The University and College Union in the UK is currently on strike. If you are interested in reading more about why the union is on strike the press release is a good place to start. I’ve also happened across this Strike Handbook which very helpfully explains what people can and should do while they are on strike including a section on ‘teach outs’ that I think will be very interesting to people who read this blog. 

I’ve been sent a guest post by an anonymous higher education careers professional who wanted to explain the connections that they see between their careers practice and their role as a striker. I think that it speaks to a lot of the themes that we are addressing on this site. 

Thoughts from an anonymous careers professional on strike

I am participating in strike action at the moment with my union UCU. Professor Sarah Bell has articulated the reasons why I think taking strike action is the right choice for me and I’m thankful that she has taken the time to write it.

But her story isn’t exactly mine, mostly because I am not a professor. I work in careers, which puts me in the ‘professional services’ camp of UCU. There are professional services staff out on the picket line, but I think it is fair to say that there are fewer of us than there are lecturers. I guess this is mostly because there are more teaching staff overall (it would be a bit weird if there were more careers advisors than lecturers at uni!). No doubt it is also because many professional services staff are not on grades that mean they are able to join UCU.

I know that joining and supporting my union is important to me and fits well with my personal values and politics. But I’ve been thinking recently (because I have some time!) about why I think participating in strike action is important to me as a person who works in career education. These are some of my thoughts:

• We don’t talk to students enough (or at all) about unions. Many students don’t have a lot of experience in the world of employment and so it may not be surprising to learn that many don’t know much about the existence or purpose of a union. They know about their own students’ union but don’t necessarily see the link between that and staff unions. Many students don’t know that staff do not get paid during strike action or that some staff will have a portion of their work life dedicated to union work such as meetings and case work. The strike represents a chance for students to see that unions exist, that they can have a powerful role (let’s hope!) and show them what industrial action looks like whether that be in person, online, through out of office messages or via posters and leaflets they see as they walk through the picket.
• We don’t talk to students enough (or at all) about collective action. A good deal of my work with students is about helping them to develop skills, build self-awareness and successfully navigate various recruitment processes. Much of this is delivered through group work but generally students are working on their own CVs, applications and career development. Although there is a lot of peer to peer work and peer feedback, the assumed goal is that each individual will improve their own situation. Unions are about groups of people stepping up to help each other, even when not all individuals need support at the same time. I’ve spent nearly two decades belonging to a union, safe in the knowledge that I could call on it if I needed to but also happy to know that because I am a member there is more resource available to help others in need. A union is there so we can obtain collectively that which we aren’t able to obtain individually. On the face of it the competitive nature of job hunting doesn’t seem to fit well with that idea and yet I suspect none of us could say that our careers have been a totally individual effort, uninfluenced or uninformed by our peers, family and networks. A picket line is an observable form of collective action and it makes me think about the other ways in which we work together to achieve goals for ourselves and how we might talk about this in terms of career development with students.
• We don’t talk to students enough (or at all) about challenging power structures and inequality. When students are applying for graduate jobs they are often all too aware of the power that employers have over their futures – or at least that is often the way it can feel. Some students face more inequality than others (class/visa restrictions/ethnicity/gender/geography etc…). Although we work hard to empower students and graduates to overcome adversity and make the most of their diversity, strengths and skills, I don’t think we open up conversations about how to challenge power structures. Maybe that is because we find it difficult to do so ourselves or because it is hard to do that without political debate. But as we are supporting our students to join the workforce where these things are very real and affect everyone’s lives, wouldn’t it be useful to create more space for this type of discussion? (There is a workshop on this site from Anne Delazun from University of Reading called I want to make a difference which I keep meaning to try out. In it students are challenged to think about labour market problems in different ways. Looks good!)
• Finally, the students of today are likely to be the managers, entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow (or at least some of them will). For this reason, it seems important to me that students see some of the tensions and issues that employees can face when management strategies are implemented. The strike shows students that there is more going on in their university (and the sector) than their own experiences. Students, like the rest of us to be honest, don’t get a lot of exposure to wide variety of organisations that have a different drivers, strategies and management approaches. I think it would be useful for future managers to be aware that there are different choices out there and that the choices they make matter.

I recognise that these thoughts are pretty convenient for someone who is involved in strike action. Maybe I am just finding ways of further justifying my actions. To be honest it is wearing to start each day with emails to students explaining why I am cancelling my work with them for that day so I suppose it helps to try to think of ways that what I am doing is in some way useful to the great cause of career education!

I am also pretty sure that there are careers people out there who are dealing with these concepts really well in their work with students (hint hint please send your resources to this site). Personally, I find that when I am in work it is a challenge to create space for these conversations and it is easy to get absorbed into the day to day drivers of delivery, numbers, engagement, destinations and feedback. I like my job, my students, my colleagues and my institution. I get satisfaction out of trying to make an impact. I know I am fortunate to be able to say all of that. It’s possible I just have too much time to reflect at the moment – somebody get me back to work!