Funded by The British Academy (2021-2024)
Care-Experienced Graduates’ Decision-Making, Choices, and Destinations
About the project
The Care-Experienced Graduates' Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations project explores the transition out of higher education and into employment and/or further study for care-experienced graduates in England and Scotland.
The project seeks to understand care-experienced students' plans for after graduation, their choices and decisions informing these plans, and actual graduate destinations. In doing this, the project intends to make recommendations for policy and practice to support graduate transitions.
Why am I researching this?
Very little is currently known about care-experienced graduates' transitions out of higher education and into employment and/or further study. An understanding of these experiences is now needed to help inform future developments in policy and practice.
Project updates
Phase One of the project was completed in 2022. This involved interviewing 23 care-experienced final year higher education students across England and Scotland to understand their graduate plans. The Phase One report which includes recommendations for local authorities, higher education institutions, employers and government departments is available here.
Phase Two of the project revisited participants six months after graduation. Data collection was completed for this phase in Spring 2023. The associated report which explores care-experienced graduates' initial transitions out of higher education, as well as their progression through professional employment and postgraduate study is close to completion. This is due to be released by the end of this year.
Phase Three revisited participants a final time 12 months after graduation. The data collection for Phase Three was completed in Summer 2023, with analysis starting shortly. A final report based on the Phase three data will be released in 2024.
What would participation involve?
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