Recent debates about how parents are supporting graduates in finding work have missed some of the point.
Not because parents don’t matter – they do. In fact, my wife, a primary school teacher, often talks about how parental engagement is one of the strongest predictors of a child’s development. So, when I hear that parents are stepping up to help their children navigate the world of work, that’s no bad thing.
But with more graduates returning to the parental home after university, we need fresh policy approaches to support their early careers and ensure talent isn’t lost from regional economies.
Place-based
Regional graduate schemes offer a promising solution. Initiatives like those in West Yorkshire and Sheffield connect skilled graduates with local SMEs, which often struggle to compete with larger employers for talent. These schemes create new pathways for graduates to stay and thrive in the regions where they studied or grew up, while helping employers fill critical skills gaps. Crucially, they also act as a focal point for collaboration between local authorities, businesses, and training providers (including universities) to drive inclusive regional growth.
Expanding these kinds of initiatives also helps signal to policy makers that higher education has a key role to play in the skills discussion, which too often gets overlooked, leading to fragmented policy making. The formation of Skills England has the potential to address this, provided they properly recognise the contribution of higher education.
University careers services hold a huge reservoir of expertise in supporting graduate transitions. With the right backing, they could play a much greater role in driving regional employability initiatives. The potential is there; it just needs the support and opportunity to be fully unlocked.
Worth it
Part of the solution is for the sector to get better at articulating impact, so we can challenge the lazy characterisations you sometimes see in the media about degrees not being worth it, despite much evidence to the contrary.
What’s perhaps less widely understood is just how far university careers services have come in recent years. They’ve shifted from being a niche student support team at the edge of campus life to playing a central role in institutional strategy. In an era where graduate outcomes are a key metric for regulators, rankings, and reputation, careers services have massively upped their game.
Most universities now offer at least two years of careers support after graduation, and lifetime access is rapidly becoming the norm (our latest sector benchmarking report based on responses from 112 Heads of Careers found 41 per cen of careers services now offer lifetime support to alumni). But how many graduates know this? And more importantly, how many are using it? The support is there – from trained, experienced professionals – but we need to do a better job of shouting about it.
Practicality
And careers services today are doing far more than CV checks and advice appointments. They’re innovating to meet students’ real-world needs. Nottingham Trent University, for example, have set up a Professional Student Wardrobe, helping level the playing field by providing smart clothes for interviews and professional workplaces. And most institutions are also experimenting with AI-powered tools to increase efficiency and scale up support.
Innovative practices are also coming out of Kingston University, which runs simulated assessment centres for all second years to help them understand their skills and get the chance to experience graduate recruitment processes before hitting the real thing after graduation. This initiative has been welcomed by employers and Kingston University recently picked up two accolades at the Institute of Student Employers Awards as a result.
Careers services do a fantastic job of providing tailored support for individual students, but scaling impact is no small feat when the average staff-to-student ratio in careers services is around 1:1,080. However, careers services have found one of the best ways of scaling impact across the institution is to proactively work with academics to embed employability in the curriculum. I like to think of it as yeast in a loaf of bread – invisible, but transformative.
Cause for celebration
We need to get better at celebrating the work of careers services because they’re not just a nice extra; they’re fundamental to helping students succeed and universities thrive. Working at AGCAS, we benefit from seeing the global picture, and it’s clear that institutions in the UK and Ireland really are world leading when it comes to employability. It’s time to recognise that, champion it, and make sure careers teams get the visibility and support they need to keep making such a difference. As a first step, we should all work to increase visibility of careers services to parents, so they can better signpost the support that is available.
The inaugural Academic Employability Awards are a sign that the tide is turning. We’re seeing deeper collaboration between careers teams and academic departments, embedding employability into course design, assessment, and pedagogy.
So, is it parents or careers services that help graduates find jobs? Well, it’s both.
Parents know their child better than anyone and may be able to offer networks, but there’s also a huge amount that careers and employability teams do that really moves the dial for students and graduates.
