Sadly a lack of participants is continuing to prove a challenge for my master’s research into Computer Science graduate employability.

I’ve decided to cancel the planned focus group event as I’ve not had enough people sign up to take part. This is a shame as I had hoped it would generate some interesting debate and data, but unfortunately it seems I may be the only person interested in this issue!

Instead, I am focussing my efforts on increasing the number of survey participants and conducting interviews with CS graduates. I have my first interview this evening and am looking forward to it.

So far my survey data is proving interesting, but the sample is somewhat unrepresentative. I have had lots of responses from highly employable graduates with first or upper second class degrees and relevant work experience. I do not have enough “other STEM” graduates for my comparison group and in particular, I’m really struggling to find the unemployed computer science graduates this research is all about. I know they are out there somewhere, but so far they seem elusive.

If you have studied a Computer Science or related degree anywhere in the UK and were unemployed for 6 months or longer after graduating – I really want to hear from you!!

If anyone has any suggestions of how to reach more computer science graduates, particularly those who studied in Manchester, I would really appreciate your suggestions.

For more information about my dissertation project, visit My Research – Computer Science Graduate Unemployment.