Workshop Choosing a Study Programme

Main idea

Outline

Throughout the workshop Artevelde University of Applied Sciences’ (AUAS) material on the study choice process called ‘Choose Wisely’ is used as a guideline. In this process, there are six main questions the participants are encouraged to think about:

1. Do I want to make a study choice?
   • Do I want to spend time on making a study choice?
   • Why do I want to study?
   • …
2. Who am I?
   • What do I find important?
   • What am I good at?
   • …
3. What does higher education look like?
   • What are my options after completing my studies?
   • What does an academic year in higher education look like?
   • …
4. What study programmes are offered?
   • Do I know what fields of study there are?
   • Do I need specific skills to start a certain programme?
   • …
5. Can I choose?
   • How many programmes remain?
   • How sure am I of my choice?
6. Am I happy with my choice?
   • Am I happy about my study choice?
   • Am I eager to start the programme? Do I want to study in that city/at that educational institution?

The format can differ, but the structure of each workshop is somewhat fixed. It usually starts of with an interactive explanation of the six study choice questions (e.g., using a Wooclap quiz), after which the focus is predominantly on the second question. Participants are encouraged to think about who they are, what they find important, etc. during different games. For instance, the organiser has a deck consisting of ‘talent cards’, ‘action cards’ and ‘value cards’. These cards function as conversation starters. In another game, participants are handed cards with different professions. They can make different stacks depending on which jobs they do or don’t find interesting, or they can give a card to someone else if they think they fit in the profession mentioned on the card. Participants can also write down questions in the beginning of the workshop, so that the organizers know what subjects to focus on.

Target group
The target group for this workshop is prospective students for whom it’s their first time choosing a study programme, but some of its participants are re-orienting as well. Most often, the prospective students are attending secondary school at the moment of the workshop.

Group size
The maximum group size is 20 participants. The structure of the workshop is altered slightly if there’s more than 20 participants (e.g., in case classes can’t be split up in smaller groups).

Organized by
The workshop is organized by the Office of Study and Career Guidance at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS).

Goals

• Helping prospective students reflect on who they are and thereby helping them choose the right study programme for them.
• Informing prospective students about higher education and what their options are.
• By organising the workshops on campus, participants can have a taste of what it would be like studying at AUAS.

Inspiration and evidence

• This workshop is based on AUAS’ material on the six main questions in the study choice process.
• The workshop is based on Germeijs, V., & Verschueren, K. (2007). High school students’ career decision-making process: Consequences for choice implementation in higher education. Journal of vocational behavior, 70(2), 223-241.

Success criteria

• The content and structure of the workshop works great for the target group, the problems only arise when the workshop reaches a more diverse group of people.
• The content of the workshop is evidence and practice based.
• There’s a nice balance between providing information and encouraging participants to reflect on themselves.
• The different games are very helpful conversation starters and tools to help participants reflect.

Points of attention

• When the workshop is not tied to a specific campus visit/secondary school, the turnout is rather low. There might be a lot of sign-ups, but there’s a high no-show rate. It might be beneficial to ask for a no-show fee.
• The content of the workshop isn’t always applicable to all its participants (e.g., participants who have already decided not to pursue higher education (yet)). It might be better to tailor the content more to the group.
• The workshop is not fit for bigger groups, because the bigger the group, the more difficult it is to encourage interaction and the more anonymous the participants are.
• The workshop is not evaluated, but the organizers are currently working on this issue.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

The workshop is not formally evaluated by its participants, but the organizers receive a lot of informal positive feedback.

Adaptations
There were some adaptations based on evaluation by the organizers themselves:

• The original idea was to have the group split up based on which questions the participants wanted to reflect on, but this was adapted due to low turnout. The focus on the question ‘Who am I?’ is due to the observation that many participants wanted to work on this aspect of the study choice process.
• As time passed, participants mentioned that some of the cards were less relevant than others. These are no longer part of the deck used in the workshops.
• The Wooclap quiz about higher education was added.

Communication

• The workshop is mentioned on AUAS’ homepage.
• It’s mentioned in newsletters sent to secondary schools and study choice counsellors.
• In the beginning of each academic year, secondary schools receive a poster with an overview of AUAS’ initiatives for prospective students, including this workshop.
• Students that went to a Study Information Day receive follow-up information in which this initiative is mentioned. There’s also a flyer about different study choice initiatives that gets handed out during these days.
• The workshop is mentioned on social media (Instagram and Facebook).

Timing

The workshop is offered once a year in the beginning of March. This moment was chosen because it’s after the Study Information Days. Secondary schools can also ask AUAS to organise this workshop for their students at the secondary school itself, or during campus visits. These workshops usually take place around February/March/April and take three hours.

Resources

• Promotion and communication material
• A location on campus where the workshop can take place
• There are always two coaches per workshop.
• There’s a team of five staff members working on study choice and career guidance.

Extra information

• Choose Wisely

Germeijs, V., & Verschueren, K. (2007). High school students’ career decision-making process: Consequences for choice implementation in higher education. Journal of vocational behavior, 70(2), 223-241.

Transferability

We think it is quite easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

Is it easily transferable to other contexts/groups?
While this kind of initiative would be beneficial for other universities (of applied sciences) and easily transferable in theory, some institutions don’t have the means or the staff available to organise something similar. This is important to remember when talking about transferability.