Futuretrack 2005 and Futuretrack 2006: Higher Education Careers Service Unit, UK

Citation

(2007), "Futuretrack 2005 and Futuretrack 2006: Higher Education Careers Service Unit, UK", Education + Training, Vol. 49 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2007.00449dab.007

Futuretrack 2005 and Futuretrack 2006: Higher Education Careers Service Unit, UK

This is the most ambitious study ever undertaken of the relationship between higher education and employment. The research will investigate the impact of educational and community background on the information available to those applying to enter higher education, the choices that they make, and the implications of these choices as they progress through universities and colleges or make alternative choices. The research is funded by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) in collaboration with the University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) and is part of a wider programme of research into career-making and the careers information and advice required by those entering the labour market in the early twenty-first century. The project director is Professor Kate Purcell.

Two cohorts of UCAS applicants are being surveyed at four points in their careers: as they are about to embark on higher education, one year later, after three years of study and finally in 2010 and 2011 respectively. For the Futuretrack 2005 survey, a sample of 15,000 2005 UCAS applicants were surveyed in Autumn 2005 about their career plans and experience of the UCAS application process as the first stage of that study. As well as being a study of this cohort, this survey was also the first stage of a longitudinal pilot for the Futuretrack 2006 study, to which all 2006 UCAS applicants were invited to participate in May 2006. These surveys will comprise a six-year tracking study of 2005 and 2006 UCAS applicants, a sufficient period to follow most into employment or postgraduate training.

The research will provide an unprecedented and robust account of the way students plan and prepare for their working lives beyond university. The surveys provide an opportunity to track students through higher education and beyond, exploring at each stage how different types of students and graduates encounter opportunities and make career decisions. The key objective is to map the current and emerging graduate labour markets and the impact of higher education expansion on UK employment, but the researchers will also be able to compare new data with studies of graduates as far back as the 1980s – when participation in HE was at very different levels. These core studies will be complemented by a range of shorter-term subsidiary studies examining emerging themes in more depth as part of a major HECSU-funded programme on career decision making.

Information on this research, including preliminary findings and information about related studies being carried out as part of the HECSU Career Making Programme, will be posted on the HECSU website (see www.hecsu.ac.uk).