Care-Experienced Graduates Decision-Making, Choices, and Destinations, 2021-2024

Background
Care-experienced students overcome profound challenges to access higher education, such as educational disruption, and mental health issues arising from childhood trauma. Since the ground-breaking ‘By Degrees’ project (Jackson et al., 2005), which documented incredibly low higher education participation rates amongst care-experienced people, there has been a growing body of research on this group’s access to, and engagement with higher education nationally and internationally (Bengtsson et al., 2018; Harrison, 2017; McNamara et al., 2019; Okpych & Courtney, 2019; Zeira et al., 2019). Such research has led to positive developments in the support available for care-experienced students, including the extension of financial and practical support from local authorities in England and Scotland (see, Children and Young Persons Act 2008; Children and Young People Scotland Act 2014; DfE, 2013; The Scottish Government, 2013), as well as the Care Leaver Covenant in England (DfE, 2018) to support care-experienced individuals to develop skills for employment. Yet, for care-experienced people who access and complete their higher education, we know very little about their transitions into graduate life.

Aims
The Care-Experienced Graduates’ Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations project is the first study to qualitatively explore care-experienced students’ graduate transitions out of higher education and into employment and/or further study. This three-year longitudinal project aimed to: 1. Explore the influences that inform care-experienced graduates’ decision-making and choices about their graduate pathways and destinations; 2. Identify what enables and constrains care-experienced graduates’ transitions out of higher education and into employment and/or further study; and 3. Explore what role care-experienced graduates perceive their care histories as having in their choices and decisions, as well as how these contributed to any enablements and constraints they encountered.

Conceptual framework
The research employed Archer’s (2003) notion of reflexivity to conceptually identify structural enablements and constraints, and individual agency. This was adopted alongside a life course perspective (Giele and Elder, 1998) to explore care-experienced graduates’ perceptions of the influence of their care histories on their graduate decisions and choices, as well as how these contributed to the structural constraints and enablements they encountered over their first 12 months of graduate life. This provided opportunities to explore how participants’ graduate plans and journeys were structurally enabled or constrained by their own social circumstances, contexts, and histories. A longitudinal approach was necessary to capture how constellations of structural enablements and constraints changed over time in response to developments in participants’ contexts, or following individual action.

Methodology
A qualitative, longitudinal, narrative inquiry approach was used to empirically and conceptually explore how a background of care affected care-experienced peoples’ graduate transitions. Narrative inquiry is concerned with the collection of detailed accounts of subjective lived experiences which are temporal and subject to change (Clandinin, 2016); this was needed to understand the influences informing care-experienced students' graduate choices and decisions, and to gather personal accounts of the structural enablements and constraints that were encountered and responded to when pursuing these.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with care-experienced graduates in England and Scotland between 2021 and 2023. To understand their motivations and influences informing their graduate decision-making and choices, the enablements and constraints they encountered, and the role of care histories within these, interviews were undertaken at three time points: during their final year in higher education (phase one), then at six (phase two), and 12 months (phase three) after graduation. Phase One explored 23 final-year care-experienced students’ decisions, choices, plans, and concerns regarding their impending transitions out of higher education. Phase Two revisited participants approximately six months after graduation (18 participants) to explore and capture their initial transitions out of higher education and into employment and/or further study. Finally, Phase Three explored any changes in participants’ living, employment, or educational circumstances since Phase Two, their plans for the future, and their views about what policy and practice developments were needed for future generations of care-experienced graduates (14 participants). Participants were also provided with access to a secure online diary to record their experiences of their transitions out of higher education and into graduate life over the duration of the study.

Key findings
Care-experienced graduates’ transitions out of higher education and into graduate life were found to be risky due to an absence of safety nets, such as a family home. As a result, the opportunity to undertake ‘boomerang’ transitions – where graduates return to live in the family home after graduation - was not available. For those who were residing in student accommodation during their degree studies, not having a family home to return to after graduation led to anxieties about, and in one case, actual experiences of homelessness. Even for those who resided in social or private sector housing during their degree studies, not having the safety net of a family home to turn to if their employment or postgraduate study plans fell through made their transition into graduate life precarious.

The abrupt loss of both higher education and local authority support upon graduation – referred to as the ‘support cliff edge’ – intensified the instability faced by care-experienced graduates. Those who had been supported by their local authority during their studies expected this support to continue until the age of 25, in line with the Children and Social Work Act 2017. Upon graduating, however, a number of participants discovered that their local authorities stopped providing financial or housing support after the age of 21, meaning that they were no longer eligible for this.

The unavailability of boomerang transitions coupled with the ‘support cliff edge’ meant that graduates did not have the time or space to fully contemplate their next steps or plan for the future. Instead, many had to prioritise immediate living costs, particularly in the UK’s cost of living crisis. This resulted in some graduates accepting employment roles did not align with their level of education or career goals. Even in cases where care-experienced graduates moved directly into a role aligned with their desired career path after graduating, the absence of safety nets and the high cost of living meant that they needed to work a second job, and/or excessive hours to meet their basic living costs, which led to poor mental and physical health.

This unstable initial transition into graduate life resulted in prolonged financial and housing instability for some graduates, with several being caught in cycles of precarious employment and unstable living conditions up to 12 months after graduation. Yet, this was not the case for all. Those who felt stable 12 months after graduation attributed their stability to factors such as receiving a university-provided graduate bursary, managing to move into better-paid employment opportunities, having a strong support network, and being able to access mental health and wellbeing support.

### 背景
有照护经历的学生（care-experienced students）在接受高等教育（higher education）的过程中面临诸多严峻挑战，包括学业中断以及童年创伤（childhood trauma）引发的心理健康问题。自开创性的《逐梦之路》（"By Degrees"）项目（Jackson等，2005）记录了有照护经历群体极低的高等教育入学率以来，全球范围内针对该群体接受高等教育的机会及学业参与度的研究日益增多（Bengtsson等，2018；Harrison，2017；McNamara等，2019；Okpych & Courtney，2019；Zeira等，2019）。此类研究推动了针对有照护经历学生的支持举措取得积极进展，包括英格兰与苏格兰地方政府扩展了经济与实务支持（参见2008年《儿童与青少年法案》、2014年《苏格兰儿童与青少年法案》、英国教育部（Department for Education, DfE）2013年报告、苏格兰政府2013年报告），以及英格兰推出的《离校照料者契约》（Care Leaver Covenant）（DfE，2018），助力有照护经历群体提升就业技能。然而，对于那些顺利接受并完成高等教育的有照护经历群体而言，我们对其向职场生活过渡的情况却知之甚少。

### 研究目标
"有照护经历毕业生的决策、选择与去向"项目（Care-Experienced Graduates’ Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations project）是首个质性探索有照护经历学生从高等教育毕业向职场及/或深造过渡历程的研究。这项为期三年的纵向研究项目旨在达成以下目标：1. 探究影响有照护经历毕业生的毕业路径与去向决策的各类因素；2. 明确助力及制约有照护经历毕业生从高等教育毕业向职场及/或深造过渡的关键要素；3. 探索有照护经历毕业生如何看待自身的照料经历对其决策与选择的作用，以及这些经历如何对其遭遇的助力与制约产生影响。

### 概念框架
本研究采用阿彻（Archer，2003）提出的反身性（reflexivity）概念，从理论层面识别结构性赋能与制约因素（structural enablements and constraints）以及个体能动性（individual agency）。同时结合生命历程视角（life course perspective）（Giele与Elder，1998），探究有照护经历毕业生对自身照料经历如何影响毕业决策的认知，以及这些经历如何对其毕业首年遭遇的结构性制约与赋能产生作用。这一研究框架有助于分析参与者的毕业规划与历程如何受到其自身社会处境、环境与过往经历的结构性赋能或制约。采用纵向研究方法的必要性在于，能够捕捉结构性赋能与制约因素的组合格局如何随参与者环境变化或个体行动而随时间推移发生改变。

### 研究方法
本研究采用质性、纵向、叙事探究（narrative inquiry）的研究方法，从实证与理论层面探究照料背景如何影响有照护经历群体的毕业过渡历程。叙事探究聚焦于收集关于随时间变化且可修正的主观亲历经历的详细记录（Clandinin，2016），这一方法契合本研究的需求：既能厘清影响有照护经历学生毕业选择与决策的各类因素，也能收集参与者在追求目标过程中遭遇并应对的结构性赋能与制约因素的个人叙述。

研究团队于2021年至2023年间，对英格兰与苏格兰的有照护经历毕业生开展了半结构化访谈（semi-structured interviews）。为了解其毕业决策与选择的动机与影响因素、遭遇的助力与制约因素，以及照料经历在其中发挥的作用，访谈分三个时间点进行：高等教育最后一学年（第一阶段）、毕业后6个月（第二阶段）及毕业后12个月（第三阶段）。第一阶段访谈覆盖了23名处于毕业学年的有照护经历学生，探讨其即将到来的离校过渡阶段的决策、选择、规划与顾虑。第二阶段回访了约毕业后6个月的18名参与者，记录其从高等教育毕业向职场及/或深造过渡的初始历程。第三阶段则探究了参与者自第二阶段以来在生活、就业或教育境况上的变化、未来规划，以及他们认为未来一代有照护经历毕业生所需的政策与实践优化方向（共14名参与者）。此外，研究还为参与者提供了加密在线日志（secure online diary），用于记录其从高等教育毕业向职场生活过渡期间的相关经历。

### 主要研究发现
研究发现，有照护经历毕业生从高等教育毕业向职场生活过渡的过程存在较高风险，原因在于他们缺乏诸如家庭住所这类安全保障。因此，"回旋镖式"过渡（boomerang transitions）——即毕业生毕业后返回家庭住所的模式——对他们而言并不可行。对于在求学期间居住在学生宿舍的学生而言，毕业后无家可归的焦虑在所难免，部分参与者甚至实际经历了无家可归的困境。即便求学期间居住在社会住房或私人租赁住房的学生，若毕业后就业或深造计划落空时无法依靠家庭住所作为安全保障，其向职场生活过渡的历程也会岌岌可危。

毕业后突然失去高等教育及地方政府提供的照料支持——这一现象被称为"支持悬崖效应"（support cliff edge）——进一步加剧了有照护经历毕业生面临的不稳定状况。那些在求学期间获得地方政府支持的学生原本期望此类支持能持续至25岁，符合2017年《儿童与社会服务法案》的相关规定。然而毕业后，多名参与者发现其所在地方政府在其年满21岁后便停止提供经济或住房支持，导致他们不再符合领取该类支持的资格。

"回旋镖式"过渡的不可行性与"支持悬崖效应"叠加，意味着毕业生没有充足的时间与空间全面思考下一步规划或为未来做好准备。相反，许多人不得不优先承担即时生活开支，尤其是在英国当前的生活成本危机背景下。这导致部分毕业生接受了与其学历水平或职业目标不匹配的工作岗位。即便部分有照护经历毕业生毕业后直接进入了符合其职业预期的岗位，缺乏安全保障与高昂的生活成本仍迫使他们不得不从事第二份工作，或加班时长超出合理范围以满足基本生活开支，进而引发身心健康问题。

这种不稳定的毕业初始过渡阶段，导致部分毕业生陷入长期的经济与住房不稳定状况，其中多人在毕业后12个月内仍深陷不稳定就业（precarious employment）与居住环境的循环。但并非所有参与者都面临此类困境：那些在毕业后12个月仍保持稳定境况的参与者将其归因于多种因素，包括获得高校提供的毕业助学金（graduate bursary）、成功入职薪酬更高的岗位、拥有稳固的支持网络，以及能够获得心理健康与福祉支持。