I am a student of Educational Sciences. My passion in education started when I happened to experience two education systems. First in a developing country, still trying to build itself and leave Soviet system leftovers behind. And, the second in one of the top-notch universities in western Europe. Learning from the differences and recognizing the opportunities for my own contribution to the system led me to search for practical work within the field. I began with an internship and then an official position in this field. Education was not my major back then. My work and practice inspired me to dive into the theory a bit more.
Now, thinking about my studies, I am asking myself, would all this theory I am learning now make sense if I did not have practical experience? But one thing I know for sure is that the theory is informing my practice and vice versa. One would not grow without the other. This smooth blend of practice and theory is providing me a package of theo-practical decision-making skills I can jungle with.
However, being in the field of education carries long its challenges. If you are an Edu Sciences student my dear reader, at least once in your life someone has asked you a question: “Are you going to be a teacher?”. Or if you are not an Edu Sciences student, you would have asked the same question to your friend, for sure.
That is not a problem for only the people outside the education field, but for us - students of education sciences - it is difficult to orient yourself and really understand where your expertise might be needed. This is where advice and career coaching from an expert is crucial.
To address the abovementioned, FEMCE team arranged the interview with Milan Pol. Milan Pol is a Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Professor of Education at Masaryk University. His area of interest is Educational Evaluation and he is one of the distinguished evaluation experts in ENQA pool.
Below, I have summarized the key highlights from our discussion with Milan, who offered some essential advice worthy of an expert with decades of field-relevant experience.
Where are Edu Sciences graduates most employable in the labor market?
Educational Sciences graduates are eligible to work mostly in the sectors where education needs exist. It can be purely education-based sector (in general education: school principals, school administrative staff, higher education institutions, ministry of education, accreditation centers, etc.). Some graduates end up in non-governmental organizations dealing with educational projects, sometimes they work outside the field and go for private sectors (such as human resources).
Education is not a regulated profession and this leaves a space for flexibility.
What are the employers’ attitudes towards Educational sciences graduates? There is a stereotype that while putting on the scale, business administration, law, or similar field graduates “weigh” more than us while the employer has to choose between the two?
It depends on a few things. Educational sciences programs are mostly theoretical. Sometimes it is not enough to develop the different skills needed for that particular position. Educational students are good at theories, critical thinking, and other generic skills, but sometimes they are weak to perform very job-specific tasks, for example, analyze organizational needs, research practical solutions, etc. On the other hand, employers take their time to hire new graduates with completely different work experience. The advice for you to help potential employers hire you is that you are open to learning, evaluate your skills, plan the activities to improve them, and monitor your progress. Planning your career is key...
One needs to have an attitude, be open to learning, and have practical skills. For example, when it comes to research. Once you master educational research methodology, quantitative or qualitative, or both, ideally, you are very “usable” not only in education but also in areas of working with people, to conduct surveys, to carry out needs analysis, to interpret the data, to build the whole procedure about what should be done.
Educational programs should respond to labor market demands. For example, there is an increasing demand for people who are good at multimedia and education. So, we have opened a specialization which combines education and a little bit of IT. We have noticed that the people with this specialization are quite needed on the market. We do not know how it ends, maybe the demand will be maintained or maybe not.
Curiosity, desire to explore what trends are out there not only nationally, but also internationally is important. There are some international organizations providing study stays. Usually not well-paid, or sometimes not paid at all. But you can become a trainee for instance at UNESCO, Life-long learning institutions, sometimes OECD or World Bank. This way you get a very good chance to learn, meet people and if all this somehow gets together, it usually generates further chances to be employed.
You also need self-analysis: What is required? What do I know? What do I need to learn? Plus, flexibility, patience, and steadiness.
The universities try to make programs as aligned to the labor market as possible. What is your practice about labor market involvement in program improvement?
There are courses provided by non-academics, people from workplaces. They are optional courses mostly. For example, while teaching about educational evaluation, the department invites practitioners (school principals, etc.) for sharing their experience in the area. While teaching about evaluating performance at the workplace, a representative of an organization shares their experience.
Additionally, internships are a very good way to gain hands-on experience in the field and maybe potentially get a job. However, work placements are challenging for the institution because it depends on the motivation, desire to collaborate, and responsibility of three sides (students, university, and labor market). Sometimes the host institute is interested to work with the student, sometimes they do not have an appropriate attitude.
Overall, getting meaningful practice heavily relies on the student. Opportunities are unlimited when it comes to that. Students can get work-study experience in very high profile organizations abroad. The important thing is that you look for opportunities and plan your career path.
Finally, research projects at the end of the degree are a good chance for the student to get into evidence-based practice and establish professional links. While gathering the data, you collaborate with key people in the organization. This can also positively influence your employability. The employer learns a little bit more about you as a student. Sometimes you get offered a position too.
What best practices can you recall in different institutions related to career services?
Best practices usually comprise at least several elements. Information towards the students (What is available?), information towards employers (Who we have?), and communication with employers about our programs and what can be done in order to keep the balance between theory and practice. There should be a discussion about how to build bridges between the university and the labor market. The departments should work with Alumni because they represent the labor market. There should be internship opportunities, joint research opportunities where students are involved.
They are of different qualities across the institutions. Some of them just provide information about what has been delivered to the university. Some are proactive and try to build connections between the student, faculty, and labor market. It differs a lot.
When there is only one person at the institution taking care of the whole processes it is difficult to give career advice to every student from any program. It is impossible to expect that one person can be an expert in every field.
I was reading an article about employers' perceptions of recent graduate’s employability skills. One of the recommendations by the authors was that universities should enhance and resource career support services at the department and faculty level.
What do you think, would it be more efficient if we had career services representatives across the departments?
It depends on the profile of the department. The faculty I am the dean of, we have about 100 programs. In such a variety, to have one office might be very difficult to orientate in the whole market. In this case, it is good to have somebody at the central level to coordinate the process, but you should of course have someone at the department level. People at the department level are the ones having a direct connection to the field-specific working opportunities and are aware of current developments. Therefore, I think it is very reasonable to open-up at the program level.
Is it financially expensive for the department?
Not really, you do not need to have somebody doing only career support at the department level. At least from my experience, it is typically people combining different responsibilities. It can be one of the teaching staff, or others (specialists, etc.). The department should agree who covers which area of studies.