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Enhancing GraduateEmployability
Professor Alison Halstead
PVC Learning and Teaching Innovation
HEA/University of Ulster
May 3rd 2011 [email protected]
April 6th 2011 Headline in Professional Body Journal
‘Universities look to record student employability skills’ Anna Yates
The Undergraduate Durham Award
Leicester Award for Employability
Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) pilot:
Valerie Matthews-Lane
Head of Careers
Purpose of a University Education in 21st Century
Work Readiness
Government initiatives post 1997
►HE for Capability (1988), Enterprise in HE (1989) to embed employability skills
►Dearing – Inquiry into HE (1997) ended the policy debate!
►Funds available for 20+yrs
► Global need
►Different approaches same goal
Expectations of graduates world-wide
►Australia – Graduates complete a set of attributes►New Zealand – Measures under a National
Qualifications Framework►Canada and USA – Critical skills and work-based
learning criteria►Denmark – Qualificatiosn framework requires the
completion of a competence profile►Finland – Skills courses integrated within curriculum
and students personal plans►South Africa – NQF has critical and specific
contributions to personal development and social and economic development of society
Methods of delivering employability skills in the HE curriculum in UK
Total Embedding
Explicit Embedding
Parallel development
Lose skills without trace
Visible Skills Bolt-on developments
Skills disappear in context
Skills in context Limited contextualisation
No explicit assessment
Explicit assessment
Separate assessment
Low impact on curriculum
High impact on curriculum
Low impact on curriculum
DfEE 1997
Research in UK for HEFCE
► In 2003 ‘How much does HE enhance the employability of graduates? Mason, G., Williams,G., Cranmer, S. and Guile, D.►Benefits if structured work experience and employer
involvement in the design and delivery of the curriculum ► In 2006 ‘Enhancing graduate Employability: best intentions
and mixed outcomes’. Cranmer, S. Studies in Higher Education, Vol 31, Issue 2, April 2006, p 169-184. ►Further doubt on benefits of classroom intervention as a
result of academic perceptions of employability skills!
http://www.enhancingemployability.org.uk/
►Project FTDL 5 which aimed to enhance the employability of graduates through the higher education curriculum.
►Contact Angela Maher for more information.
►Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus,
Gipsy Lane, Oxford. OX3 0BP. UK. Tel: + 44 (0)1865 484270
NTFS project 2007-2010 – resources to complement.
► http://www2.bcu.ac.uk/futureproof
Professor Anne Hill and Dr Nick Morton (NTFS) and Dr Celia Popovic, Ruth Lawton and Jenny Eland from CELT and researcher Carmen Tomas
Employability skills for all Kent University careers
Graduates for the 21st Century Strategic thinking –an employability-orientated model
Ruth Bridgstock (2009)
‘The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: enhancing graduate employability through career management skills’
Higher Education Research and Development, Volume 28
Issue 1 February 2009, p31-44
Conceptual model of graduate attributes for employability including career management skills
Aston University
► Founded in 1895, University since 1966► Campus in Birmingham city centre► Student population: 9059 (just over
1,700 International students)► Industry-focused and accredited
programmes► Engineering and Applied Sciences, Life
and Health sciences, Business and Languages
► Very successful at widening participation
► Industrial placement year (70%)► Graduates entering employment (83%)► A top 25 UK University
Graduate employability at Aston
►For over 20 years, Aston has featured in the Top 10 UK universities for graduate employment
►In 2007/8: 83% of Aston students had graduate level jobs within six months of graduation, national average 70%
►This placed Aston 8th in the UK for graduate employability, according to the Sunday Times
►3.7% of Aston graduates were unemployed against a national average of 6%
►Aston is one of only four UK universities where more than 50% of students take a placement year
Aston also leads two additional regional activities
►Graduate Advantage – places West Midlands graduates in companies or organisations on internships
►B-Seen – encourages students and graduates to create their own business by providing training and funding
Aston highest numbers of students on placement
► Benefits of placement years are generally accepted, but exist mostly in vocational degree programmes► Academic performance► Very early career
► Reddy and Moores (2006) showed academic benefits in psychology, in 2011 across all.
Reddy, P and E. Moores. 2006. ‘Measuring the benefits of a psychology placement year’. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 31: 551-67
In 2011: Studies in Higher Education – to be published.
Programme Mark differenceYes vs. No
Significance
(ANCOVA)
Partial η2
(ANCOVA)
Effect Size (d)
ANOVA inter-action
Kendall’s
tau
BSc Human Psychology
63 vs. 60 <.001 .111 0.80 <.001 .237 (p<.001)
BEng Electrical & Electronic
59 vs. 55 n.s. .016 0.35 n.s. .209 (p<.005)
BEng/MEng Chemical
59 vs. 54 <.001 .116 0.73 <.01 .142 (p<.05)
BSc Computing Science
62 vs. 55 <.001 .063 0.82 <.001 .264 (p<.001)
BSc Managerial &
Admin.Studies
62 vs. 57 <.001 .064 0.71 <.001 .146 (p<.001)
A taster: comparison of resultsPlacement year significance once
2nd year mark covaried
Proportion of variance
explained once 2nd year mark covaried
How many standard
deviations the groups differ
by
Significance of year of study by
placement interaction
Association between
placement year and degree class
Summary and other analyses
►Students on the majority of degree programmes show academic benefit from taking an optional placement year nearly any way you choose to measure it
►Further analyses show that the effects :►(i) not due to being a bit older ►(ii) hold for higher and lower achievers ►(iii) hold for all ethnicities
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Aston 2007-2012 Employability skills development
►Integrated and Bolt on – wide variety
►E-portfolio PebblePad adopted in September 2008 – ►Foundation Degrees – work-based►Reflection and embedding of employability competences►Work Experience Year – mentor/tutor liaison►PDP level 1, Level 2 academics with careers and library ►Peer mentoring
►Assessed within the module. ►Credit bearing. Employability modules.►Centre for Learning, Innovation and Professional Practice
►Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice
PebblePad easy to navigate and use
Module Feedback can be built in
What we have learnt
►Success by integrating with explicit, assessed and credit bearing outcomes.
►Teams from academic and service departments working together on employability competences
►Extra curricula Bolt-ons are useful for students that do them.
►Clear outcomes for work- experience – extra benefits►Updating for practitioners►Input to curriculum and assessment from
employers►Final year/Masters/PhD project potential►Knowledge Transfer partnerships and research
possibilities
Aston 2020 – Employable graduates, exploitable research
► Integrated work experience (MSc/Eng)
► Teaching teams, academic and support services
► 98% graduate employability
► Personal Learning System (PebblePad) for all
► Student experience outstanding – NSS all 95%+