Stepping back to move forward? Exploring Outdoor Education students' fresher and graduate identities and their impact on employment destinations

Abstract

This four-year mixed method longitudinal study utilises data collected from four cohorts of Outdoor Education (OE) students to compare ‘fresher’ and ‘graduate’ identities and to explore the impact of identity on graduate employment. Findings demonstrate that compared to other programmes, and the university as a whole, OE students had a very distinctive ‘fresher’ profile characterised by active pre-university engagement with the outdoor community of practice, clear vision of their future careers, and how university could contribute to their personal and professional development. Most OE students appear to maintain this strategic approach throughout the three years of their degree, which results, on one hand, in a relatively high employment rate, but on the other hand, in a limited engagement with other developmental opportunities that could enhance their employability if they had chosen a different career route.

Keywords:

• employment destinations
• employability
• outdoor education
• fresher identity
• graduate identity; higher education

Acknowledgements

Students on the BA/B.Sc. (Hons) Outdoor Education programme (2005–10) who completed questionnaires and participated in the interviews used in this study are thanked. Beth Deja assisted with questionnaire administration and data input.