given these
statistics, it can be seen that obtaining a degree is no guarantee of obtaining either work or graduate
level work. University management is therefore interested in developing interventions capable of
influencing the likelihood of graduates to obtain both employment and graduate-level employment.

What interventions influence graduate employability?

HE institutions offer a range of different interventions which are designed to influence graduate
employability (Pegg, Waldock, Hendy-Isaac, & Lawton, 2012). There are a number of key design
issues that influence the nature of these interventions which can be summarised as follows:

(1) Will the intervention be based in the academic curriculum or delivered as an extra-curricular
activity?
(2) Will career and employability specialists be involved in the design and/or delivery of the
intervention?
(3) Will the intervention involve employers or actual work experience?
(4) Will the intervention be formally or informally assessed?

The empirical evidence that exists around the impact of employability initiatives is limited. However,
the strongest area where evidence exists is around the value of placements and other forms of
work-related learning. Lowden, Hall, Elliot, and Lewin (2011), in a survey of higher education
institutions and employers, found overwhelming support from both groups for work placements and
internships. Despite such support, the use of placements was found to be patchy with some
universities valuing them more than others and the culture of placements being far stronger in some
disciplines than others. Hall, Higson, and Bullivant (2009) in a longitudinal study of placements with
Aston University’s Business School found a high level of support from employers and noted that the
placements were perceived to be very useful in developing the ‘soft competencies’ necessary for
working in an organisation, e.g. the ability to work with people in an office environment. This is
backed up by the fact that the CBI/EDI (2011) employer survey found that work experience was the
third most important recruitment factor for employing graduates.

One of the strongest empirical investigations into strategies to enhance employability was
conducted by Mason, Williams, and Cranmer (2009) who reviewed the impact of three types of
employability initiatives: (i) teaching and assessment of such skills by departments; (ii) employer
involvement in course design and delivery; and (iii) student participation in work experience through
sandwich courses and related programmes. Their study examined 34 departments in 8 different
universities and explored their impact on graduates’ labour market performance. They found that
‘sandwich’ training placements and employers involvement in course design and delivery to be the
most effective methods of securing employment and in gaining the best kind of job. However, they
found no positive relationship with teaching and assessing of such skills by departments. Mason et
al.’s (2009) findings are similar to those of another large-scale study conducted a decade earlier by

2
Bowes and Harvey (2000) who also found that ‘sandwich students in business, finance and
management are enormously advantaged in the labour market’ (p. 14).

The evidence from the literature therefore shows that students who undertake assessed work
placements have a higher success rate in the graduate labour market (Bennett, Eagle, Mousley, &
Ali-Choudhury, 2008; Little & Harvey, 2006; Mason, Williams, Cranmer, & Guile, 2003) and that
employers’ favour placement graduates (Bowes & Harvey, 2000 cited in Little & Harvey, 2006)
because formal work experience is shown to effectively develop highly valued, generic workplace
skills and professional ability (Bennett et al., 2008; Crebert, Bates, Bell, Patrick, & Cragnolini, 2004;
Mason et al., 2003).

However, others, such as Maher and Graves (2008), have made the argument that there is a need to
broaden strategies to enhance employability beyond work-based learning interventions. They argue
that, employability needs to be embedded throughout the curriculum. A similar argument for a
focus on curriculum and grounded in the practice of HE career services was made by Watts and
Butcher (2008).

Bridgstock (2009) proposes that career management skills (CMS) ought to be divided into two
categories of competence: self-management and career building. One of the five career building
skills identified by Bridgstock (2009, p. 38) is ‘Knowing how to effectively apply for and obtain work;
representing one’s skills and abilities in a way that is attractive to employers’. The literature
highlights a paucity of empirical, evaluative or illuminative research into whether embedded CMS
actually benefits learners to develop effective ‘career building skills’. Though extensively researched,
none of the literature about work-based learning pedagogy discusses or explores how any skills,
knowledge or attributes of students and graduates are articulated to employers. Bridgstock (2009, p.
38) states that, ‘Despite the obvious theoretical appeal of a link between career building skills and
employment outcomes, surprisingly little empirical examination has been conducted thus far’.

This study will examine both curriculum-based and work-based strategies and seek to qualify their
relative impacts on the DLHE survey. The hypothesis of this study is therefore twofold:

 H1: intensive CMS support will have a positive impact upon the employment rate of
graduates; and
 H2: intensive CMS support will have a positive impact upon the rate of graduate level
employment.

The intervention

The intervention provides penultimate year business school undergraduates from any discipline
(Accounting, Business, Business Economics, Business and Management, Business Management and
IT, Economics, Financial Management, International Business, Management, Marketing, Supply
Chain Management) with the opportunity to seek an industrial placement, in effect the third year of
a degree, thereby extending the length of their programme to four years’ duration. As preparation
for this additional year, students have to participate in a module of career development learning.
Participation in this module and in the industrial placement are voluntary and therefore it is possible
to argue that this group represents a more motivated or work-focused subset of the entire cohort.
Participants comprise around 28% of the entire cohort. This study is concerned with gaining insights
into the impact and efficacy of this curriculum-based CMS module as well as of the placement year
itself. The present study did not attempt to quantify any attitudinal differences between those who
participated in the module and those who did not.

3
The module was introduced in the second semester of 2005 to support students to find their own
placements. In response to student feedback, it was moved into the first semester in 2007. The
module is taught through a mixture of lectures, seminars and practical exercises and provides
students with an opportunity to enhance their CMS and to gain a greater level of understanding
about the stages used in the graduate recruitment process. Throughout the module, students are
encouraged to practice using their CMS. The practical exercises require students to:

 submit a CV and covering letter for an internship opportunity that interests them;
 draft application form answers for feedback;
 take online verbal and numerical psychometric tests;
 have a ‘mock’ interview with an employer; and
 participate in an assessment centre exercise.

Students receive constructive feedback and advice on all practical exercises, so they gain awareness
of how they can improve their performance in the recruitment process. Where necessary, feedback
to students includes signposting to further sources of help and support, such as online resources or
on campus careers events. On completion of the module, those students who have been successful
in achieving a placement move on to take up those year-long placements.

The module is not formally assessed nor do students receive any academic credit for their
participation. The module was conceived as facilitated career learning opportunity which sought to
enhance students’ ability to articulate their skills and abilities to employers. The ‘DOTS’ model (Law
& Watts, 1977) was used to break down the CMS covered in the module into the skills of self-
awareness, opportunity awareness, decision-making and transition into employment.

With over four-fifths of members of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) using
competency-based selection methods (AGR, 2012, p. 37), it is imperative that graduates can
recognise personal strengths, abilities and interests to match themselves against requirements
stipulated in employer’s recruitment literature. Applicants lacking required qualities, or unable to
articulate to employers the evidence that they have with them, will find it more difficult to secure
graduate jobs. For example, it is reported by a major UK employer that 80% of applications from
students applying for placements fail at the first sift stage of selection (Briggs & Malecki, 2011, p. 8).

Participants in the module who are unsuccessful in gaining a placement progress on into their final
year of study. This programme structure means that three distinct groups can be identified and
their labour market outcomes compared. These groups are as follows.

 Graduates who engaged with the module and completed a placement.

 Graduates who engaged with the module who did not find a placement.
 Graduates who did not participate in the module.

Methodology

Earlier studies pertinent to this study (Bowes & Harvey, 2000; Cook, Parker, & Pettijohn, 2004;
Gault, Redington, & Schlager, 2000; Hergert, 2009; Mason et al., 2009; Wilton, 2011) informed the
mixed methodology adopted by this study. The study analyses the impact of the two different types
of intervention: module and placement and module, on participants’ labour market outcomes using
a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods.

The DLHE first destination survey collects data about patterns of employment and further study or
training using a standardised questionnaire. The first destination figures have been described as

4
‘simplistic indicators of employability’ (Harvey, Locke, & Morey, 2002, p. 41), a ‘crude measure of
employability’ (Watts, 2006, p. 6) and criticised for being flawed (Purcell, Elias, Davies, & Wilton,
2005). Despite dissatisfaction with the survey, it remains as the methodology used by the UK HE
sector to measure the initial success or otherwise of graduates seeking to enter the labour market.
Consequently, HE providers have a clear interest in establishing what employability interventions
can be made, which can impact upon DLHE outcomes.

The empirical analysis focused on three sample groups of graduates across two cohorts: (i)
graduates who engaged with the module and completed a placement (n = 73); (ii) graduates who
engaged with the module who did not find a placement (n = 110); and (iii) graduates who did not
participate in the module (n = 460).

Data for the early careers of these graduates, i.e. six months after leaving HE, were obtained from
the DLHE survey for academic years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. The response rates for the DLHE
survey both exceeded the Higher Education Statistics Agency requirement of 80% at 83.76% for
2009/2010 and 84.6% for 2010/2011. Comparison of destinations was made between graduates
who had completed a placement and the cohort they graduated with, not the cohort they enrolled
with.

The first part of this study involved analysing data from the DLHE survey. The second part of the
study asked graduate participants of the module to complete an online survey seeking their views
on the usefulness of the practical exercises in preparing them for the recruitment process.

It is impossible for students to be included in both conditions, i.e. those who have chosen to engage
with the module and those who have chosen not to engage, and because there is no control over
which students decide to engage with the module, this study utilises opportunity samples.

The online survey gathered and analysed ordinal data from questions in rank order as well as open-
ended questions. The questions were developed using ideas and insights from sources of academic
work (Gault et al., 2000; Hergert, 2009; Wilton, 2011). Of 432 emails sent, 410 were deliverable. Of
this number, 61 graduates, 24 final year students and 22 placement year students completed the
survey for an effective response rate of 26.10%. This is slightly higher than the 24% rate achieved by
Wilton (2011, p. 4) who comments the rate is ‘symptomatic of the fact that a significant proportion
of the alumni records used by participating HE institutions to contact ex-students were out of date’.

Results

Employment attributes of graduates

Figure 1 shows the employment status of the three sample groups who responded to the DLHE
survey for the years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011.

H1, intensive CMS support will have a positive impact upon the employment rate of graduates. The
data strongly indicate graduates who participated in the CMS module enjoy higher rates of
employment upon completion of their studies. This is especially so for those who did a placement.
The data analysed and illustrated in Figure 1 are nominal data, so the chi-square test was used to
test the first hypothesis of this study. The chisquare test compares observed frequencies in each cell
of a contingency table with the expected frequencies for each cell if the differences are due to
chance, as stated by the null hypothesis. In other words, the test is comparing the actual numbers
of graduates to fall into each cell as against the numbers of graduates we would expect to fall into
each cell, if there were in fact no differences between the employment rates of the three groups of
graduates. The results of the chi-square test are shown and discussed below.

5
In studying the possible relationship between participation with the module and employment, the
data shown by Table 1 were obtained.

The P-value is 1.32704 × 10−15, which is highly significant, and means that it is possible to reject the
null hypothesis. For H1, there is a highly statistically significant difference in employment status
between graduates who engaged with the module and completed a placement, graduates who
engaged with the module who did not find a placement and graduates who did not participate in
the module.

Employment level of graduates

The employment status of graduates can be broken down into levels of employment. Analysis of
DLHE data revealed that 72.6% of module participants who did a placement were in graduate level
employment six months after completing their studies, compared with 40% of module participants
who did not do a placement and 26.52% of the institutions’ business school graduates who had no
participation in the module, illustrated by Figure 2.

H2, intensive CMS support will have a positive impact upon the rate of graduate level employment.
The data strongly indicate graduates who participated in the module enjoy higher rates of ‘graduate
level’ employment.

Due to the small sample size of disabled graduates and ethnic groups other than white analysis of
these findings was done by gender only. Analysis of employment destination by gender for module

6
graduates with a placement found 90.91% of males and 92% of females in graduate level
employment. Of module graduates without a placement, 59.65% of males and 50% of females were
in graduate level employment. Of graduates with no involvement with the module, 40.57% of male
graduates and 25.71% of female graduates were in graduate level employment. This analysis
suggests that for graduates involved with the module gender has not been a major barrier to
achieving graduate level employment.

The unemployment rate for these cohorts was 4.11% for module graduates with a placement,
8.18% for module participants without a placement and 5.65% for those without any involvement
with the module.

The data analysed and illustrated in Figure 2 are nominal data, so the chi-square test was chosen to
test the second hypothesis of this study, illustrated by Table 2.

The P-value is 7.99383 × 10−5 , which is highly significant and means we can reject the null
hypothesis. For H2, there is a highly statistically significant difference in employment level between
graduates who engaged with the module and completed a placement, graduates who engaged with
the module who did not find a placement and graduates who did not participate in the module.

7
Usefulness of CMS

It is clear from the results presented above that there is a relationship between participation in the
CMS module and successful labour market integration. However, a correlation does not necessarily
signal a cause. It is therefore useful to use the data collected through the survey to explore the
student experience of the intervention and what other sources of support were accessed.

The online survey focused on the perceived usefulness of the CMS input by asking participants to
rate the usefulness from 1 to 5 on a Likert scale. The mean value for each CMS input was calculated
by assigning each input a value of 1 (‘strongly disagree’), 2 (‘disagree’), 3 (‘no opinion’), 4 (‘agree’) or
5 (‘strongly agree’). The mean score for the inputs was as follows: (i) CV’s and covering letters
(4.73); (ii) application forms (4.15); (iii) practice psychometric tests (4.18); (iv) ‘mock’ interview with
an employer (4.96); and (v) ‘mock’ assessment centre exercises (3.85).

The evidence suggests that module participants did perceive practical exercises to have been very
useful in helping them cope successfully with the recruitment process. Moreover, there is clear
evidence of a relationship between understanding how the job application process works, from
applications/CVs through to interviews and assessment centres, and both better broad employment
outcomes being in work and outcomes in terms of a graduate rather than a non-graduate job.

Research on the social aspect of career development includes work on social capital, which is
concerned with the social resources that a person is able to access and utilise (Try, 2005; Tymon &
Stumpf, 2003). Survey respondents were asked if they had sought advice, other than from the
careers service, about any stage of the recruitment process. The question offered respondents eight
potential sources of advice plus the option of ‘Other’ with a free text box. The respondents could
choose as many sources as applied to them. In order to lessen bias in the responses, the
questionnaire software randomised these sources for every person using the survey. Though not
compulsory, the question was answered by 94% of survey respondents and their responses are
shown by the ranked table in Figure 3.

Surveys of this nature are never able to fully capture the nature of student behaviour and it is
arguable that module participants may not always realise they are making use of broader careers
service provision, such as supporting CMS materials provided through the industrial placement
office. Family and friends were clearly important groups consulted about the recruitment process.

8
What was not ascertained in this survey was the extent to which participants were seeking
emotional support as against practical assistance.

Reflections on the study

Given ever changing socio-economic needs and complexity of the career development field, it is not
surprising that there have been increasing concerns from policy-makers about the links between
career practice, economic efficiency and social equity (BIS, 2011; Confederation of British Industry
and Universities UK, 2009; HEFCE, 2011; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development/European Communities, 2004; UK Commission for Employment and Skills, 2010). How
can senior managers within universities be sure that careers guidance activities are actually having
the impact that is intended? Also, is best use being made of the resources that have been allocated
for the delivery of careers guidance? Is the model of careers guidance practice underpinning
delivery actually having the impact that is intended?

This study provides evidence to suggest that a departmentally embedded CMS module alongside
year-long work placements is an effective strategy to enhance the employability of graduates. The
combination of the two elements of career education and work placement within the students own
disciplinary context provides a powerful model of practice. The study suggests that the impacts of
these different components are cumulative and that where career learning is situated within the
students’ disciplinary context and combines with meaningful experience of the workplace there are
considerable labour market benefits.

This study has highlighted a highly significant impact on undergraduate students transitions to the
labour market associated with both a CMS programme and a programme of work placements. It has
also identified that this finding is consistent with other empirical research that has been done in this
area. Whilst it is not possible to imply direct causality, this study does suggest that there is
substantial value in both structured CMS programmes and work placements. The correlation that is
suggested by this study is strong enough to merit further investigation perhaps using a randomised
allocation to the different interventions to increase understanding about the extent of the impact
delivered by each.

If, as is suggested by this study, there are significant impacts associated with CMS programmes and
work placements, there would also be value in further research to examine exactly how these
impacts are comprised. Students who participated in these interventions are simultaneously
working on their CMS, knowledge about recruitment processes and transferable/employability skills
as well as building social capital and adding experience to the CVs. Which of these factors, or which
combination, accounts for the impact that this research suggests participating in these programmes
delivers? This study did not attempt to answer this question but this would be a topic worth further
investigation.

A further caveat needs to be considered here. The measure of labour market performance used by
the study was narrow in that it only captures employment circumstances at six months after
graduation. Although information from DLHE is useful, it is a snapshot in time. It only tells us
graduates’ initial outcomes, at a time when many are still settling down in their first employment,
looking for their first job, or have just begun their further study. This snapshot approach to
measuring employment circumstances has been criticised because longitudinal data have proven
graduate careers may take three to five years to establish (Elias & Purcell, 2004; Harvey et al., 2002;
Purcell et al., 2005; Watts, 2006). This is particularly important given that this study is suggesting
that there are benefits to be gained by delaying full labour market entry for a year through a

9
placement. If these benefits are present on initial entry but evaporate after two or three years, they
may have little impact on lifetime earnings. Of course, the converse is also possible as a ‘good start’
on a graduate career may be found to pay lifelong benefits. This longitudinal perspective would also
be worth investigating.

This study has therefore sought to provide additional empirical evidence on the impact of career-
and work-related learning. It suggests that there are significant impacts that can be observed and
recommends that further research needs to be undertaken to confirm these impacts and to deepen
our understanding of them.

Notes on contributors

Tony Taylor is a careers guidance practitioner responsible for career development support for
undergraduate and postgraduate students/alumni in the Faculties of Business and Science &
Technology. He is also a coordinator and tutor for an accredited online-module career management
studies module delivered online for Ph.D. students.

Tristram Hooley is a reader in career development and head of iCeGS. He has research interests in
the role of technology in career development, the careers of researchers, careers policy and the
changing nature of careers work in schools. He also writes the adventures in career development
blog at: http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.wordpress.com.

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