Post-COVID, post-Brexit, or always in transition?�Doing careers research in “the new normal”

MARINA MILOSHEVA (PHD STUDENT)

M.MILOSHEVA@NAPIER.AC.UK

KATHERINE STEPHEN (PHD STUDENT)

K.STEPHEN@NAPIER.AC.UK

MARIANNE WILSON (MASTERS BY RESEARCH STUDENT)

M.WILSON2@NAPIER.AC.UK

1+3 SDS/SGSSS/ESRC COLLABORATIVE PATHWAY

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Welcome!

• On the agenda today:
• 9:00-9:45
• Doing careers research in “the new normal”
• Break
• 10:00-10:45
• Group discussions

What is the ‘new normal’?

• We don’t entirely know; it is a rapidly developing situation!
• But we can say with certainty:

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• How, when, where, and why we work is changing
• How we relate to others is changing
• Our relationship with technology is changing
• How we do research is changing
• How we deliver career guidance is changing

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What is the ‘new normal’?

• Many of us are optimistic…
• COVID-19: but we have vaccines!
• Brexit: but we have trade deals!
• Work is disrupted: but we have furlough schemes
• Graduate employability took a hit: but we have virtual work placements
• Career guidance works best face to face: but we found that it can also work online

Lessons learnt over 2020-2021

• Expect disruptions and prepare for them!

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• Participant recruitment
• Delayed ethical approval
• Access to datasets, archives, and collections
• Limited availability of research collaborators and key stakeholders

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Lessons learnt over 2020-2021

• Lower expectations and be open minded!

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• We may need to adapt our research
• We may need to scale down the scope of our research
• We may need to completely change our research
• A holistic, project management-oriented mindset is key
• Be kind to ourselves and others

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Lessons learnt over 2020-2021

• Find the silver lining!

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• Seeing opportunities rather than roadblocks
• Thinking of changes as permanent and evolving rather than temporary and ‘back to normal’
• To do or not to do research when there are restrictions? Wait or proceed with research? The answer is usually “no better time than the present”!�

Lessons learnt over 2020-2021

• What are the opportunities? Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study dramatic changes on a global scale:
• work and unemployment
• mental health and social care
• underrepresented, digitally excluded, or vulnerable groups
• new modes of education and distance learning
• the use of new technologies

... and the list goes on!

Good time to work on conceptual research: calls to action; advocating new ways of doing research or new areas to be researched; literature reviews; systematic reviews

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Opportunity to try out new methodologies and secondary data sources

Lessons learnt over 2020-2021

• We are more capable than we think!

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• Research is never ‘finished’! The natural state of research is to constantly change and evolve
• There is not one right way to do research; there are many ways you could go about it
• We already possess some adaptability skills!�

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What types of skills do we need going forward?

Managing our projects:

Risk management

Problem-solving

Managing ourselves:

Resilience

What types of skills do we need going forward? Risk management skills

• What are risk management skills? Pre-emptive assessment of potential risks to research project

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1. Identify – “What if?”
2. Assess – How likely is this to occur?
3. Prioritise – How likely is this to impact my research?
4. Control – Decide what actions to take in line with priorities
5. Evaluate – Did the actions produce the desired results? If not, what other actions can be taken?

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What types of skills do we need going forward? Problem-solving skills

• Finding solutions to problems that have already occurred in a short timeframe

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1. Get as much information as you can about the problem – Is the problem clear? What do you know about it? What don’t you know?
2. List possible solutions – What guidance is available about this (objective information)? What have others done in situations like these (subjective information)?
3. Choose optimal solution (for your own circumstances) by supplementing objective guidance with subjective know-how (yours and other people’s)
4. Evaluate chosen solution/s – Did it work? Do you need alternative or additional courses of action?

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What types of skills do we need going forward? Resilience skills

• Attitudes that help us overcome adversity.

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• Having an awareness of:
• Events
• What beliefs we have about these events
• The actions resulting from our beliefs

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What does resilience look like in practice? �A case study from PhD student Katherine Stephen

Metaskills maturity for future workplaces

REDESIGNING DATA COLLECTION METHODS

Original Research Design - 2019

• - Define ‘metaskills’: utilise database searches to find literature using the term, and collate and refine my findings to produce a single workable definition
• - Measure and develop metaskills: use Heath, Knoblauch and Luff’s ‘workplace studies’ (2002) to gain a rich-data overview of the assessment of metaskills, as well as observe which mechanisms work towards their development in ‘situated action’. This involves a combination of methods:
• Focus groups
• Surveys
• Ethnographic observation

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Coronavirus restrictions - 2020

• - ‘Situated action’ no longer happens across industries as it did before; only key workers are still attending workplaces
• - Ethnographic observation cannot take place
• - Practical issues with online data collection
• - New (to me!) ethical problems with online data collection

Questions I asked myself before redesign

WHAT DO I WANT TO FIND OUT?

• What are metaskills?
• How do they look in action?
• What does it feel like to develop them?
• How do you know you have them?
• How do they help you in your job/career?

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WHAT IS MY UNIT OF ANALYSIS?

• The metaskill – not the worker!

New Research Design - 2021

• - Define metaskills: complete!
• - Assess/measure metaskills:
• Institutional Ethnography (Smith, 2005) – examines documentation created by Skills Development Scotland to self-assess metaskills, including interviews about that documentation
• (desk based, and Teams interviews)
• The Imitation Game (Collins and Evans, 2014) – observes metaskills ‘in action’, as participants pretend to be more established in the workplace than they are
• (email-based game)

- Develop metaskills:

• Intervention study – partner with SDS to create a task-based intervention over three months with Graduate Apprenticeships
• (remote work using online tools)

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Time for a break!

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See you again at 10 am!

Discussions

• We invite you to:
• Tell us about your research! What stage in your studies are you at?
• What research adaptations have you completed (or you are yet to complete)?
• Are you considering making adaptations at the theoretical/methodological level?
• Are you changing the populations and datasets you will study?
• Are you reducing the scope of your study, and if so, how?
• What challenges are you facing? What opportunities are you seeing?

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References

• Collins, H., & Evans, R. (2014). Quantifying the tacit: The imitation game and social fluency. Sociology, 48(1), 3-19.
• Heath, C., Knoblauch, H. and Luff, P. (2000). Technology and social interaction: the emergence of ‘workplace studies.’ British Journal of Sociology, 51(2), pp.299–320.
• Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional ethnography: A sociology for people. Rowman Altamira.

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