Digital Technologies Report_Nov2015
- 1. Don’t Get Left Behind! THE USE OF ONLINE TECHNOLOGIES BY NEW ZEALAND TERTIARY STUDENTS IN RELATION TO DIGITAL CAREER LITERACY Grant Verhoeven – CDANZ Professional Member Andrew Tui – CDANZ Professional Member First presented at the CDANZ National Research and Leading Practice Symposium, Wellington, November 2015 Introduction The role of the internet in career is challenging for everyone, but it can be particularly difficult for young people with little experience of the labour market. Higher education students are often experienced internet users, but they are also often inexperienced in their careers. (Longridge, Hooley, Staunton, 2013). Digital technologies have revolutionised the way we work and pursue our careers. In a world increasingly dependent on technology, there is a growing expectation that those entering the workforce, in particular tertiary graduates, have an understanding and an ability to use these technologies in a competent manner. More specifically, are they sufficiently literate to manage their career both now and into the future in a technologically enabled environment. Digital career literacy is concerned with the ability to use the online environment, to search, to make contacts, to get questions answered and to build a positive professional reputation (Hooley, 2012). So does the expectation meet the reality? A survey was carried out to gauge the use and understanding of online technologies in relation to digital career literacy by students at Massey University and Unitec Institute of Technology. It will also look at baseline data around students’ use and knowledge of LinkedIn. Anecdotal feedback was also obtained from tertiary career practitioners across New Zealand in relation to how they contribute to the development of digital literacy competencies. Research Purpose This paper is inspired by the research undertaken by Longridge, Hooley and Staunton from the University of Derby - in particular, their report on Building Online Employability: A guide for Academic Departments (2013). They focussed their research on observing the use of digital technology by tertiary students at Derby University and linked it to digital career literacy competencies, also known as The 7 Cs of digital career literacy. The 7 Cs of digital career literacy are (Hooley, 2012): Changing: describes the ability to understand and adapt to changing online career contexts and to learn to use new technologies for the purpose of career building. Collecting: describes the ability to source, manage and retrieve career information and resources.
- 2. Critiquing: describes the ability to understand the nature of online career information and resources, to analyse its provenance and to consider its usefulness for a career. Connecting: describes the ability to build relationships and networks online that can support career development. Communicating: describes the ability to interact effectively across a range of different platforms, to understand the genre and netiquette of different interactions and to use them in the content of a career. Creating: describes the ability to create online content that effectively represents the individual their interests and their career history. Curating: describes the ability of an individual to reflect on and develop their digital footprint and online networks as part of their career building. The other key drivers of the survey were: • Gain insight into how students use digital technologies (including internet and social media) in relation to their digital career literacy competencies • Investigate student use, level of confidence and perceptions of a specific tool (i.e. LinkedIn) • Gauge levels of student confidence in building online employability • Identify opportunities and gaps • Consider and reflect on the implications for career practitioners and the students themselves • Produce local New Zealand data Hooley et al. (2013) suggested that the online environment can be used variously by career workers; 1. to deliver information, 2. to provide an automated interaction, 3. to provide a channel for communication. Given that people experience their careers as a blend of online and onsite experiences, it is highly likely that they will seek, expect and respond to career support that recognises and utilises the potential of this blended environment (Hooley, 2012). Methodology A survey questionnaire was developed and administered in electronic form using Wufoo. The questions were centred around the 7 Cs of digital career literacy, in relation to the experiences of the students. Two student cohorts were selected for the survey; one cohort of current students from Massey University Wellington campus and one cohort of current students from Unitec Institute of Technology Auckland campus. Bachelor of Communication students were targeted on the Massey Wellington campus as these were initially thought to be the most likely to use LinkedIn. Various classes were visited at all year levels and students were encouraged to participate in the survey with a draw for two prizes. A separate questionnaire was also developed and administered in email form to tertiary career practitioners across New Zealand. The open-ended questions focussed on the ways in which practitioners currently contribute to the development of digital career literacy of students.
- 3. Results STUDENT SURVEY: DEMOGRAPHICS There were 130 student responses to the survey. 82% (107) were from Massey and 18% (23) were from Unitec. Gender 84% (109) of students reported female, 16% (21) reported male Age 53% (69) of students were aged 20-24. 88% of (114) students were aged 30 or under Area of Study 68% (89) of students reported Bachelor of Communications. Other responses included Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Design, and Master of Communication Devices Used Devices used to access internet included: Laptop (118), Mobile Phone (108), iPad (23), Desktop (19), Tablet (7), Other (1) PART 1: DIGITAL CAREER LITERACY Figure 1 shows that most students used digital technology to find information about jobs and careers. A much lower percentage used it to build professional relationships and build an online presence - two of the main benefits of a tool such as LinkedIn. Figure 1: Percentage of students that use digital technology: Figure 2 shows that students are most confident in learning about new technology and finding information online. They are least confidence in using digital technology to build professional relationships. Figure 3 shows students believe all aspects of using technology are important with over 80% of students agreeing (scores of 7+) on all aspects that it is important. The most important aspects were using digital technology to find relevant information, the need to be able to communicate effectively across channels and using digital technology to develop/further the student’s career. 96% 68% 65% 59% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% to find information about jobs/ careers to assess or critique information to create an online presence to build professional relationships
- 4. Figure 2: Student confidence in using digital technology Figure 3: Student rating of importance in using digital technology 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 % of highly confident students (scores of 7+) 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 % students who believe it is important (7+)
- 5. Figure 4 shows that Facebook and LinkedIn are the most popular social media channels used to find job and career information. Facebook is likely to be this popular as it is currently used more frequently than LinkedIn. Further investigation on how Facebook is used to find the job/career information would be useful as it is not a platform focussed on this purpose. Word of mouth is a very popular way of securing jobs with over 60% of jobs not being advertised. Thus Facebook can be used to provide introductions and alert users to potential roles. LinkedIn is more focused on providing job/career information with specific job board sections. Figure 4: Social media channels used to find jobs/career information Figure 5: Websites used to find information on jobs/careers Figure 5 shows that Trademe, Seek and Student Job Search are the most popular sites to find roles. Company websites and Google also feature. It shows that students gain information from a variety of sources. The Massey Career Hub does get used but the results show that a relatively small proportion use the University Careers websites. This is likely due to students’ motivation to find jobs first and careers information second. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Facebook LinkedIn Not applicable Instragram Twitter Other 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0%
- 6. Figure 6: Career information found/searched online PART 2: LINKEDIN RESULTS Figure 7 shows that more than half of students (53%) said that they currently use LinkedIn. It does not show how much of the platform they use – whether they just have an incomplete profile page or whether they actively use it. From information gained from workshops run on campus, most students are on the low end of the spectrum when it comes to the completeness of their pages. Figure 7: Proportion of students that currently use LinkedIn Figure 8 shows that Friends and Lecturers are the two top ways students hear about LinkedIn. There are some that hear about it through the careers service, however this is likely to be limited due to the numbers of students that actually use the careers services in the university. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 44% (57) No 53% (70) Yes 2% (3) Dont Know
- 7. Figure 8: How students heard about LinkedIn Figure 9 shows that many students had very low confidence in using LinkedIn, in particular around building professional connections. Around a quarter of all students gave the lowest confidence rating (not at all confident) across all aspects of using LinkedIn. Building a professional online presence was the only area that featured in the high confidence ratings, however these were both under 15% for each rating. Figure 10 reiterates these observations with all average scores less than 5, with building professional connections the lowest and building a professional online presence the highest. Figure 9: Confidence in using LinkedIn in different areas 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Friends Lecturer Not applicable Social media Careers service Online research Other 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 9 (very confident) (9) 8 (8) 7 (7) 6 (6) 5 (5) 4 (4) 3 (3) 2 (2) 1 (not at all confident) (1) % of respondents Assessing information on LinkedIn Find information about jobs Promote onself to employers Adding content Building professional connections Building a professional online presence
- 8. Figure 10: Average confidence rating for using LinkedIn Figure 11: Keen to learn more about LinkedIn PART 3: CONTRIBUTION OF PRACTITIONERS An email survey was sent to university and polytechnic career services teams across New Zealand. Five completed responses were received, with two from universities and three from polytechnics. A summary of selected responses are contained below. Describe the ways in which your team uses the online environment (internet, social media, and digital technologies) to support the career development of students. YouTube videos/our own employer videos for our workshops to show key messages e.g. what employers look for in a CV, how to do an elevator pitch. Staff interviews on Thesislink to support PG students. Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Online career management system (Symplicity / MyCDES) – student-only access to further resources, uploaded workshop presentations and guest speaker presentations from employer events (future development). Also able to facilitate online contact between Employers and students, manage experiential learning opportunities with employers etc. Currently developing short online career modules to support group and individual delivery. University of Auckland (UofA) Career Voyage, CareerHub, Department Facebook pages advertise relevant jobs we have on CareerHub and also lunchtime workshops/events, Linkedin, use of Miracast with tablets around campus and to Career Centre large screen TV. Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Building a professional online presence Building professional connections Adding content Promote onself to employers Find information about jobs Assessing information on LinkedIn
- 9. We have a LinkedIn site for MIT graduates where full time job opportunities for dip and degree students are posted, also career related articles. We have a Facebook page where all job opportunities; full time, part time, internships, work experience are posted – also career related articles and career related ‘funnies’. Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). Implemented the Unitec Keeping it Real Facebook page to highlight stories of students/staff, promoting challenges, successes and support accessed. Maintained by an intern. We contribute to the Unitec LinkedIn group by sharing articles and links.. Run 1:1 sessions and workshops on Online Branding, LinkedIn. Unitec Institute of Technology (Unitec) What does your team see as the significant issues facing students in relation to building their digital career literacy during their course of study? Students don’t always see the value in using social media platforms as part of building their employability skills i.e. hard to attract large numbers to offered workshops in using social media in job search. Student perceptions of social media as being for personal vs professional use. Lack of knowledge re; creating/maintaining (and protecting) a professional online identity. Potential concerns around privacy. UofA Not all students have access or limited access (low data plans, needing to share computer with the whole family) to the internet at home and rely on computers on campus. Learning to manage all these different platforms and communication from all areas of the university – email, txt, facebook, twitter, course site etc. AUT Negativity towards using some of our student platforms e.g. Moodle, campus life. Limited licence with CareerHub – would like to do more with it but not possible at this stage to expand the licence Lack of people / funding to develop more interactive online resources. CPIT Understanding that whatever students post online, can be read by potential employers – a general unwillingness to understand that online is not private. Lack of digital literacy overall and understanding of what career literacy is. MIT Inconsistent messaging across academic departments – not all are active proponents of weaving in digital/social media technologies or relating it to career development. Issues for students where English is a second language – implications for how they communicate online. Unitec Share best practice examples of how your team has successfully incorporated the online environment in supporting the career development of students. Creating online mock interviews via InterviewStream to support Interview technique workshops. Using coursebuilder (online learning system) to support career workshops for Politics students (activities, resources and additional links / information). UofA Tailored online employability workshops and CV dropbox support work integrated learning papers for School of Hospitality & Tourism and School of Social Sciences, Languages & Psychology. AUT Incorporating YouTube clips into workshops. Setting up LinkedIn profiles. Accessing radio NZ podcasts. CPIT We often get feedback or questions via our Facebook page - sometimes students are letting us know that they’ve got a job. We like to include humorous postings on Facebook to keep students interested in the page – ‘funnies’ get more hits than job postings! MIT Have run specific online branding and Linkedin workshops for classes including IT dept., Animal Care, Business, Foundation Studies. Ability to offer 1:1 sessions focussed on creating effective online profiles (LinkedIn esp.). Unitec
- 10. What would your team like to up-skill in or develop in their practice to become more proficient in the use of digital technologies? General themes and ideas: • Using digital platforms to create (and continue) conversations or discussions for students • Ways to better engage students in the use of digital technologies • Websites/tools that are best for students to build their online portfolios, video CVs etc. without having to be a ‘techy’ person • To understand more of the platforms that youth are using • Maximising the exposure we get via digital marketing – how to promote our online resources • Up and coming social media platforms and how they might best be utilised in career development • Create online videos and courses Limitations The student survey was completed by 130 participants, so caution should be given when viewing this survey as a representative sample of tertiary students in New Zealand. The survey was also restricted to two tertiary institutions, with a focus on Communications and Marketing students. The survey findings were not analysed further in relation to age, gender, geography, or year of study, due to the relatively small numbers in the survey. However, the survey does provide a general snapshot across tertiary students in general. There is an assumption that the students who responded to this survey were already actively engaged in the use of digital technologies and those less engaged were unlikely to respond. The tertiary career practitioner survey featured a total of five responses from tertiary institutions, with four from Auckland, and one from Christchurch. As with the student survey, caution also needs to be given when viewing this survey as a representative sample of tertiary career services teams in New Zealand. Conclusions The survey suggests that students are digitally literate and likely to engage with different technologies during the course of their tertiary studies. A summary of the key findings: • Most students used digital technology to find information about jobs and careers and a much lower percentage used it to build professional relationships and build an online presence. • Students are most confident in learning about new technology and finding information online. They are least confidence it in using digital technology to build professional relationships. • Students found the most important aspects of using digital technology are finding relevant information, the need to be able to communicate effectively across channels and using it to develop/ further career. • Facebook and LinkedIn are the most popular social media channels used to find job and career information. • TradeMe, Seek and Student Job Search are the most popular sites to find roles.
- 11. • More than half of students (53%) said that they currently use LinkedIn. • Many students had very low confidence in using LinkedIn, in particular around building professional connections. • 84% of students are keen to learn more about LinkedIn. The tertiary career practitioner survey suggests that career teams actively engage the use of digital technologies in their practice and are keen to enhance and further develop the delivery of services to students. The findings also suggest issues around funding, human resources, student and staff perceptions, and student accessibility can impact on the ability to deliver digitally enriched services. Opportunities For Students The Digital Career Literacy responses indicated that there was an opportunity to support students in how to build their professional relationships online. This had the lowest level of confidence yet was still rated as extremely important. Thus one opportunity for practitioners is to help encourage, develop and support students around the use digital platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and others that allow students to do these things. The high usage of technology to find information around jobs and careers means services need to ensure students have easy, relevant access to these to remain relevant. Ensuring roles are referred to in material that we produce and refer to will ensure students will look at this. It seems the practical aspect of jobs and looking for jobs is a key interest. From a social media perspective further work needs to be done around the use of Facebook and using it to enhance students’ careers. Whilst on the surface it seems a non-professional network, it appears a very popular platform for students finding information. The popularity of LinkedIn again indicates it is a popular social media tool around careers. There are opportunities however around developing student confidence in its usage. The high number of students that are at the lowest end of the confidence rating shows that workshops, resources and discussions around using the material would be valuable. The fact that many students hear about LinkedIn through their lectures and friends indicates that any initiative to enhance the use of LinkedIn needs to also include academics as a key stakeholder. There is no point promoting it as a tool if in a class it then gets discounted. Finally there is an opportunity around linking the different digital platforms together for career development usage. Whilst this survey focused on LinkedIn it is important to remember in certain disciplines (for example design) there are other relevant digital platforms (for example Behance). Blogging and developing personal websites was also not considered but a useful way of building an effective personal brand. As practitioners we need to walk the talk. The careers space is changing so fast, just like the digital space, that if we do not adapt and embrace it we run the risk of being left behind. Helping students navigate the myriad of options before them in a way that suits and is relevant to them is one way of being effective in enhancing their careers. But we need to be prepared to make the effort of learning, becoming uncomfortable with something new and considering whether we want to embrace it for ourselves. There is only one thing worse than no digital footprint – it is one that has been tinkered with, is incomplete and out of date.
- 12. For Tertiary Career Practitioners With an acceptance and wide use of digital technologies by career practitioners in the delivery of career services, there are opportunities for teams to engage in professional development that accentuates best practices and innovations in and around digital technology (including e-portfolios, and social media platforms). Career services teams can also consider working more closely with departments within their institute who can provide expertise and assistance around the use of the technologies. This could include internal marketing, communications and information technology teams. Within the career services team there could be a refocus on the competencies of career practitioners to have an adept understanding of digital technologies, or to create new roles that focus on these activities. Overseas there are many career services teams that have their own digital / social media policy and strategy, so this could be formalised within the structure of a team. The relevance of digital career literacy is clearly identified and articulated in this paper and the work of Longridge, Hooley and Staunton (2013) can be used as an underpinning framework for working alongside and supporting academic departments in embedding digital career literacy within the classroom and beyond. About Us Grant Verhoeven is the Career Development Consultant at Massey University. He leads the career and employment service on Massey's Wellington campus. He is passionate about enhancing student employability and introducing them to the latest tools that can be used to support this. Grant holds a Masters of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Massey University; he is currently completing a Bachelor of Social Services in Career Practice. Grant's work history includes over 10 years’ experience in business development, marketing, executive coaching and has been the past branch president of the International Coach Federation. Grant's profile can be viewed at https://nz.linkedin.com/in/grantverhoeven. Andrew Tui is the Career Centre Team Leader at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland. As a self- proclaimed ‘social media geek’, he previously presented his research paper “Do you Tweet, Like, Share or Pin?” at the 2014 Career Research Symposium. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland and the Graduate Diploma of Career Development from AUT. His work history is varied with experiences in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. A proud ENFJ of Samoan-Chinese descent, Andrew enjoys spending time with his aiga, playing the ukulele, emulating Roger Federer on the tennis court, and supporting local community events. Andrew's profile can be viewed at https://nz.linkedin.com/in/andrewtui.