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What Does Good Employability in the Curriculum Look Like? David Stanbury. University of Essex
1. The challenge that needs to be met
The world of work is changing. ‘The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, owns no cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, creates no content. The world’s most valuable retailer, Alibaba, carries no stock. And the world’s largest accommodation provider, Airbnb, owns no property. Something big is going on.’1
Increased automation and machine learning threaten a swathe of graduate jobs. ‘Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, have developed a ranking of jobs by how likely they were to be automated in the next 20 years… Factors including whether jobs required skills such as creativity and social intelligence beyond robots’ capabilities…[they conclude that]…47 per cent of jobs in the US were “at risk” of automation…jobs such as accountant, taxation expert and financial technician are judged to have at least a 95 per cent chance of automation.’2
Employees of the future are changing. According to Petter Nylander CEO of Universum they increasingly seek jobs which give a sense of purpose, operate meritocraticaly, harness their insights, ideas and curiosity, embody their values and celebrate diversity3.
At the same time, students are changing. The next generation (K) will be different from millennials (also known as Gen Y, those born between 1980 and the end of 1994) who tend to be more optimistic, versatile and success orientated4. Based on interviews with 2,000 teenagers Noreena Hertze found that: 65% worried about terrorism; 66% worried about climate change; 86% worried about getting a job; 77% worried about debt; 17% have considered suicide; just 4% trust corporations (compared to 60% of their parents)5. They value authenticity, connection and co-creation: ‘Members of Generation K increasingly value things they can actively co-create. It is a generation of makers, creators and inventors. From Sarah, who builds her own computers, to Jake, who loves making horror films with his pals on his iPhone, today’s teenagers don’t only want to buy stuff, they want to imprint their voice on products... Producing something themselves has value for this generation. It resonates with their desire to be self-sufficient, and to have physical experiences in a digital world – as well as their desire to have agency and impact.’6 They have been summed up this way: ‘Selfie-taking yet unselfish, connected yet lonely, anxious yet pragmatic, risk-averse yet entrepreneurial, Generation K is a distinct cadre, a generation very different from those that preceded them.’7
1 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/hamish-mcrae/facebook-airbnb-uber-and-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-content-non-generators-10227207.html 2 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/what-should-you-study-to-stop-robots-stealing-your-job 3 Global Talent Summit, Stockholm, July 2016. 4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials#Traits 5 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1642f9d2-e3ac-11e4-9a82-00144feab7de.html 6 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/19/think-millennials-have-it-tough-for-generation-k-life-is-even-harsher 7 Ibid.
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2. The outputs to be produced
The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) reports significant and persistent levels of unfilled vacancies among its members. It traces the root cause to applicants lacking the wider range of ‘soft’ skills.
Commenting upon this and other evidence the authors note that: ‘The skills deficits highlighted in both tables are more complex in nature than the basic presentation skills and teamworking skills that students say they receive most input on at university. Commercial awareness, working with and through people, the resilience to deal with difficult situations, are not developed through a lunchtime skills session or a piece of group coursework.8’ This indicates the need for universities to provide significant periods of challenging real or realistic experiences, on multiple occasions throughout the HE journey. Furthermore, analysis by Universities UK points to an increasing labour market demand for even great numbers of highly skilled employees in the future9.
Employers like EY, Nestle and Barclays are moving away from competency based recruitment methods, which can be learnt by astute applicants, to strengths based psychometric like from Artic Shores10. ‘The machine learning-based system measures each applicant’s skills, abilities and potential to perform in a given role based on characteristics 8 https://www.agr.org.uk/write/Documents/HE_Green_Paper_AGR_Submission_-_Jan_2016.pdf 9 http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2015/supply-and-demand-for-higher-level-skills.pdf 10 http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/gamification-recruitment-psychometric-selection-diverse-talent/
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such as their appetite for risk, tolerance of ambiguity and persistence.’ Rather than being able to learn scripted answers to past situations, strength based recruitment (SRB) taps interests and inclinations. According to recruiters this favours those with limited experience11. However, the opposite could be argued. Students need a variety of experiences to discover and develop their interests. If anything, it points to the importance of creating a university ecology which favours exploration and risk taking. And while the curriculum continues to be a key field for the development of work related competences, extra-curricular activities remain a crucial way for candidates to demonstrate initiative which distinguished them from others. At the same time however, (relevant) work experience is a crucial factor in graduate hiring12, and one which is unlikely to go away. .
The accelerating rate of technological change means that it is becoming increasingly difficult for employers to predict the precise skills-sets they will need even in 12 month’s time. Many companies like Amazon are emphasising the importance of ‘curiosity’ as a proxy for intellectual adaptability and the capability to continue to learn and create new solutions to novel situations. Similarly emotional intelligence, resilience, cultural adaptability and the ability to understand data are prized by companies as different as BP, IBM and GSK13
Traditionally there has been a gap in understanding between HE and employers. So much so UUK has called for an employability ‘translation exercise’14. However, there are signs that the concept of the ‘T’ shaped graduate is gaining traction and may provide a common ground which both parties can share. Universities drawing on the concept include Cambridge (UK)15, Michigan State University16, Georgia Tech and employers ranging from CISCO, IBM and IDEO.17
Tom Kucharvy writes: ‘These T-shape people—whether IT professionals, business professionals or public service professionals—must be interdisciplinary, rather than
11 https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/strengths-based-job-interviews-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work-/ 12 https://www.agr.org.uk/write/Documents/HE_Green_Paper_AGR_Submission_-_Jan_2016.pdf 13 Future Talent Summit, Stockholm, July 201614 http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2015/supply-and-demand-for-higher-level-skills.pdf, p215 http://www.ceri.msu.edu/t-shaped-professionals/ 16 https://www.eab.com/research-and-insights/continuing-and-online-education-forum/studies/2014/t-shaped-professionals 17 https://www.eab.com/research-and-insights/continuing-and-online-education-forum/studies/2014/t-shaped-professionals
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narrowly-focused specialists. Although they must certainly have deep skills in a specialty (the vertical axis of the T), they must also have sufficient understanding of a broad range of related disciplines (the horizontal axis) to allow them to see contextual linkages, to constructively participate in interdisciplinary teams and to continually adapt their visions and their contributions to rapidly changing conditions and needs. But whatever an individual’s specialty (whether computer science, engineering, marketing, finance or any other field), all must understand how to apply IT tools to the needs of their profession.’18 The need to ‘fuse’ divergent skills together if graduates are to add real value to business is borne out by the wider academic research19.
Nonetheless universities have made little progress in addressing these challenges. According to the recent HEA’s UK Engagement Survey significant numbers of students report minimal skills development while at university. ‘Significantly, although the responses of students in different years indicated progressive development of hard skills over the course of a three-year degree, no such pattern was evident in soft skills: the responses of third-year students were almost identical to those of first years in most subject areas.’20
3. Delivery mechanisms
18 http://www-05.ibm.com/de/ibm/engagement/university_relations/pdf/Beyond_IT_report_IBM_Workforce_of_the_Future.pdf 19 http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2015/supply-and-demand-for-higher-level-skills.pdf, p23. 20 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-engagement-survey-universities-have-limited-impact-students-soft-skill-development
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Career Development Learning (CDL)
Arguably employability falls into two components: Career Development Learning (CDL) and other aspects of employability. The University of Essex has sought to clearly distinguish these in its approach to policy implementation. For example its latest Employability Strategy states that: ‘Career Development Learning (CDL) is a distinct component within employability especially concerned with the graduate labour market, and with formulating and implementing career choices. CDL is complementary to discipline study as it helps students understand how to use the learning from their degree and extra-curricular experience in the world of work.’21
The relationship between career learning and employability has been conceptualised by Hillage and Pollard22. They identify four components of employability: assets (skills, knowledge, attitudes and capabilities); deployment (the ability to understand how these can be used in the labour market); presentation (the ability to present oneself effectively in the labour market); context (the mix of personal circumstances and external factors effecting access to the available opportunities). They conclude: “For the individual, employability depends on the knowledge, skills and attitudes they possess, the way they use those assets and present them to employers and the context (e.g. personal circumstances and labour market environment) within which they seek work.” Under this model career learning encompasses deployment and presentation. The implication is that developing subject specific and transferable understanding and skills through the degree on its own is not enough to equip students to take control of their careers and plan effectively for the future. Career learning needs to be explicitly addressed in its own right. Drawing on practice across the sector as well local developments, Essex has adopted three models for delivering CDL:-
Approach Examples Pros IssuesEmployability module
SK700 (Essex), Newcastle23, Reading24 Stirling25
In-depth student engagement Practical and conceptual Includes work placements Centrally delivered by career
experts Opportunity for employer
involvement
Student take up (if optional)
Departmental ownership Possible loss of FTEs
Embedded in subject
History, CSEE, SBS, Glasgow26, Glasgow Caledonian27, Goldsmiths28, Leeds29
Clear linkage to discipline base30
Careers part of the host degree
Careers feels a natural part of the degree
Continuous learning across the student journey
Opportunity for employer involvement
Ensuring that career content is ‘hosted’ in modules with congruent content
Need to map content across different modules
Curriculum review & development
21 Revised Employability Sub-Strategy 2015/16 - 2017/18, Dave Stanbury.22 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RB85.pdf 23 http://www.ncl.ac.uk/careers/develop/cdm/index.php 24 http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/student/OnlineStudentHandbook/osh-careermanagementskills.aspx 25 http://www.stir.ac.uk/alumni/careers/career-management-skills-modules/ 26 http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_218771_en.pdf 27 http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/1121435/cbi_uuk_future_fit.pdf, p4528 http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/1121435/cbi_uuk_future_fit.pdf, p35.29 http://curriculum.leeds.ac.uk/?PAGE=131 30 Knight, P. and Yorke, E. ( 2004) Learning, Curriculum and Employability in Higher Education, London, RoutledgeFalmer
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Co-curricular modules
Maths & Psychology (Essex)
Continuous learning across the student journey
No loss of degree content Can count towards timetabled
hours for KIS Opportunity for employer
involvement
Additional teaching above the 360 credits
Student take up / work load Depth of learning Resource implications for
E&CC
As a rule each department will adopt one model as the main way of delivering CDL. At Essex each of these models is currently being successfully used. To ensure consistency, a common list of topics is used, with some scope for local variation.
Theme Recommended element Optional (specialist sessions taking an in-depth look a specialist issue)
Self-awareness1. Understanding self and Personal
Development PlanningOpportunity awareness
2. Career options with degree PG options3. The graduate labour market &
Employer requirementsEntrepreneurship
4. Work experience, volunteering and Study Abroad
Decision making5. Personally relevant career options Career Decisions Tools
Transition learning6. Graduate recruitment & selection Job presentations7. Job vacancies Psychometric tests8. CVs and Cover letters Mock assessment Centres9. Application forms10. Interviews & Assessment Centres
SK700 – Understanding Employability Preparing for your Future is a 15 credit, assessed module which counts towards degree classification. This draws on the Career Studies approach advocated by Phil McCash31. At Essex this has been adapted for Sociology, History and Literature Film Theatre Studies. In line with the Career Studies philosophy it aims to create a space where students can examine ‘career’ critically in the context of their discipline and the wider research and theory base of employability. It aims to be both theoretically informed and practically applied. An example of the core content is below:-
Understanding Employability Careers as ‘Fit’, Careers as ‘Action’ Careers as ‘Inheritance’, Careers as ‘Cycles’ Careers as ‘Journeys’, ‘Roles’ and ‘Stories’ Careers as ‘Relationships’ and ‘Resources.’ Career Self-Management Exploring Your Career Panel –What Can I Do With My Degree?
31 https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/about/cllteam/pmccash/mccash_hea_career_studies_handbook.pdf
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What Do Employers Want? How To Impress Them How To Access The Hidden Jobs Market Panel – Getting Work Experience!
While this version used Inkson, K., Dries, N., & Arnold, J., (2015). Understanding Careers (2nd Edition). London: Sage Publications Ltd, as the key text, subsequent versions have moved away from this, making great use of topics and concepts from the host discipline. These recent changes move the Essex SK700 module closer to the approach developed with funding from the Centre for Career Management Skills at the University of Reading such as Working In Postwar Britain. This 20 credit module outline developed and launched by Dr Will May from Southampton, used the class struggles of the protagonists in British realist novels such as Look Back in Anger and Lucky Jim as a lens through which to view career choice and constraints. Through using discipline content and concepts the module provides a place where students can reflect upon their own experiences of the interaction of social structure and personal agency. Essex is currently evaluating the efficacy of this approach as part of a HECSU funded research project.32 (Implementation issues will be explored later in the paper as part of the section ‘Making it Happen’)
There is growing interest in taking CDL approaches inspired by Design Thinking (DT). DT takes creative problem solving techniques from engineering design and transfers them to a range of other challenges. Design Thinking is an increasingly accepted part of EE as it helps entrepreneurs develop better products, faster. The core components are: Empathy, Point of View, Ideate, Protoype, Test, Refine. Stanford University’s Design School has pioneered the application of these approaches to life issues through their Life Design Course33.
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This fits with a cluster of career theories placed under the umbrella of ‘Contextualism’ by Young et al who characterise career as a goal directed, multi-phase, subjectively understood narrated activity – in effect a social project . Describing a situation where a couple plan how to manage their careers they write ‘…project goals [emphasis added] are defined and
32 http://hecsu.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/university-of-essex-what-are-advantages.html#!/2016/03/university-of-essex-what-are-advantages.html 33 Roth, B. (2015) The Achievement Habit. New York: HarperCollins Publishers; https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYIQDlWj34 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOwAkE0Sdbg 34 http://educate78.org/category/school-design-lab/design-thinking/
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redefined as the couple actually engage in actions and activities and are confronted by life circumstances.’35 The principles of Design Thinking then can be applied both the task of creating marketable products and the task creating a marketable career. DT provides a potential nexus connecting CDL and Enterprise Education.
Inspired by this, Georgia Tech University has reconceptualised CDL from a DOTS based approach to one which encourages students to take a series of short iterative experiments.
This approach favours Planned Happenstance36 and is congruent with theorising about mid-life career changer37. Essex is current developing a Life Design programme for PhDs and international students with a view to piloting this in academic year 2016-17.
Transferable skills
Embedding transferable skills in the subject curriculum is challenge that is not to be underestimated. The classic approach is to define a list of desirable skills, map the extant occurrence in modules (typically using a simple categorisation: is it taught? Is it practiced is it assessed?) and require course teams to build these skills into modules in a progressive manner, using learning outcomes in ways which are appropriate to each HEQF level and as far as possible ‘going with the grain’ of the academic discipline, using embedded rather than discrete skills study modules38. A not unreasonable list of skills for this exercise might look like this:
Enterprise Problem solving / creativity35 Young, R. A, Valach, L, Collin, A (2002) ‘A Contextualist Explanation of Career ‘in Duane Brown and Associates. (2002) Career Choice and Development. 4th ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, chapter 6, pp 206-252, quote from page 21636 https://web.stanford.edu/~jdk/HappenstanceLearningTheory2009.pdf 37 Ibarra, H. (2003) Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press 38 Knight, P., & Yorke, M. (2003). Assessment, learning and employability. Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press
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Explore what you are drawn
to
Experience it
Reflect & assess
Position yourself
Digital literacy Data handling Communication Team work Applying learning to real world problems
Based upon a wide ranging Faculty level project at the University of Lancaster39, a longer list of employability skills were identified:-
Employability - threshold skills
1. Communication skills (verbal and written) 2. Problem-solving 3. Team-work 4. Self-management 5. Computer literacy/IT skills 6. Business/commercial awareness 7. Numeracy
Other related skills were:
8. Adaptability/flexibility 9. Ability to work independently 10. Decision making 11. Planning and organising 12. Initiative taking 13. Creativity 14. Leadership skills 15. Self-awareness 16. Analytical/evaluation skills 17. Networking 18. Cultural sensitivity
A widely used model of employability skills is that devised by Dacre and Poole40.
39 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/ee_lancaster_-_hea.pdf, p6.40 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/employability_framework.pdf p7.
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More recently the HEA has published a framework for embedding employability.
Several factors make attempting to drive these through the curriculum a potentially fraught exercise. Conceptually, many graduate level skills overlap. When writing up a project are students using communication or problem solving skills? Probably both. This overlap can make determining which skills are under consideration complex, though not impossible. Similarly, some ‘skills’ are actually amalgams of attributes, attitudes and capabilities.
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Enterprise is one example. Creativity another. These can be even harder to nail down. When undertaking a mapping exercise this leads to the question, what should be include and what should be excluded? How feasible is it to develop 18 different skills and abilities? Practically, this produces a considerable challenge for course teams. Both in relation to building coherent ‘ladders’ of learning and auditing the occurrence of these. These challenges place strain upon time, energy and motivation.
Nevertheless, with the right institutional backing and resourcing the task is achievable (though note there may be ongoing challenges with sustainability) provided it is properly focused upon an achievable sub-set of priority skills. A particular interesting example is Deakin University, Australia which has implemented a set of employability skills in the curriculum tied to a sophisticated system for awarding digital badges41. The latter, has the potential to leverage Generation K’s proclivity towards co-creating unique personal solutions.
Chichester University, by contrast, provides a small scale in-depth case study of embedding employability within a practice based Dance degree42. This project emphasises the importance of reflective learning and of creating multiple opportunities for students to undertake real world projects such as staging a show on a limited budget. The project also draws out the importance of visually representing to students a range of career paths and linking these with elements of the course through a ‘dance map’.
Good practice in embedding employability in the curriculum takes many forms. Many universities will chose to emphasis a theme or approach. Here are some examples.
41 http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/blog/?tag=t-shaped-graduate 42 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/downloads/university_of_chichester_-_employability.pdf
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The HEA website collates a wide range of other discipline examples which course teams may be referred to43.
Internationalising the curriculum at Griffith Institute for Higher Education Australia44. Griffith illustrates a strategic approach and a detailed course and programme level implementation plan. The institutions address three key dimensions of internationalisation: ‘…international relationships (between nations), intercultural factors (interactions between people from different cultures within particular countries, communities and institutions), and global factors (worldwide scope) (Absalom and Vadura, 2006).’45. The University of Essex, by contrast, ensures that all degrees include the option of a fee free year aboard. An innovation which has seen student mobility increase substantially,138% over a 6 year period.
At Griffin, course teams are encouraged to engage with 5 fundamental questions when developing new offers:-
What are the learning aims, objectives and rationale of this course/program that are relevant to achieving the graduate outcome of ‘competence in culturally diverse and international environments’?
What are the key knowledge, skills and attitudes (i.e., graduate attributes) that students from this course should develop?
What learning and teaching practices and activities are utilised to assist student to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to competence in culturally diverse and international environments?
What tools, resources and support materials are available for students to achieve the knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to competence in culturally diverse and international environments?
How effectively do the assessment tasks assist students to demonstrate the global, international and/or intercultural capabilities they are expected to learn?46
The University of Warwick and Monash illustrate an approach based upon interdisciplinarity. Warwick47 offers a suite of 15 credit bearing modules available to students at any UG stage. These modules address topics such as: Censorship and Society; Laughter a Transdisciplinary Approach; Local and Global Shakespears. This approach is shared by other universities such as Southampton48.
Embedding enterprise in the HE experience. The Universities of Coventry, Hertfordshire, Huddersfield, Nottingham, and Queens, Belfast and illustrate different ways of engaging a high percentage of the student body in entrepreneurial activity49. Common to Huddersfield and Queens50 has been embedding enterprise education widely in the subject curriculum. The role of discipline based case-learning has been a key feature the formers’ approach51. Durham has taken a different route by creating a ‘spine’ of optional university wide electives:43 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/toolkits/embedding-employability-toolkit 44 https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/345291/Internationalising-the-Curriculum.pdf 45 Ibid, p1.46 Ibid, p11.47 https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/activities/modules/ugmodules/ 48 http://www.southampton.ac.uk/cip/interdisciplinary/modules/index.page 49 http://ieec.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Kelly-Smith-UNI-OF-HUDDERSFIELD-IEEC_2013.pdf 50 https://www.qub.ac.uk/home/media/Media,276154,en.pdf 51 http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/9660/1/Embedding_Enterprise_Education_into_the_Curriculum.pdf
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1st yr – New Venture Creation, an introduction to setting up businesses 2nd yr – Entrepreneurship, nature and role of small businesses 3rd yr – Corporate Entrepreneurship, enterprise within large firms.
The HEA publication 52 Enhancing Employability Through Enterprise Education: A Good Practice Guide (2014), provides over 20 detailed examples.
Challenge driven universities. The recent paper by Nesta53 notes the rise of:’” challenge-driven” university models. These models develop students by putting them up against difficult problems and challenges for which there are no established answers. Instead students to draw on many disciplines to solve them; they have to work in teams; and they have to collaborate with organisations outside higher education’ A striking example if the University of Maastricht54 where all UG and PGT courses are delivered using Problem Based Learning pedagogies. The Nesta Report states: ‘These treat traditional pedagogy and mastery of disciplines as a foundation and then add to this:
● Work organised through projects.
● Work organised in teams.
● Projects that primarily address unsolved problems, whether in science or society, i.e. the creation of new knowledge rather than learning of existing knowledge.
● Involvement of external partners and clients in the projects, whether businesses or public bodies.’
Work Based Learning (WBL) and service learning. A number of universities have moved work experience centre stage. Huddersfield, for example has included an element of WBL in all its degrees. Similarly UK Aston aims that by 2020 all UG students will do a year-long placement. ‘Further afield :’the University of Waterloo in Canada uses a model of co-operative education, where students’ time is split between study and assessed work experience. students are required to engage in productive work rather than purely observational, and are assessed by their employers and on their own written reports. Currently over 60 per cent of the University’s 30,000 undergraduate students take part in the programme, along with over 6,000 employers.’55
A potentially helpful guide to designing WBL modules to deliver effective employability learning has been developed by the University of Lancaster56. This shows the practical processes to go through to achieve a common understanding of employability skills at faculty level. The authors recommend that WBL modules include 4 key elements:
52 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/enhancing_employability_through_enterprise_education_good_practice_guide.pdf 53 https://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/the_challenge-driven_university.pdf pp 1-454 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMtLXXf9Sko 55 https://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/the_challenge-driven_university.pdf p6.56 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/ee_lancaster_-_hea.pdf
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1. An initial employability skills assessment stage, where students are supported in reflecting on their employability skills and identifying areas where they plan to develop these.
2. A series of subject-related learning activities relevant to their appropriate subject discipline.
3. A progress review stage running in parallel to (2) which is designed to enable students to reflect on their progress in acquiring their skills and identifying how these skills have been applied knowledge and their need to adjust their planned activities due to changes in work placement activity. Opportunities will exist for students to be supported in this process by various stakeholders including academics, the Careers Service and employers collaborating in the work placement modules. This will be captured through a range of methods such as learning journals, critical incident diaries, blogs, vlogs, and other tools that can be used for ongoing reflection.
4. A final review or demonstration stage in which students are expected to reflect upon what has been learnt in the previous stages and demonstrate what they can now do as a result. This can be done through a variety of ways such as: reflective reports which integrate competency based frameworks, presentations with evidence from learning logs and/or blogs, external reports from employers. 57
It is probably impractical for a university to seek to excel in all the above themes or to combine all the different approaches described above.
4. Making it happen
This section will explore how we get from where we are now, to where we want to be.
Framing
Although employability features as part of the managerial discourse in HE and increasing universities include it within their mission statements58 ,the inclusion of employability within HE remains deeply contested59. Even where adopting a supportive stance professionally, many academics at a personal level can be profoundly suspicious. It is difficult for employability to gain a secure footing in an inhospitable environment.
It is desirable therefore to engage academic from the outset in grappling with the concept and challenges of employability. It is unrealistic to expect academic to have a similar view of employability where they have had very different learning journeys from employability professionals. Remedying this requires the hard work of developing a shared understanding and common approach. There is no short cut for this. Rather, multiple conversations between academics, careers professional and students need to take place. These must be
57 Ibid, p7. 58 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/france-adds-employability-to-the-university-mission/2010636.article 59 http://www.ronaldbarnett.co.uk/assets/docs/talks2015/A%20University%20for%20Learning%20-%20LJMU%20June%202015[2].pdf
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open, honest and promote a constructive dialogue such as the course development example at the University of Lancaster.
Framing employability as being more than just ‘the skills you need to get a job’, is crucial if the right emotional backdrop for productive conversations is to be created. Employability is arguably part of a larger set of developmental tasks faced by students as they move into early adulthood60.
From To
Simplicity & compartmentalisation Differentiation and integration
Dualistic (right/wrong) thinking Contextual conceptions of knowledge
Passive learning from authorities Active construction of learning
Non-responsibility Personal responsibility
Dependence Autonomy and then interdependence
Impulsiveness Self-control
External controls Internal locus of control
Self-interest Fairness and responsibility
Seen in this way employability is about acknowledging that the person who learns will, in all likelihood become the person who earns. The task of HE then is, how can we support that person to develop in such a way that they can manage the transition from one mode of being to another? This entails recognising that students have multiple, overlapping and shifting identities. As the student moves through their life journey they have the challenge of finding their own voice and learning how to tell the story of the person who was at university and now is in a job in a way which provides a satisfying and coherent narrative61. Seen in this light, employability acknowledges that the holistic or ‘embodied’ nature of the learner62. Employability in its many facets (CDL, WBL, PDP) is part of enabling the learner to create meaningful connections between their different experiences. To understand how to build a
60 Pascarella, E. N., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How College Affects Students: Volume 2, A Third Decade of Research, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p. 48 61 Baxter Magolda, M.B. (2004). Making their own way: narratives to transforming higher education to promote self-development. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing 62 David Stanbury, (2010) "The kindness of strangers: How careers educators and the wider academic community can help each other", Education + Training, Vol. 52 Iss: 2, pp.100 - 116
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bridge between the learning in the lecture room and their life outside. As such employability is a valid element of liberal learning. This sees employability as being about developing rounded individuals who are able to ‘deal with complexity, diversity, and change …[who can apply their]… knowledge and skills in real-world settings…63’
Bring academics on board
Employability is too large a task to be left the Career Services, though arguably it should be central to leading and catalysing it. It has to be positioned as a partnership. Academics need to be co-opted as key players. There is no one right way to do this. Some universities have appointed academics as employability curriculum developers to work across departments. A more common pattern is to create employability as an administrative role for a designated academic per department. Essex has positioned these as senior roles on par with Directors of Education and Research. This has gone hand in hand with the expectation that role holders will strategically develop provision. Portsmouth uses SLA as a means to strengthen the connection between careers and academic departments. Nottingham uses something slightly different – departmental action plans – which use an evidence based approach (based on DLHE and other LMI) to identify joint actions for careers and academics.
Students have a key role to play too in entwining employability within the departmental culture. Essex is setting up student panels (informal groups of students) who meet occasionally) top inform enhancements to CDL. Sheffield employs students on part time contracts to work autonomously in small faculty level groups (SALT teams) to develop solutions to pedagogic challenges64.
Careers: capability, configuration and capacity
To work effectively with academics requires capability, configuration and capacity. Essex’s approach has been to form 3 small self-contained Faculty Employability Teams, one per Faculty. These FETs, which are very much part of the E&CC, form the vital outreach part of our ‘hub and spokes’ structure. Each team consists of a set of common elements: a Senior Faculty Employability Manager (who has the seniority to engage directly with the Executive Dean who leads the Faculty); a Faculty Careers Adviser; a Faculty Placements Manager; a Faculty Placements Officer and a Faculty Employability Officer (a flexible role which stops short of being a fully qualified careers advisor). This has proven to be a highly effective arrangement as it ensures that career staff can ‘get close to the action’. That is, develop the relationships and have the conversations which lead to the joint projects and locally driven initiatives. The SFEM meets with HoDs each autumn as a part of the annual planning process, reflects on progress, analyses DLHE etc and plans for the coming year. They can respond flexibly to emergent priorities by deploying their well-balanced team. They can, and this has led to the development of different approaches which are increasing tailored to the needs and situation of each Faculty.
Finally, the pedagogic approach, the institutional narrative, the set of employability skills prioritised by Plymouth and the structure of the careers services should all be wrapped up in medium term Employability Strategy signed off by senior management, to provide all parties with an agreed road map to follow. 63 https://www.aacu.org/leap/what-is-a-liberal-education 64 https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/als/students/salt/saltteams/teams
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