#TheWeekInCareers - Episode 71

Welcome to #TheWeekinCareers! If you are a first-time reader (and congratulations if so, you are now part of a 3800+ strong community!), this newsletter is my attempt at summarising some of the key #Careers-related news from across the #Careersphere each week, along with some of the talking points I feel are worthy of further debate amongst the #Careers community! So, without further ado, on to the news!

This week, a BBC documentary from comedian Geoff Norcott, entitled 'Is University Really Worth It?', has set tongues wagging across the education / Careersphere, in part due to its relatively one-sided focus on that thorniest of subjects, 'value for money', which results in a pretty damning assessment of the Higher Education system in the UK. I've written previously on the subject of 'University vs Apprenticeships' - the upsettingly binary discourse that tends to rear its head every time a production like the one above hits our screens - but I only want to touch on this particular angle briefly in today's newsletter, as the documentary also got me thinking about how narrowly we often tend to frame career decision making, and the trade-offs involved...look forward to hearing your thoughts, #TheWeekInCareers readers!

All this PLUS another jam-packed #BestOfTheRest to digest with your weekend coffee (or beverage of choice) - dig in, at your leisure...

I hope you enjoy this week's newsletter and thank you as always for continuing to subscribe, read, comment on and support #TheWeekInCareers! 😁

Is ___ really worth it? 🤔

If you've not yet seen the Geoff Norcott documentary currently showing on BBC iPlayer, entitled Is University Really Worth It? (see link below), it's certainly worth a watch, if only for a glimpse into a perspective on Higher Education that many individuals outside the sector (and possibly within the sector itself) might also hold when it comes to considering the 'value' of University:

Now, as mentioned in the introduction to today's newsletter, I'm not going to spend a huge amount of time ruminating on the relatively one-sided focus of the documentary, as this has already been deconstructed thoughtfully by prominent industry figures such as Nicholas Hillman from Higher Education Policy Institute (you can read Nick's breakdown of some of the issues around balance in the documentary here) but just as a quick run-down of what you missed if you haven't yet had the chance to watch the show... 👇

🎓 While there are many critiques of the current HE system which are unarguably worthy of discussion (e.g. senior management pay, disrupted learning during Covid, the cost-of-living crisis for students etc.), the documentary notably failed to provide much context in terms of how universities got to this position, such as acknowledging that other organisations adjusted far less quickly when it came to pivoting their services during the pandemic, or digging into the background of why the financial position of universities is so precarious (e.g. there are no easy choices when it comes to raising fees, making cuts and/or increasing funding from the government...)

🎓 There were some interesting reflections from Geoff Norcott about how he felt like he was often sleepwalking as a teacher in terms of recommending university as a pathway for the students he used to teach - this is definitely a useful learning point for schools around the unintentional impact a one-sided focus on post-18 progression can have and the importance of encouraging young people to think through their next steps more clearly (e.g. trade-offs between different routes) but disappointingly, there was no real mention of education/training pathways outside of undergraduate degrees and trade-related apprenticeships (for example, we heard nothing of Higher and Degree Apprenticeships, HTQs, Skills Bootcamps, Microcredentials or any other methods of learning/training...)

🎓 The balance in the doc (such as it was) could charitably be described as 'grudging' - as Nicholas Hillman observed in his Twitter/X comments linked above, while critics of the HE system, such as UCU President Jo Grady and journalist Aaron Bastani, got ample airtime to share their views, much less space was given to Sheffield councillor Martin Smith, or former Sheffield Hallam University Vice-Chancellor, Chris Husbands, when it came to discussing the benefits that universities bring to their communities. Although Chris Husbands was able to provide a semblance of balance when it came to the question of funding for universities (he referenced the issues connected with student fees remaining flat and how this was impacting budgets) and provided some much-needed international context (referencing the amount of money that advanced economies like Germany and South Korea are investing in their Higher Education systems, as a comparison), it often felt that the documentary viewed these interludes as an inconvenient diversion en route to slamming HE some more.

🎓 As mentioned above, alternatives to University do get some airtime on the documentary, although largely in reference to trades, such as Plumbing, which although positive, still felt quite stereotypical in the way it was presented on the programme (e.g. 'ever seen a skint plumber' is a pretty lazy line IMO, that belies both the amount of work/business savvy it takes to run an enterprise and the realities of what securing business involves, beyond mastery of a craft) and we were sadly deprived of the balance that could have been provided by speaking with university students who had taken advantage of work-based learning, industry placements or enterprise incubators to progress their careers whilst still within the framework of an institution.

🎓 There were some decent points from Geoff regarding parity of esteem between academic and technical education (which I think all careers professionals would agree is an indisputable Good Thing) and about Nathan, the boss of Plumbing and Heating firm, Caprani (which featured in the doc), being the type of role model young people deserve to see in order to understand alternatives to University, although it's probably fair to say that a lot of the doc focused on the type of work environment that Geoff would enjoy, rather than hearing directly from his son (the supposed focus of the programme, in terms of his future education) or a range of individuals with an interest in other pathways (some of which could necessitate a university education). There were also some relatively narrow views presented regarding the professions that might require a degree from a vocational standpoint (lots of mentions for Vets, Doctors, Lawyers etc., not so much for Data Scientists, Interior Designers, Biomedical Engineers etc.)

🎓 Overall, it felt like the documentary was set up to attack HE and universities, despite the repeated claims of balance, and although there were examples floated of where universities benefit society (via a visit to my local stomping ground, Sheffield!), such as economic partnerships with local government (the two universities in Sheffield collectively add more than a billion pounds to the local economy, for example), collaborations with employers and developing a skilled workforce, the tone of the doc still felt largely disparaging when it came to assessing university life (including some pretty cheap shots against student societies). Despite the inclusion of 30-40 seconds of student vox pops extolling the broader virtues of university (forming societies/communities, building a business, studying a subject you love, freedom/independence to grow and make mistakes etc.), I don't think it would be unreasonable to assert that this was a programme with a distinctly anti-university agenda.

However, what interested me more about the documentary was what I felt it said about our attitudes as a society towards career decision making in general - notably, Geoff Norcott framed much of the focus of the documentary around money and the idea of University no longer being the Return-on-Investment (ROI) that it used to be, in part due to the increase in student tuition fees over the past 30 years (although not, of course, over the past decade, where they have remained locked at £9,250, along with maintenance loans, which have also failed to rise proportionately with inflation). While this in itself is absolutely a fair line of inquiry to pursue (IMO it is always important to weigh up if something is going to be 'worth it' before we make career-related decisions, even if what 'worth it' means can differ considerably from individual to individual), the idea of applying the same approach to other pathways (such as apprenticeships, and what the benefits/trade-offs of these might be) was conspicuously absent from the programme.

To be honest, this is where most of my frustration with the documentary lies - the way that the process of career decision making for young people was boiled down to a simplistic narrative of either doing something that you know leads to a direct outcome (e.g. a 'vocational' qualification or training pathway with a specific job role/industry attached) or considering the alternative (such as a degree in a broad subject area that an individual might wish to take further) a 'waste of money' if it doesn't mirror the outcomes of the former. Quite aside from the fact that 'University vs Apprenticeships' is largely an inappropriate framing these days (as Chris Targett RCDP notes in the video below, there are opportunities for apprentices to undertake a university education and for graduates to pursue apprenticeships post-uni, so it doesn't have to be an either/or decision), the discourse around 'Is _____ worth it?' belies a classic career development myth - that our career will follow a predictable trajectory if we make the 'right' decision at a particular point early in our lives:

What do I mean by this? Well, at one point in the documentary, Geoff meets up with some of his old students and rather predictably, asks them whether they would choose a different pathway to University if they could go back to the point when they were leaving school, to which one former student reflects that they'd probably consider undertaking an apprenticeship more carefully - the issue I have with this sort of forced reflection is that:

a) It rarely serves a purpose - you made the decision you made at that age for a whole host of reasons, and the alternative version of you that makes a different decision simply doesn't exist. Given the problems generally associated with eyewitness testimony, there is also a fair chance that our recollection of what happened 10+ years ago is unreliable and has potentially been influenced by what has happened to us since then, making it much easier to confidently state we would pursue a different route if given the chance again, even if this assertion might not hold up if the opportunity actually presented itself to us.

b) Predicting the future is a fool's errand - As Jim Bright astutely notes in this recent article for The Sydney Morning Herald, '...career paths rarely unfold as straight lines, with a predictable past, present and future' - the same is of course true for 'alternative futures', wherein we might imagine a world where we decided to pursue a different course of study or training route than the one that took us to where we are now. Yes, in theory it might mean we'd be doing something else (and possibly even enjoying ourselves more or making more money!) but it would also mean that everything else we'd experienced along the way would likely be different, including our relationships, location and even our hobbies and interests.

It is of course unfair to say that this sort of reflection serves no purpose at all, as of course what it really does is allow us to consider how we made career decisions in the past, what influenced our thinking and whether there is anything we can learn from this which might help us to make 'better' career decisions in the future. As Sarah W. noted earlier this week in her superb LinkedIn post below, humans are complex, as are the decisions we make regarding our careers, not least because we are changing all the time:

When we distil decision making about our career down to a simplistic Return-on-Investment approach (e.g. Will I make more money in the next 10 years by studying for a degree or undertaking an apprenticeship?) we skirt over all of the factors and trade-offs in life that come into play when we make career decisions, such as:

• Our familial / relationship responsibilities
• Our financial circumstances
• Our geographical location
• Our physical / mental health
• Our emotional wellbeing
• Our personal values
• Our current interests
• Our skill set

All of which are subject to, and naturally quite susceptible to change over the course of our lives. And if there is one thing that human beings are absolutely world-class at, it's underestimating our capacity to change - in the article referenced in Sarah's post above, the Forever Fallacy (see below for full article), the authors quote Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University psychologist and author of Stumbling On Happiness, who along with his colleagues described the 'end of history illusion' (based on their research study of over 19,000 individuals), wherein 'No matter how great the changes they'd been through so far (in their lives), participants in the study somehow believed that the person they were right now was essentially the person they would always be':

Based on our own capacity to change, and the speed with which the world of work is changing, the idea of elevating one career decision (such as whether to undertake a university-based qualification or pursue a work-based learning pathway) to a level of importance where it suggests it will dictate the rest of our career (even when there is evidence to the contrary) feels misguided. Of course, we should always consider the potential benefits and trade-offs when making any decision about our career but ultimately, we may have to accept that any choice we make is simply just the one we can make right now and that we cannot ever know for certain where this decision may take us - check out this episode of The Hud Grad Club podcast I recorded last year with Ben Jewkes as a perfect example of why even the best laid plans can't account for every eventuality (particularly a global pandemic!) and why it's what happens next in these situations that really counts:

As Maria Dobrzanska notes in her latest LinkedIn piece, Taylor Swift, the Eras Tour and Careers, it is only when we look back that we really get a sense of what the different 'eras' of our career have been like and how these often seemingly disparate parts of our lives have led us to where we our now. But of course, even this can sometimes be an exercise in self-deception, as we convince ourselves that every decision we have taken up to now was part of a cohesive (if unknowable at the time) plan, when in fact there may never have been an order to any of the moves we made. To quote Brian Cox's monstrously successful Succession protagonist, Logan Roy:

Nothing is a line. Everything, everywhere is always moving. Forever. Get used to it.

But this uncertainty needn't fill us with dread when it comes to our career development, far from it. By embracing the unknowable nature of our lives and careers, it can actually set us up to make better career decisions, based on what motivates us now, what works best for our personal circumstances and what feels right for us based on the information we have available (whether that is a specific company we might be deciding to work for, the decision to go self-employed or weighing up the benefits/trade-offs of different education pathways), rather than boiling down every decision to a simplistic Return-on-Investment (ROI) calculation that forces us to try and prognosticate on the events of the next 5-10 years, with very little evidence to support our hypotheses.

Did you watch 'Is University Really Worth It?' and if so, what did you think? Would you concur with my assertions that this approach to the discourse around different career/training pathways is getting us nowhere (and fosters an overly simplistic mindset around career decision making, in general) or do you feel the documentary made some fair points in relation to the Return-on-Investment (ROI) that University provides? Answers, as always, on a #TheWeekInCareers postcard...📫 (or more accurately, in the comments thread at the bottom of the newsletter! 🤳)

The Best of the Rest: My Hot Picks from the wider #Careersphere 🏆

📊 LinkedIn Trends 2024: What's Next for Recruiting? - First up this week, an excellent piece from Jan Tegze , which summarises some of the key takeaways from LinkedIn's recently released Future of Recruiting 2024 report - in his blog, Jan breaks down some of the main ways recruitment could be shaped by different factors over the coming year and beyond, including the impact of AI on candidate engagement and productivity, the continuing momentum behind skills-based hiring practices and the importance of flexible work when it comes to attracting quality candidates. It's a hugely valuable read for any careers professionals wanting to keep up to speed with the changes impacting the recruitment space, and Jan Tegze is always worth a follow on LinkedIn for his insights, challenge and mythbusting regarding recruitment practices!

🛣 Praxis in guidance and counselling: new frontiers - Up next, an opportunity to get your hands on a FREE copy of an interesting article from Associate Professor Deirdre Hughes OBE , Siobhan Neary , David McCormack and Paul King, from the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling - the article, entitled Praxis in guidance and counselling: new frontiers, explores the process of Praxis ('a philosophical concept in which learning is realised through the process of action, reflection and change') in the context of guidance and counselling work, and how theoretical grounding for practice can be married with the perspectives of practitioners to advance the field . There are only 50 free copies of the article available, on a first-come-first-served basis, so get it while it's hot!

📰 Authentic Engagement is BACK! - Everyone knows I LOVE a good newsletter, so this week I was extremely pleased to see that Jake Richings ' Authentic Engagement newsletter has made a return to our LinkedIn screens, with his latest edition, entitled 'Prime' Young People Before Teaching Careers Education - in the newsletter, Jake shares insights on how he partnered with the Co-op and Co-op Academies Trust to increase the awareness of young people when it comes to 'unfamiliar careers' (such as Facilities Management, Content Design and Data Ethics), via 'priming' Year 8 students with bespoke, 5-minute YouTube videos of Co-op employees, followed by custom-made activities directly related to the stimulus the students had been primed with. Jake works closely with both employers and schools in order to increase students' engagement with careers education, and therefore is a great person to read on this subject and/or connect with in general, so check his newsletter out when you get the chance!

😨 How To Beat Interview Anxiety Forever - Next up, Raj Sidhu is back with another cracking video on his YouTube channel, this time turning his attention to helping us tackle interview anxiety - as always, Raj packs so much valuable content into just over 4 minutes of footage, with brilliant editing and top tips around managing interview anxiety that include desensitising yourself to the interview process by speaking to relevant professionals from the industry in advance, and preparing rough summaries of responses to typical questions that might come up on interview via a spreadsheet, so that you can help the interview feel more predictable and limit the space anxiety needs to flourish. As always, the production values are top drawer and the video is an excellent example of how some careers professionals are using short-form content effectively to create more digestible insights for prospective clients!

📻 6 things we learnt from the CEO of Timpson’s... - We finish this week's newsletter with a really nice breakdown of a recent BBC Radio 5 appearance from Timpson Group CEO, James Timpson, in which he explained how he attempts to maximise happiness for his staff at work - aside from the fact that Timpson Group sounds like a thoroughly lovely organisation to work for, there are some widely applicable messages shared by James Timpson in the broadcast, including the importance of not attempting to separate profit from people (e.g. if you want to achieve financial results, you have to know how to get the best out of individuals as people, not profit-generating machines) and the idea that if someone is not happy with you, it might be in everyone's best interests to help them be happy somewhere else. A great read to start your weekend!

I'm always keen to hear what people think of this weekly newsletter format (e.g. Is it helpful? Does it add value to what is already out there on LinkedIn? What might make it better/more digestible?) so please do drop me a DM if you have any thoughts!

See you all in the #Careersphere next week for Episode 72! 👋