ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief introduction to the concept of big data and how it is starting to have an impact on higher education institutions. It explores how the availability of data on students' career thinking has the potential to transform the practice of careers and employability support in universities. These pressures are making it increasingly important for careers service staff to be willing and able to engage with robust evidence-based practice. This chapter looks at how an individual service and the profession as a whole is responding to these changes. There are practice-engaged researchers and teachers, practitioners-turned-academics, practitioner-researchers and academically-engaged practitioners. One strand of the Careers Registration research project is to explore the capability and confidence of careers staff in understanding and using Careers Research data. Beyond the issue of developing practical skills of data handling and interpretation, there exists a more fundamental challenge of developing and projecting an appropriate professional identity for career practitioners within higher education.
