Alphabetical list of presenters: Ashita Aggarwal Stephen Allen Mark Atlay David Baume Mick Betts Sue Bloxham Steve Bristow Simon Brown Deirdre Burke Pam Calabro Helen Carlisle Val Chapman Margaret Davis Laura Dean Berni Dickinson Calbert H. Douglas Fiona Drew Sue Drew Maximilian Egger Linda Evans Damien Fitzgerald Sarah Gibbons Helen Gibson Lyn Greaves Lelia Green Pat Green Terry Haines Elizabeth Hatton Geoff Hinchliffe Deirdre Hogan Graham Holden Laurence Howells Stephen Isherwood Janet Kay Mary Keating Arti Kumar Trish Lunt Stephan Laske Angela Maher Mike Mannion Mike Mannion Eamonn McQuade Neil Moreland Mike Mortimer Gudrun Myers Kevin Neild Robert Partridge Liz Rhodes Irfan A. Rizvi Audrey Slight Martin Smith Philippa Smith David Stanbury Jane Stapleford Jane Stapleford Janet Strivens Mimi Thebo Tony Wailey Aled Williams Geoff Williamson Shyi-Huey Wu
Papers by title: A Political and Moral Economy of Employability All Mouth and No Trousers? Assessing Graduate Skills: the applicability of the Australian experience to UK higher education Benchmarking Careers Education: support for enhancing student employability BSc (Hons) Business and Technology: a case study in integrating and embedding employability Competencies for Next Generation Employability Developing a multi-input critical competencies and skills assessment tool Developing an Employability Framework: an institutional approach Developing an Integrated and Cohesive Approach to Employability: a case study Embedding Careers Advice and Personal Development Planning into the Social Sciences Embedding Employability: a holistic approach Embedding Work-Related Learning into the Curriculum to Enhance Employability Employability: connecting with employers, students and governments… an Australian tale Employability and Effective Learning Systems in Higher Education Enhancing Employability for Early Childhood Studies Students Enhancing Employability Through Lifelong Learning: a shared responsibility Enhancing Employability via Placement: a longitudinal perspective Enhancing Graduate Employability in Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Enhancing Student Employability: higher education between Scylla and Charybdis Enhancing Student Employability through Regional Capacity Building Entrepreneurial Consultancies in Religious Studies European Framework for Work Experience From Destination Garrett? - Employability and the Arts From Habermas to Dearing: State Sponsored Reflection for Employability Graduate Employability: a need for realism? Graduate Skills and employability: an integrated approach to student development Integrating Employability through Personal Development Planning Integrating Personal Development Planning into the Curriculum (L)earning for Employability Mainstreaming Disability in Curriculum Design: the development of a resource for academic staff Making Academia-Industry Interface work Measuring engagement between industry and higher education institutes in the construction sector Monitoring and Evaluating Employability Ventures SME Briefing Guide The Role of Work-based Consultancies in Teaching, Learning and Skills Development The York Award Work-based Learning and Student Learning
Parallel papers: Abstracts
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From Habermas to Dearing: State Sponsored Reflection for Employability
Tony Wailey University of the Arts, London, UK
Theme 1: Embedding and integrating employability enhancement and Theme 2: Pedagogy and assessment
If the post exit demands of the world of work and employment have increasingly come to influence professional education and the higher education curriculum, (Dearing 1997) then at the same time, higher education is still a process of self discovery in which technical, hermeneutic and research skills are valued and communicated within a framework of critical reasoning at progressive levels of the curriculum, (Habermas 1978,1996). How does this compare with the ability, as part of a team, to set, assess and achieve objectives as the generic feature most commonly required by employers of today's graduates ? (CBI 2002). The credit bearing Personal Development Planning (PPD) undergraduate scheme at the London College of Communication will explore this tension.
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Destination Garrett? Employability and the Arts
Mimi Thebo Bath Spa University College, UK
Theme 1: Embedding and integrating employability enhancement
This is a discussion based on our experiences in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University College in attempting to integrate and embed employability factors in our curriculum. The Arts face a great challenge in improving student employability as post-graduate employment is notoriously elusive. My own subject of Creative Writing is a rapid growth area in higher education, and is, in many ways, still forming the subject boundaries. There are interesting debates between academic faculty, practicing writers on faculty and college management as what our subject can deliver to our students, and the discussion of employability has a significant impact on this question. In this paper I will use statistical information from the government and our careers office, the English Subject Centre and our own recent survey of students to discuss student and faculty expectations and attitudes and the various options we have to address how student learning relates to graduate employment.
Entrepreneurial Consultancies in Religious Studies
Deirdre Burke University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK
Theme 1: Embedding and integrating employability enhancement and Theme 3: Working with employers
This paper reports on a collaborative venture between University staff and alumni, who set up their own consultancy business 'ribro' (Religion in Britain Research Organisation) to respond to changes in the workplace. Article 13, implemented in December 2003, provides a common legal framework of minimum protection against discrimination on grounds of religion. This requires employers to be aware of religious issues concerning employees and customers. The paper will report on this LTSN mini-project to develop entrepreneurial skills in Religious Studies graduates through a structured support programme and placements which explore faith literacy in the workplace. Consultancy reports produced by graduates and feedback from employers, will be used to assess the potential for Religious Studies graduates' faith literacy to develop their employability skills.
paper presentation
Enhancing Student Employability: higher education between Scylla and Charybdis
Stephan Laske and Maximilian Egger Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
The systematic improvement of students' employability is one of the central goals of academic educational reform in Europe. In this context, the question of what the term employability implies for the different parties involved is frequently left unanswered. The scope of interpretation ranges from rather short-term working skills to attempts to build more fundamental medium and long-term employment skills. A concrete case study of an Austrian university illustrates which chances and challenges result from a systematic promotion of employability and how universities have to keep coping with the discrepancies between their educational goals and the future employers' demands for practical utilization.
presentation as pdf presentation
Competencies for Next Generation Employability
Deirdre Hogan and Eamonn McQuade, Project Manager, Programme for University Industry Interface, University of Limerick
Theme 3: Working with employers
It is generally accepted that employees will need to broaden their knowledge, skills and competencies through a lifetime of learning if they are to remain employable, and if enterprises are to maintain their competitiveness in a knowledge-based global economy. However, identifying and developing skills and competencies for next generation employability in Ireland is a challenging task. The Programme for University Industry Interface (PUII) is an action research project, established in 2003, to determine the skills and competencies required by Irish Industry and to develop learning models that will facilitate their delivery. This paper presents the outcomes of an action research methodology based on a Community of Practice model (COP), which addressed the issues surrounding competencies for next generation employability. It proposes a competency framework which integrates the four key categories of skills: Business, Technical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and presents a set of recommendations for individuals, employers and higher education institutions.
Developing a multi-input critical competencies and skills assessment tool which adds value to casual, temporary and volunteer work experiences
Lelia Green, (presenter) Robyn Quin, and Joe Luca (co-authors) Faculty of Communications and Creative Industries, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
Theme 2: Pedagogy and assessment
This paper reports on the second stage of a project that aims to produce a critical competencies and skills assessment tool for students in work-based learning situations. Initial trials indicate that this assessment tool is both seen to be of value to employers, and also applicable across disciplines and different work sites - particularly when combined with a graduate attributes perspective. The first phase of the investigation took place in terms of adding value to (and recording the outcomes of) work-based learning, casual employment and volunteering. This report documents a range of additional groups who may benefit from this initiative, and outlines the policy and practice drivers which demand robust but flexible methods for recording and collating evidence of skills and competencies development.
Graduate Skills and employability: an integrated approach to student development
Mick Betts and Pam Calabro Anglia Polytechnic University
Theme 1: Embedding and enhancing employability
This paper proposes that, to be effective, employability must be linked to a broader institutional policy for student development. It discusses ways in which APU has attempted to develop an integrated policy response, which has become focussed in the context of the recent Progress File initiative. This response includes the embedding of APU's own "Graduate Skills" within the curriculum and the creation of a range of initiatives in collaboration with academic and cross-university staff. In conclusion, the authors consider ways in which this broader agenda might be moved forward and the potential effect of enablers and inhibitors.
Making Academia-Industry Interface work
Ashita Aggarwal (presenter), Faculty Marketing Area and Irfan A. Rizvi (co-author), Professor of OB & Change Management, Dean and Director, Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, New Delhi, India
Universities and Business Corporation that for long have been operating in separate domains and as isolated islands are rapidly inching closer to each other to create synergies. Higher education institutions not only contribute skilled human resources to corporates, but also in various intangible ways, especially in commercial exploitation of newly researched ideas. Corporations seek their future leaders from these institutions and hence have a stake in these institutions. The intersecting needs and mutually interdependent relationship requires identifying means of further strengthening academia-industry partnerships. This paper attempts to identify how business schools can work closely with industry. The study will explore the dimensions of academia-industry partnership, and identify possible areas where industry can contribute satisfactorily. This cross-cultural exploratory study involves first-hand information from faculty and heads of business schools on this issue.
paper powerpoint presentation
A Political and Moral Economy of Employability
Neil Moreland Research Fellow, ESECT, The Open University
Starting from a supported assumption that the UK economy, along with other major western economies, is undergoing an emergent but radical change in the technical and social relations of production, this paper seeks to locate the concern with employability of higher education students within a developing 'moral economy' of 21st century capitalism. State action and support for the economic changes in the UK can be described as facilitative and supportive within a state developmental model, though with clear attempts to move towards regulated autonomy rather than licensed autonomy in the management of the Higher Education system.What does this mean for individual students? This paper suggests that the development of employability is (or can be) both an attempt at a new moral economy and a potential source of empowerment for individual students, though the actual outcomes are mediated through institutional stratification and habitus, individual and group awareness of labour markets and external opportunities and curriculum opportunities. A case study of graduate entrepreneurship is provided to illustrate these developments.
Enhancing Employability for Early Childhood Studies Students
Janet Kay and Damien Fitzgerald Early Childhood Studies, Division of Education and Humanities, Collegiate Crescent Campus, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
This paper explores strategies for embedding and enhancing employability within the curriculum of an Early Childhood studies degree course within the context of the university Employability Framework. The paper will explore two developments in detail: a study support strategy based on student feedback, and the implementation of a practitioner recognition scheme to enhance the employability of students without initial vocational qualifications in the early years. The paper looks at how these developments took place within the context of major policy changes for children and families, and highlights the need for Higher Education courses to be responsive to both internal and external factors affecting employability.
The Role of Work-based Consultancies in Teaching, Learning and Skills Development for Enhanced Student Employability
Calbert H. Douglas School of Environment & Life Science, University of Salford, M5 4WT, UK
This paper reports findings at the mid-stage of a TLQIS project to investigate the approaches followed and the role that work-based learning consultancies currently play in student-centred learning and skills development at the University of Salford. In this model of WBL, degree programmes require learners to negotiate and carry out agreed tasks, investigations, studies, designs or developmental activity for an employer, organisation or client. This enquiry seeks to explore the nature of the skills developed and the resultant employability and career potentials. The research examined the use of work-based consultancy approaches across the University and the typical partnership relations between tutors and employers/clients. The research has demonstrated that by embedding supportive knowledge-skills transfers into the teaching and learning process, student employability is enhanced.
All Mouth and No Trousers?
Stephen Isherwood Programme Development Manager, Undergraduates Careers Research and Advisory Centre, Cambridge, UK Theme 3: Working with employers
The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) is a national provider of work-related employability programmes with forty years experience of delivery in schools and in higher education. CRAC also has an 8000-strong student arm, SIS. Why is this relevant? From CRAC's inception, our focus has been on the creation of a learning environment where representatives of education and business work together, learning from each other. Without employers, we do not have a programme. This session will explore the employer agenda and how CRAC involves employers across its diverse programme of activities. There will also be an opportunity to quiz employer representatives during the session.
Embedding Work-Related Learning into the Curriculum to Enhance Employability
Laura Dean and Jane Stapleford Employability Office, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK.
Progress Files provide an excellent opportunity to draw together often disparate activities such as career management skills, employability skills, work experience, volunteering and other work-related learning activities. The Employability Office at Leeds Met provides a focus for this activity, creating a framework and a resource base that integrates these themes and embeds them within the curriculum. The Employability Office designs and supports bespoke employability programmes in collaboration with course teams and employers. This interactive session will outline the strategies adopted to incorporate real work projects into the curriculum of two courses in order to enhance student employability.
Assessing Graduate Skills: the applicability of the Australian experience to UK higher education
Steve Bristow Professor, Education Consultant, Strategic Relationships ACER UK
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has been offering a Graduate Skills Assessment (GSA) to Australian Universities since 1999. The GSA grew out of an increasing interest in generic skills related to the need for an adaptable workforce in modern economies. This paper will present insights generated from a series of analyses of the experience of using GSA as an entry and exit test for undergraduate students in Australian Universities and explore the scope for adoption and/or modification of such a test by UK higher education institutions. The paper will be presented as an interactive workshop, with delegates invited to suggest critical dimensions of employability, to test these against those identified during the GSA test development process in Australia and to examine the nature, scope and format of the current test.
Measuring engagement between industry and higher education institutes in the construction sector
Stephen Allen and Aled Williams University of Salford, UK
Exposure to, and experience of industry practice is beneficial in the education of students in their preparation for entering the construction industry. Higher Education institutions that successfully engage with industry offer students the opportunity to be both more knowledgeable and better prepared when they enter the workplace. The development of a mass higher education system and government policy encourages engagement, particularly in vocational disciples such as construction. This research is seeking to develop and validate a methodology for measuring the performance of industry-education engagement. The paper will outline the rationale adopted in the project for measuring the performance of industry-education engagement. Case studies will be evaluated and a conceptual framework of indicators for evaluation of industry-higher education engagement will be developed.
Enhancing Employability Through Lifelong Learning: a shared responsibility
Laurence Howells and Helen Gibson Scottish Funding Councils for Further and Higher Education
This paper describes an innovative process, led by the Scottish Funding Councils for Further and Higher Education, to stimulate debate and build consensus among providers, learners, employers, government, national agencies and others about the role of lifelong learning in enhancing employability. We conclude that enhancing learners' employability requires a three-way partnership between learners, educators and employers: learners have to take responsibility for their learning and careers, but they need educators to help them, guide them and facilitate their learning. Learners and educators need employers to inform the curriculum, and to provide opportunities for learning from experiences at work. The paper describes the process through which our thinking has developed, and the key conclusions and challenges which emerge.
(L)earning for employability
Pat Green and Mary Keating University of Wolverhampton, UK.
The Social Care sector employs predominantly women in jobs that are viewed as unskilled and low-paid. Career progression has traditionally been through experience rather than qualifications, however there is now a serious recruitment crisis at senior care worker/management level. The Social Care degree in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences at the University of Wolverhampton was also set up as an academic programme, but it quickly became clear that we needed to incorporate vocational learning in order to enhance graduate prospects. In response to these two factors, we are developing innovative undergraduate traineeships that address graduate employability issues as well as the workforce development agenda, providing graduates who have knowledge and experience to move into trainee management.
Enhancing Graduate Employability in Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism
Angela Maher, Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management, Business School, Oxford Brookes University & Kevin Nield, Principal Lecturer in Hospitality Management, School of Sport and Leisure Management, Sheffield Hallam University
It is government policy that Higher Education (HE) should enhance student employability, thereby increasing the value of graduates' contribution to national economic growth. This conference session will present an overview of the focus and proposed methodology for a three-year project funded by the HEFCE Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL Phase 5). The project team plan to develop, implement and evaluate a range of curriculum interventions that will enhance the employability skills of students across a diverse range of HE courses in hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism. A key objective is to develop clear employability strategies and action plans for embedding Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA) practices at 10 partner sites, and to evaluate their impact via curriculum audit and staff/student feedback. This interactive session will invite participants to make suggestions on TLA approaches to employability that work in practice.
Mainstreaming Disability in Curriculum Design: the development of a resource for academic staff through a HEFCE funded project
Val Chapman and Helen Carlisle Equal Opportunities Centre, University College Worcester, UK
The session will outline the aims and outcomes of a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded project entitled Academic Standards and Benchmark Descriptors: Developing Strategies for Inclusivity. The project has analysed subject specific learning activities and graduate generic skills from ten pilot subject benchmark statements and identified any challenges associated with the achievement of these learning objectives for disabled students. The session will provoke interesting debate surrounding the link between gaining a degree within a subject such as physiotherapy, and gaining chartered or professional status and how this is affected by the disability legislation.
Embedding Employability: a holistic approach
Gudrun Myers (presenter) and Fiona Drew Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.
The language courses at Sheffield Hallam University embed fully all the elements of the University's Employability Framework. These cover pedagogical aspects which are clearly articulated in all relevant programme documentation and which have the central aim of stimulating ownership of the learning process among students. Further embedding occurs via our team approach to preparation of the students before they travel overseas, the support which we offer students while they are studying or working overseas and via a number of debriefings and assessments following their return. In addition, the last few years have seen a number of initiatives aimed at promoting staff engagement in enhancing employability, including allocation of formal roles, participation in relevant funded projects and the nomination of leaders for specific innovative developments, such as the use of digital technology to enhance language learning. This paper will attempt to demonstrate, by use of specific examples, how the framework is embedded throughout the courses and how it enhances student employability.
Embedding Careers Advice and Personal Development Planning into the Social Sciences
Audrey Slight and Sue Bloxham St Martin's College, Lancaster, UK.
This paper addresses several theoretical and practical issues raised by the emergence of enhancing employability through personal development planning (PDP). It briefly discusses the background, rationale and evidence for PDP followed by the problems associated with policy implementation: the practicalities of embedding PDP in programmes of study, and the problems of curriculum fragmentation, student attitudes and integration with student services. This discussion is followed by the description and evaluation of an innovative third-year social science module designed to tackle these challenges. Finally, the authors provide some recommendations for the further development of PDP in higher education.
Integrating Personal Development Planning into the Curriculum
Margaret Davis and Mike Mannion Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.
Employability means having three skill sets: traditional academic skills, enterprise and business skills and personal development skills. Personal development skills can be acquired through Personal Development Planning (PDP), a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement to plan for their personal, educational and career development. This paper reports the experiences of building and running a PDP structure in a degree programme curriculum, explains the status of the accredited PDP modules, and describes proposals for future development.
Employability and Effective Learning Systems in Higher Education
Shyi-Huey Wu Department of Information Management, Van Nung University, Chung-Li City, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan.
Excellent education has become the primary concern for achievement to compete in the global village. Since the technological and vocational higher education became one of the essential elements in the educational road map, students are expected to be more skillful than those from regular university. This study examines the development of effective learning systems and the relationship between students' capacity for employability and effective learning systems. The results will be discussed using statistical analysis and path analysis.
Enhancing Employability via Placement: a longitudinal perspective
Geoff Williamson and Mike Mannion School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK
Theme 1: Embedding and enhancing employability & Theme 3: Working with employers
Placements provide students with knowledge and skills that are difficult to obtain in a university environment. The transition from graduate to employee can be harsh but a placement can enhance the ability of a potential graduate, lower the risk to an employer and employee, and provide an accelerated career path. Drawing upon 30 years' experience running industrial placements, this paper identifies key principles and practices of industrial placements as a mechanism for enhancing employability.
Integrating Employability through Personal Development Planning
Mark Atlay Head of Teaching Quality Enhancement, University of Luton, Park Sq., Luton, UK.
The University of Luton has a long-standing commitment to employability and vocational education. In response to the national initiative on Progress Files, it has adopted an integrated approach to Personal Development Planning (PDP) which serves a number of purposes including sustaining and supporting employability. The University's undergraduates experience this curriculum through specific modules at levels 1, 2 and 3, which provide a vehicle for the development and assessment of 'employability' skills and characteristics. This presentation will outline the University's approach to PDP, in the context of employability, and will discuss the outcome of two years' work on embedding PDP processes in the curriculum across a diverse range of subjects.
Graduate Employability: a need for realism?
Geoff Hinchliffe Skills and Employability Adviser, Careers Centre University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
The current dominant concept of employability has arisen from the pressures of globalisation, economic change and the needs of the 'knowledge economy'. Its importance is not disputed in this paper. However, its proponents often advocate it in a form which places unrealistic demands on the individual without at the same time addressing their learning and employment needs. The paper suggests that much of employability amounts to a 'pedagogy of the self', whereby individuals are supposed to learn and imbibe certain pedagogic prescriptions so that they adopt a particular identity of the 'employee'. The article suggests that the focus on the discrete individual allied to a pedagogy of the self needs to be revised in line with the realities of employment in the knowledge economy. In particular, the concept of employability needs to include the need for situational awareness and situational understanding, but this, it is suggested, will lead to a revised concept of the self that is employable: a situated self, dependent on others in situations which are fluid, often provisional and never fully transparent. One or two tactics for the pedagogy of higher education are suggested by way of a method of introducing students to a more socialised conception of employability.
Monitoring and Evaluating Employability Ventures
David Baume ESECT.
This paper will explore practical and theoretical issues in the monitoring and evaluation of ventures intended to enhance student employability, illustrated with case examples. It will consider three major roles for monitoring and evaluation: to account for resources expended, to improve the venture being evaluated, and to understand why the venture is having the effects it is having. It will explore the chains and networks of influence through which employability ventures work; the need to collect baseline data; goal clarification; levels of impact; and the use of proxy measures for hard-to-evaluate outcomes.
Benchmarking Careers Education: support for enhancing student employability
Jane Stapleford, David Stanbury and Arti Kumar Principal Lecturer & Teacher Fellow, Employability & Career Development, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK
Theme 1: Embedding and enhancing employability &
Careers education is an important part of trans-disciplinary learning within higher education and makes a vital contribution to graduate employability. The Careers Education Benchmark Statement project (CEBS) is a major initiative from the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services supported by the Higher Education Academy, Association of Graduate Recruiters and Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in the UK. It aims to describe the key features of good careers education by providing an external reference point for undergraduate curriculum development, review and quality enhancement. This interactive session will give an overview of the project and enable participants to contribute to the draft and discuss ways of developing, promoting and implementing the CEBS.
Enhancing Student Employability through Regional Capacity Building
Elizabeth Hatton and Terry Haines Faculty of Regional Professional Studies, ECU South West Campus (Bunbury) Robertson Drive, Bunbury WA 6230, Australia.
Regional development is a key role of universities around the world. Regional universities/faculties in Australia have a clear role to play in enhancing regional capacity and the lessons learned have international applicability. While there are a myriad of ways in which enhancing regional capacity might be achieved, the graduation of appropriately trained professionals willing to serve in regional areas is a key contribution to be made. However, it needs to be noted that rural and regional workplaces in are Australia are distinctively different from urban workplaces for professional workers. The difference rests mainly in the size of the workplace and the demands placed on workers within them. While urban professionals may be able to be fairly specialised given the number of professionals in their workplace, rural and regional professionals typically cannot. They must have, and utilise, a range of skills in order to be the kind of employees valued in their distinctive work context. This paper describes the type of curriculum developed within ECU's Faculty of Regional Professional Studies to simultaneously enhance regional capacity building and enhance student employability. Industry consultation has been a strong feature of curriculum development and ongoing monitoring of the curriculum.
Work-based Learning and Student Learning
Mike Mortimer and Lyn Greaves Thames Valley University, Faculty of Professional Studies, London, UK
This paper presents the outcomes of a Business LTSN-funded project which investigated the development of employability assets in students on Foundation Degrees in Thames Valley University. The research reported triangulated inspection of course design with measurement of learner perceptions related to their employability assets and influences on their development. The findings from this investigation identify a number of issues whose resolution would significantly enhance the learner experience, and contribute to ensuring that employability assets are developed more robustly.
paper appendix to paper
Developing an integrated and cohesive approach to employability: a case study from the University of Liverpool
Trish Lunt, Janet Strivens and Linda Evans Learning and Teaching Development, Centre for Lifelong Learning, The University of Liverpool, UK
The University of Liverpool supports the development of its teaching and learning strategy through the Centre for Lifelong Learning (CLL). The formation of CLL was a conscious decision by the University to provide a more integrated strategic approach to student skills development. The paper will discuss how the various divisions within CLL (e.g. Careers Service, Educational Development, Skills Development and Learning Technology) and services they provide combine to provide a coherent support service to academics, illustrated by case studies which look at how two departments (Mathematical Sciences and Sociology) have addressed and integrated the employability agenda within their curriculum.
BSc (Hons) Business and Technology: a case study in integrating and embedding employability
Graham Holden Enterprise and Technology Group, Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Science Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
This paper focuses on the integrated embedding of employability in a single course of study, BSc (Hons) Business and Technology, identified within Sheffield Hallam University as demonstrating excellence in enhancing the employability of students from diverse educational and social backgrounds. This paper will state a clear case for embedding employability and, through case studies and examples, will highlight core elements, central to the Business and Technology degree which could equally be adopted by other courses, across the higher education sector, to enable them to achieve enhancement of student employability.
Employability: connecting with employers, students and governments… an Australian tale
Martin Smith, University of Wollongong, Chair, Steering Committee, Higher Education Workplace Skills Olympiad
What are the mechanisms for collaboration between the stakeholders at the education - work interface? What are the challenges hindering collaboration? The Higher Education Workplace Skills Olympiad (HEWSO) was conceived to provide students with the opportunity for 'putting their knowledge to work'. The evolution of the HEWSO model and management structures will be outlined - including stakeholder involvement (government, employers and the HE sector) in the policy and implementation processes. A complementary element of this paper is an overview of the strategic approaches to offer a suite of work based learning programs at the University of Wollongong.
SME Briefing Guide
Liz Rhodes, National Council for Work Experience (NCWE), presenter Sarah Gibbons, University of Nottingham Berni Dickinson, External Consultant for project
The paper provides information about a new briefing guide developed for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that enables them to recruit and manage students on a range of work related opportunities such as: completing short term business related projects; part time employment; temporary employment and other opportunities. The guide's materials are user-friendly and will minimise the amount of time required by the employer to provide a quality experience. The paper contextualises the guide, discusses the design and development of the guide and demonstrates a prototype. The development of the guide has enabled the University of Nottingham to develop local, regional and national partnerships, not only with SMEs but also business support agencies and professional bodies.
The York Award
Robert Partridge University of York, York, UK
The York Award is an unique skills and personal development programme, devised by The University of York to assist undergraduate students to realise their academic potential and enhance their employability. In this paper, I describe the growth and evolution of the York Award programme, since its inception six years ago. Conceived as a means of complementing and enhancing curriculum-based approaches to skills development, critics argue that the York Award is a divisive ‘bolt-on’, which reduces the pressure on academic departments to integrate employability themes into their curricula. In this paper, I describe the way in which I believe these two opposing views of the York Award can be reconciled and why ‘bolt on’ and ‘integrated’ are not mutually exclusive. I also describe the ways in which the York Award has influenced recent policy decisions relating to personal development planning and research student training.
European Framework for Work Experience
Philippa Smith, Contracts Manager (EFWE Project Manager) Careers Research and Advisory Centre, Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge CB3 0AX
The European Framework for Work Experience project aims to develop a European standard for the assessment and accreditation of employability skills developed through paid/unpaid work experience undertaken by students whilst studying. The aims of this session will be to:
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Developing an Employability Framework: an institutional approach
Sue Drew and Simon Brown Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
Sheffield Hallam has students' employability at the heart of its 'vision and values'. It has many years experience in embedding aspects of employability in the curriculum and a culture in which practice forms a basis for policy. In 2001 a cross University employability working party developed a definition of employability, recommending the creation of a University employability framework. In 2003 this framework was developed (approved by Academic Board, March 2004). It makes explicit the curriculum features that, when delivered in an integrated way, enhance student employability. These features incorporate existing policies and practices. The session will explore both the framework and the processes leading to its development.
