Good Practice Case Study - Construction

To maximise the proportion of graduates securing professional level roles in Transportation Engineering.

The challenge that I am seeking to overcome is the reluctance of students to apply early on in their final year for graduate roles, which is when most of the large graduate schemes are open. This appears to be due to some misconceptions from students about when the best time is to apply, with many thinking that they should wait until they have graduated. Another big issue is students not knowing who they can apply to and what the roles would entail.

The final year module (Transportation Engineering) is a specialism within Civil Engineering. The course work task is exactly the kind of brief that they might work on as a graduate in this field. I find job adverts for graduates that refer to the same things that the students will complete on the module. 

Each week during a break in one of the two 2-hour face to face sessions, I talk to them about careers and job applications. I show them the Transportation Engineering careers section I created on Moodle. One aspect of this that the student find most useful is a list of circa 200 organisations that employ Transportation Engineering graduates in the UK. I discuss with the class the pros and cons of working for bigger and smaller employers. I open up some of the companies’ careers pages and highlight those that are currently open for applications. I discuss the different job titles and what they actually mean. I suggest things that students should and should not include in their applications and say at interviews. Within the careers section on Moodle I also direct students to the professional body for the specialism and their careers resources. I

 also ask students to complete a quick Google form that collects information on who did a placement, who wants to do a masters, who would like more help from the careers service on their CV etc. I share the results with the relevant parts of the university to follow up.

1. Create a careers “book” on the module’s Moodle page that includes lists of employers, professional bodies, specialism specific job searching tools etc.

2. Discuss jobs in the specialism every week.

3. Ask students to complete a Google form to highlight those that need more support.

4. Pass on details to Careers and Recruitment and forward on Fast Track Masters application details to those interested in an MSc.

5. Ask each week how the job applications are going and offer to give one to one support to any student applying for, or going for an interview in a role in the particular specialism.

6. Advise students to take a copy of their course work along to the interview, as it is aligned to the brief that they might be working on in such a role.

7. Padlet and in-class discussions around interview and application centre experiences.

8. Keep nagging the students to apply (they often comment positively about me nagging them!)

Do not assume our students know what companies are out there. 

Do not rely only Careers and Recruitment companies to be able to guide students in somewhat niche branches of a subject. 

Be bold in sharing your own experiences (positive and negative) of applications, interviews etc. 

Be positive when talking to students about their prospects, but remind them that to secure a good graduate role, they need to apply for good graduate roles. 

Nag people to apply, in a friendly way.

It is something that the students always comment on very positively in their end of module feedback. It has been noted as good practice in the Student Voice Committees. 100% professional level occupation rates for graduates from the courses and very high employment rates in general.

Anecdotally; quite a few graduates seem to end up in this specialism.

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