Enhancing Student Outcomes: Trialling data-backed initiatives to boost employability in Arts & Humanities
Published: 15 October 2025
Daniel Mitchell, Academic Partnerships Manager in Careers, Employability & Opportunity, shares how a series of targeted employability interventions aimed to help students build confidence, feel more prepared for the graduate labour market and better articulate their skills and experience.
What was the objective?
This project aimed to address two key issues. Firstly, the gap in Graduate Outcomes data for Arts and Humanities graduates, who typically underperform against peers in other Colleges as well as against those studying the same programmes at comparator universities. Secondly, our career readiness data shows that many Arts & Humanities students lack confidence and often delay their career thinking until the final stages of their degree – and sometimes beyond.
By testing a series of tailored interventions, we wanted to improve students’ career readiness and confidence, while identifying what approaches most effectively support this cohort. The learning gained from this work will be used to inform longer-term, embedded employability practice within the curriculum.
What was your approach and how did you implement it?
We piloted five employability initiatives designed for final-year Arts & Humanities undergraduates who were often at the earliest stages of their career thinking. These were:
- 1:1 Career Appointments – highly personalised conversations to help students navigate uncertainty and identify next steps
- A ‘Kickstart Your Career’ bootcamp – a fast-paced workshop condensing everything from job search tools to CV advice
- Graduate Employer Mock Interviews – opportunities to practise with real employers including BBC, STV, GMAC Film, Diageo – and more.
- Paid internships – sector specific roles both within and outside the university.
- A Digital Assessment Centre – a half day event simulating graduate recruitment tasks, with feedback from professional recruiters.
Each activity focused on practical, confidence-building support, enabling students to take action on their next steps while helping us to understand which models of engagement were most impactful for Arts & Humanities students.
A total of 99 students engaged with at least one intervention, representing around 11% of the final-year undergraduate cohort within Arts & Humanities.
How did you measure success?
We focused on four key measures – all of which were exceeded.
- A positive change in student’s career readiness after each intervention
- Increased confidence in taking next steps after university
Each initiative improved student’s career readiness (average movement, +0.74) with two interventions outperforming the control group (+0.82) who did not engage with any intervention. These were 1:1 career appointments (+1.57) and paid internships (+0.92) that offer the most personalised and contextualised support.
Almost every participant (98.4%) reported feeling more confident about taking their next steps after engaging with one of the interventions.
- Progression through stages of career thinking
- Improved ability to articulate and reflect on skills
We achieved our targets to move at least 50% of students in the earliest stages of career thinking forward (71%), and at least 25% of those in the ‘Exploring’ stage into the final stages of career readiness (28%).
More specific reflective prompts led to richer insights. The best results came from prompts that encouraged students to connect experiences to outcomes, reflect on personal and professional growth and consider future implications. Unless explicitly asked, students did not identify or discuss the skills they had developed.
What were your key takeaways?
The project confirmed that while one-off interventions can make a meaningful difference, lasting impact depends on earlier and more integrated employability learning within the curriculum. Students benefit most when support is personalised, contextualised and includes opportunities for structured reflection that helps them link their academic experience to their skills, their values and their goals.
Students also expressed a clear desire for more opportunities to connect their degree content to real-world contexts. Embedding employability across programmes through experiential learning, reflective assessment and explicit reference to career contexts will help students to develop both confidence and professional identity.
Ultimately, employability is not just about securing a job. Employability is about helping students to understand who they are as subject scholars and how their learning and values translate into the world beyond university.
How can staff find out more?
They can contact Daniel Mitchell (Academic Partnerships Manager) or Ann Duff (Careers & Employability Manager for Arts & Humanities).
The full project report is available on request.
First published: 15 October 2025