SW Regional ASL Careers Fair Report

SW Regional ASL Careers Fair
Hartpury College 24th January 2011

Report
 

Summary
The event attracted 341 students from across 15 different institutions. The majority of students were from Hartpury College, 8% of students who attended were from outside of the VetNet SW region. Students attended from as far away as Liverpool, Berkshire and Cheshire. The event attracted students from a wide range of programmes, 45% were from animal related programmes, 41% from equine programmes. Less than 1% were from land based programmes.
Student feedback from the event was very positive. Many students commented that it helped prepare them for the next stage in their careers. For many it gave a new insight into possible future careers outside of their own particular field. Several students also were invited to apply for jobs. Students were also given a questionnaire giving feedback on the event.  This showed that the majority of respondents indicated that the event had a strong influence on their career discussions. The talks and activities were enjoyed by the students and were well attended. A total of 94% would recommend the event to others. The majority of students indicated that this was their first careers fair.
Feedback from employers was generally positive. Many commented on the high quality of the students and were genuinely impressed with the amount of preparation they had made. Overall feedback from employers was very positive and they felt it was a very useful event for them. Several suggestions were also made to improve the running of the event for future years.
 

Student Numbers
The event attracted at least 341 students from 15 different institutions (a complete list of institutions represented is provided in figure 1). The majority of the students who registered were from Hartpury College (68%) with both Weston College and Bicton College contributing similar number of students (7% each). A number of students also attended from local schools, 3 people indicated that they were currently in employment.
Eight percent of the students who attended were from outside of the VetNet SW region. Several students attended from outside either the VetNet SW or Midlands regions.

VetNet Partnership College Engagement
Posters and invitations were sent out to 51 Universities and College in the SW and Midlands; this was achieved through VetNet and also by personal emails. The event was also listed on several employment related discussion forums and websites.
Through the VetNet grant, £2000 was allocated towards providing transport to those colleges within the VetNet SW region. These colleges provided 92% of the students.
 
 

Numbers by course of study
Of those students who recorded their course of study, most were registered on either a Foundation Degree or Bachelor’s degree in Equine Science (24%). This was closely followed by those students registered on Animal Behaviour/Welfare associated Foundation or Bachelor’s degrees (21%), with Foundation or Bachelor’s degrees in Animal Science, Bioveterinary Science and Equine Business Management  contributing the next largest number of students (7% each).
Overall 45% of students were on Animal Science/Behaviour type programmes and 41% from Equine programmes. Less than 1% of the students recorded their Degree or Foundation degree as being a Conservation or Agriculture related programme.
 
 

 
Student Feedback
A questionnaire was used to sample student feedback, to gauge student responses and provide a tool for evaluation of the event.  Approximately 400 surveys were distributed, with a return of 48 completed questionnaires.
Programme of Study
This section looked at the academic background of the students attending this event, asking them to indicate their area of study.
 

42% of respondents were from an equine background, 48% were from other animal based disciplines, the remainder were from sport, conservation, or an undefined ND course.

90% were female with only 10% male, with 92% under 25 years of age, the remainder being between 25 and 40 years.

Hartpury was cited as the main source of information about the event, with just 6% hearing through Kingston Maurward, and 4% through Weston and RAC combined (note that 29% provided insufficient or no data to categorise their answer).  71% travelled under 30 miles to the event, with just 4% travelling between 30 and 50 miles, and 25% travelling over 50 miles.

Career Information
This section asked students to agree strongly/agree mostly disagree mostly/disagree strongly with a statement about the usefulness of each event.
 

This indicates that overall 89% were positive about the animal careers panel, 87% about the employer stands, 77% about the arena demonstrations and 57% about the equine panel. Equine shows the lowest satisfaction rate, but it is noted that they also had the highest rate of ‘Not applicable’ at 40%, suggesting that large numbers did not attend this event.  Overall student reactions are extremely positive.
 

Career Influences
Students were asked to respond to the statement that the event clarified their career aspirations.  This was compared with a similar statement about career influence before attending college/university, the influence of studying at college, and influence of tutors, on their career plans.
 

Again, this shows largely very positive responses, with studying at college having the biggest impact on career plans, and this career event being also strongly influential.  This suggests that careers events potentially have a strong role to play in supporting student career decisions.
 

Students were also asked if they expected their college to support and assist them in finding employment when they finished study.  63% agreed with this statement, with just 34% disagreeing, and 4% finding the question not applicable.  This suggests that students have strong expectations of support from their college, not just in achieving qualifications, but in translating this into employment. 

Facilities
Students were asked to rate the facilities provided.  They agreed that the parking was appropriate, staff were friendly and helpful, refreshments were value for money, it was easy to find their way around, and that they would recommend the event to others.

Overwhelmingly students expressed satisfaction, the lowest score being for refreshments purchased on site, and the highest score being for the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff.  A total of 94% would recommend the event to others.

Time spent on each activity
Looking at the time students spent on each activity is useful as an indicator of how interesting or useful the student found the event.
 
The large number of NA responses is perhaps to be expected, as students will pick the subject areas they are interested in.  Most time was spent listening to the animal careers panel and talking to employers, and least time spent watching the birds of prey.  Note that many students left before this event, due to minibus timetabling.

Improvements
This section asked for suggestions to improve future events.  Most students felt the length of time was about right, with 44% strongly agreeing and a further 33% mostly agreeing.  Only 17 percent disagree, and 6% were NA.

Suggestions for improvements are summarised as follows:
Career Planning:
• Mock interviews demos on interview role-play
• Running talks on CV and business link, twice

Career information:
• Vet medicine university/career
• More employers offering jobs
• More animal care employers, veterinary, zoos
• More variety of jobs, not typical ‘norm’ ones, e.g. wildlife/marine,  media etc
• Different areas of interest
• More of everything
• Speakers talking about the dog industry
• More small animals
Equine
• Professional riders – what they look for in a groom
• Bigger variety of employers
• More rider based companies
• A Your Horse Live type event
• Sport science (rider)
• More equine employers, sport horse breeders
• More stands from different industry areas, e.g. saddles, grooms veterinary groups etc.

College info
• Unis about post grad study

Least useful
Students were asked what was least useful, comments showed little consistency.
• Equine
• Horses
• Showjumping
• Police
• Animal careers irrelevant
• Demos
• demos
• CV/keyskills/application letter
• Tractors, animal science
• Land management, food
• Trade stands

Comparison with other events
Finally, students were asked how this event compared with other similar events. Overwhelmingly the response was that students had not been to similar events, indicating that there is a need for such an event. Other responses indicated that it was smaller than events they had been to (4%)

Other comments
Many respondents added extra comments to the questionnaire, and they are summarised here.
• break up talks to keep people more interested
• people leaving before the end – maybe shows throughout may be better
• show birds of prey earlier
• bit long for the amount here.  Will be OK in the future when there are more employers
• a LOT better than the UWE fair that had nothing in our area of study
• a good spread of animal, land and equine career information
• very good
• mock up interviews – demo/talks

Conclusion
Overall student satisfaction was high with this event, and with the activities within the event.  Improvements generally ask for more – more variety, bigger range etc.    Students felt that the event was strongly influential on their career ambitions, and most said they had not been to one before. 

Verbal feedback on the day from students
The verbal feedback from students on the day was generally extremely positive. The final year students (BSc Animal Behaviour and Welfare; BSc Animal Science) noted that the event provided lots of opportunity to discuss careers with employers and they gained some good ideas for potential career paths. They expressed that a half-day was fine, and they probably wouldn’t need any more time.
Guest speakers were identified as very good and interesting, particularly Miranda Krestovnikoff.
When asked students highlighted the following as being useful results of the day;
• It allowed them to engage and question a large range of employers
• Several were given application forms
• Some were invited to apply for jobs
• Students commented that it gave them a better understanding of the jobs available
• Some students commented that it made them realise that they had a range of skills that were attractive to employers outside of their own narrow fields.
Improvements that were suggested when pushed included;
• Avoiding having lots of talks on at the same time
• More animal related stands
• Stressing more in lectures as that is how most found out about it.
• Improved acoustics in the area as some talks were hard to hear.

Employers
Invitations were sent out via email to 252 employers. Employers were then sent a follow up email and selected employers were also contacted by telephone. Over 421 emails were sent to employers prior to the event. Where no email address was obvious contact was made via companies’ websites. Over 200 phone calls were made to chase up employers. Adverts were also placed on several land and equine based employers’ forums.
No response was received from 72% of employers contacted. Seventeen per cent responded that they would not be attending. Of these several indicated that in future years they would be interested in attending.
On the day 26 employers attended representing a range of industries. Three employers cancelled within the last week. Only about 2/3 of companies attending completed the required booking forms and returned to the college.
Employer’s feedback
Fifteen providers completed and returned their feedback forms. All the results are shown in percentage %.
 Good Acceptable Poor
The Venue 87 13 0
Your display space  67 33 0
Catering 67 27 7
Sign posting on campus 27 33 40
General Organisation 60 33 7
Helpfulness of Hartpury Staff 80 13 7
Length of the event 47 53 0
Do you think this was the right time of year for this event? YES - 93 NO - 7
Was this event beneficial to YOU? YES- 87 NO -13
Do you think this event was beneficial to the STUDENTS? YES - 100 NO - 0
Would you be interested in offering a work placement to a Hartpury student? YES - 73 NO - 27
Would you recommend this event to someone one else? YES - 87 NO -13
Would you be interested in attending future careers fairs at Hartpury? YES - 87 NO - 13

Comments on employer feedback forms

• Company names should have been on the tables so people knew where to go.
• Food ran out.
• Very helpful staff, lovely facilities but the car parking was poor.
• Too many students at once and there was an unpleasant crush. Would be better to stagger them.
• Lots of activity and interest.
• An enjoyable afternoon, well attended and lots of interest in potential careers
• Good first effort. Better liaison between speakers on topics they will cover. Could not hear the speakers on the stand side.
• Larger meeting area would have been better. Too many students in a small area.
• Students were very enthusiastic and interested in guide dogs and fundraising.
• Unfortunately the audience was very equine orientated. Stand space was a bit tight and should of grouped into equine and non equine.
• We came as we were asked but it is not something we would do again.
• Innovis would be willing to guest lecture on sheep breeding.

Comments from talking to employers

From talking to employers it was apparent that they were very impressed with the quality of the students they were talking too. Several comments from employers included –
• They hadn’t been to a careers fair where some many students were as well prepared.
• They were generally impressed with the engagement of our students.
• Never before had they had students with some many questions.

General verbal feedback from the employers was that it was a very useful experience for them.

Many liked the relatively small size of the event and liked the atmosphere that this created. Some employers commented that this made for a more casual atmosphere and they were able to engage more with the students. Many also liked that the fact that there was a range of activities taking place in the arena and felt that this made the event unique.

Generally when talking to the providers they were happy with the arrangement for the day. Information provided before hand was detailed and gave them sufficient information about the event. The event itself was generally well run. Negative comments from providers included that, a large number said that there were too many students all at once and then it went quiet. A few said that maybe having something in the arena the whole time so that some students are watching that would help stagger arrivals at the providers stands.

They also said it was scatty on arrival. Signage for employers was deemed to be poor, a member of staff had been assigned to specifically direct employers on arrival but it looks like this was not particularly effective.  Also registration for employers was very difficult as a both students and employers were registering at the same table.

Response to employers’ feedback
It is pleasing to see that employer feedback is largely extremely positive. Generally the venue was deemed acceptable, however space was limited for each employer.
The buffet was received well by most employers, however this ran out quite early. This was in part due to a poor knowledge of the number of people attending and also due to lack of knowledge of running a previous event of this kind. For future years a larger budget would have to be allocated to catering.
Signage for employers could have been better. The parking plan relied on signage on the equine driveway to the employers parking and a parking attendant. It would appear this didn’t work fully. The equine car park was also too small. From here student advisers were to greet employers and take to registration. On the day there were too few advisers and several employers were not aware of where they needed to go.
On the day initial registration was somewhat chaotic. This was partially due to the poor response rate from the employers attending. On the day we were not aware of how many employers would be attending and with how many people. A table plan had been done but it was feared that several employers might not attend and we would have several empty stands, a decision was made to fill the rooms as employers arrived. This did lead to a chaotic start to the event and was noted by employers. Better communication is needed with employers before the event.
Several employers commented that they would have liked more help setting up their stand. It would appear however that it is standard for employers to setup their own stands at these events.
The event venue was very crowded and might have benefitted from being run over all day. The talks were aimed at spreading out when students attended the Marketplace of employers. However, there was still too many people in the Marketplace at one time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to book the arena for all day due to teaching. The staging of events and demonstrations throughout the day in the arena could help. The arrival of different colleges could also be staggered, although this would make the running of talks very difficult.
Of those employers who would not recommend the event, 1 was invited to provide a falconry demonstration and was offered a stand to promote her business, this possibly wasn’t the best event for her to do that at. In future it might be worth paying those people giving demonstrations; £500 was available in the budget for this but money wasn’t  asked for by any of those giving a demonstration. The other employer commented that they felt that it was really an equine event and there were too few “other” students. This doesn’t appear to be born out by the analysis of the students who attended.

Conclusions
• The event was well attended from a range of students from across the SW region and further afield
• The event attracted students from both Equine and Animal programmes
• More work can be done attract Land Science students
• The range of employers was good but would hopefully improve in future years
• Student satisfaction of the event was very high and they indicated that is was a very useful event.
• The talks were well attended and were seen as being very useful.
• Earlier planning and engagement with other colleges will help improve attendance.
• The student and employer feedback will be used to improve the event for future years.

Dr Richard Rolfe