Empowering Students by Enhancing Employability Skills: The Case of the

BA Human Resource Management Programme

Dr Rea Prouskaand Mike Mimirinis

Guest presenters: Adriana Aliji and Huong Ly Vu (Lily)

after universit

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during universit

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The backgroundLearning & Teaching Project Scheme:

‘Enhancing Student Employability: Embedding E-Portfolios in the BA (Hons) HRM programme’

Aim: To evaluate the students’ perceptions on the usefulness of the e-portfolio in enhancing their learning experience and increasing their employability.

The researchDuring two focus group interviews seven

participating students (cohort= 35) were asked to summarize their views building their webfolio through PebblePad. Students were asked to present their opinions on three areas: their views of webfolios as a tool to enhance

their learning experiencetheir perceptions of the extent to which

webfolios can increase their employabilitytheir perceptions of PebblePad as a software

What do students think employability is?‘Employability’

applying skills and knowledge to the jobhaving a job

‘Employability skills’ability to apply skills to practiceteam-working skillscommunication skillsresearch skillsproblem solving skillsability to adjust

Webfolios as a tool to enhance learningThere is a positive perception of the effect

webfolios have on personal development and its use as a tool of self-reflection allowing assessment of past achievements and planning of future development.

Positive appreciation of webfolios as a tool of demonstrating one’s creativity.

Webfolios and employability Webfolios represent a better way of creating a

CV as opposed to a traditional wayAn effective means of ‘making a difference’Helps them identify gaps in CV by reflecting on

past achievements, understanding what and how much was done, allowing to present something valuable to employers unlike other social networks which are limited to a general profile

However, issues with how employers can access webfolios, and initial difficulties with learning and understanding the software

Webfolios and Assessment