Covid-19 Daily Bulletin 14/07: The University of Hard Knocks

How students are adapting.

Today we’re looking at how high school, college, and university students have adapted their plans because of coronavirus, as well as how young people are coping with all the bad news.

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The class of 2020 looks for alternatives

It’s a bleak picture for the class of 2020. The pandemic has disrupted graduation ceremonies and educational experiences, and the job market graduates are entering is turbulent. It’s not surprising that the pandemic has forced millions of students and graduates to rethink their life plans.

To understand what youngsters are planning, we searched for English-language online conversations around gap years, internships, jobs, further education, and work experience in relation to grads and students.

Over the last six months, university and college mentions formed only 32% of the overall conversation we tracked about young people’s future choices.

College education is being criticized for a number of reasons, including:

The high fees which only cover online classes (108k mentions)
There potentially being no real campus experience (67k mentions)
The caps on student numbers (44k)

So what other options are being discussed?

In the last four months, mentions of internships and graduate schemes increased 60% compared to the four months prior. This indicates that, while these options were already considered important, more people are thinking about them now and the application process could become more competitive as a result.

Popular topics in the internship/graduate scheme conversation included personal stories of getting internships (169k mentions), people talking about virtual internships (112k mentions), and postponed schemes (59k mentions).

Discussion about work experience for students and graduates increased 41% in the last four months compared to the four months prior. This conversation is focused on making up for a lack of internships, education, and paying jobs, and the main driver was people complaining about a lack of opportunity.

In the last four months, gap year conversation in relation to graduates increased 30% compared to the four months prior. But grads and students aren’t packing their bags to go on lengthy vacations – instead, they’re talking about using their time off to volunteer (5k mentions) and build experience in their field (25k mentions).

Meanwhile, mentions about jobs post-graduation are depressingly low, and the tone is apprehensive.

A whole year of students and would-be college goers are re-evaluating their prospects and, given the state of jobs and the cost of further education, it’s understandable that alternative paths are such hot topics.

Young worry

This is a stressful time for everyone already, without having to make big decisions about the future in the middle of a pandemic. To understand younger people’s mindsets in this time, we used our mobile survey tool Brandwatch Qriously.

The survey, conducted June 29 – July 6, asked 1,079 18 to 34-year-olds in Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US if they were anxious in relation to the virus.

13% of respondents said they were very anxious, while only 28% reported no feelings of anxiety because of the outbreak.

When we first surveyed this age group, 18% of respondents reported they were ‘very anxious’. This number has fallen steadily to the most recent recording of 13%.

Almost in unison, the percentage of 18 to 34-year-old responding that they were ‘not at all anxious’ has risen. 14 weeks ago, 20% said they were not anxious. Now that number is 28%.

While people are reporting extreme anxiety less, large swathes of young people are still feeling the pressure. Even if 28% of people aren’t anxious at all, that still means 72% are feeling anxiety in some form or another. Now is the time for businesses and governments to throw younger people a lifeline.

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Thanks for reading

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Stay safe,

Brandwatch Response Team

Digital Consumer Intelligence

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