White Working Class Males in British Higher Education
Among the 97 survey respondents who identified as white , male , British , traditional age , and first generation students , 30 students ’ responses to the question about career goals indicated that they were uncertain , as illustrated through these examples :
Not sure what I want to do yet .
No idea what career I want to pursue yet . At the moment , I ' m trying to gather skills I think would look good to any employer .
To get a job which has a good income and I enjoy .
At the moment I am in a state of not knowing what my career goal should be .
Career uncertainty was also mentioned by a few of the focus group participants , as highlighted by these quotes :
I ’ m a bit different to everyone else ‘ cause when these people have known what they wanted to do , I ’ ve changed five times what I want to do . I knew I wanted to get to uni but I didn ’ t know what , so I ’ ve gone from science to policing to forensics , then to games design as well , games technology , so completely changed but I haven ’ t regretted it since .
It ’ s [ higher education ] gonna hopefully help me find what I wanna do as a career , so rather than knowing what my goal is , right now I don ’ t know what that is , but if I can find the goal that I want to pursue , then for me that ’ s enough .
I think it just helps keep your options open as well because a lot of employers just want a degree really , so if you get a degree in something that you ’ re really interested in but then can ’ t find a career in [ that field ] then at least you ’ ve still got the degree .
For participants who are on the uncertain end of the spectrum , they still discussed wanting to choose a university and a degree that will help them increase their employment prospects . However , unlike some of their peers who are more certain , this group of students focused their higher education decision-making process on universities and courses that offer opportunities to explore different career options and that provide support for students who may need more guidance and advice as they make future career decisions .
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Further along the spectrum of career certainty , 34 survey respondents indicated that they knew in which field or industry they wanted to work after graduation , but were still exploring the specific career options within their chosen area . Those responses are highlighted by these examples :
I don ' t know currently but I know I want to work in the media .
I know I want to pursue a career in the computing industry . I have a couple of specific areas that I am interested in but my course is helping me decide which areas of computing I like most