Increasing student’s awareness of their employability: An impact evaluation of embedding careers education across marine sport programmes

To understand whether embedding careers within a programme enhances a student’s awareness of their employability Graduates in Sport programmes have an ability to ‘be well prepared for the wide range of professional and vocationally orientated careers in this still growing and maturing sector’ (Rees et al, 2006:130), however Minten (2010:67) notes that there is increasing concern about the employability of sport graduates in the UK ‘fuelled by the rapid growth of undergraduates studying sport’ and concerns over ‘the appropriateness of those graduates to employers’ needs’. More generally, Margaret Dane (Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Service) also highlights that there is a need for employability to be ‘right up there on the agenda, especially in the light of increased tuition fees that has raised student and parent expectations’ (Anyangwe, 2011:website). This study therefore centred on the growing issue of employability within Higher Education, specifically addressing Marine Sport students who have had careers education embedded within their programmes since 2010. This action was taken in 2010 in recognition of the growing concern of employability within Higher Education, and through guidance from the QAA that stated that ‘Careers education can be taught via discrete modules...or embedded across a programme of study’ (QAA, 2010:web page). Through this action there was considerable short-term informal and anecdotal success, but until recently there has been no formal impact evaluation and therefore the ultimate success of the project was unknown. It was the intention of this study to conduct a formal impact evaluation of the process