Upload
kaycee
View
41
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Dr Debbi Marais. Individualised Self-assessment to Enhance Employability in postgraduate students. Employability. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
Individualised Self-assessment to Enhance Employability in postgraduate students
Dr Debbi Marais
www.abdn.ac.uk
Employability‘a set of achievements –
skills, understandings and personal attributes -
that make graduates more likely to gain
employment and be successful in their
chosen occupations, which benefits
themselves, the workforce, the
community and the economy’
www.abdn.ac.uk
Link with Retention• How does enhancing employability improve
retention?• For Postgraduate students - Non-progression
main reason for discontinuing • Proven relationship between learning and
employability• skills that facilitate learning such as being able to
analyse data, solve complex problems and to communicate effectively, can also enhance an individual’s employability
• Improving chances of progression = better student retention
www.abdn.ac.uk
Why postgraduate?• PGT students - unique group
• Short intensive period of study • Diverse graduate/professional backgrounds and
nationalities• Previous experience and skill levels • Educational experiences • English language proficiency
• Induction programmes • To ease the transition of international students
into new learning environment• Not individualised or reflective in nature
www.abdn.ac.uk
Aim• Develop an online
resource to extend employability provision for PGT students• self-awareness
employability questionnaire on MyAberdeen
• individualised feedback and links to supportive employability resources
www.abdn.ac.uk
Process1. Skills Audit• Self-assessment• Tailored feedback• Signposting to supportive resources
2. Reflection
3. Articulation
www.abdn.ac.uk
1. Skills Audit• Self-assessment of employability skills
based on HEA employability profile for Health Studies & UoA Postgraduate Attributes
Academic Excellence
Critical Thinking &
Communication
Learning & Personal
Development
Active Citizenship
www.abdn.ac.uk
1. Skills Audit• Complete prior to self-assessment
questionnaire• Existing non-credit bearing courses
• Academic writing skills (AW1001)• Summarising a given text in ≤150 words within 1 hour• Different article extracts for different programmes• Assessed by Programme Coordinators using
standardised rubric ito accuracy of summary AND language (grammar, punctuation and spelling)
• Skills info (SK5003) • 50 Questions regarding basic IT skills required (e-
mail, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, internet)• Yes (score 1), No (score 0) or Unsure (score ½)
• Psychometric testing – Profiling for success
www.abdn.ac.uk
Profiling for Success• University Careers Centre acquired via the
‘Profiling for success’ website
• Freely available to registered students
• 4 identified for I-SEE • Abstract reasoning skills• Numerical reasoning skills• Verbal reasoning skills • Type Dynamics Indicator Form
• ~10 min each
www.abdn.ac.uk
Feedback• Academic writing skills
• CAS uploaded in MyGrades with standardised feedback and signposting to either online support (CAS 6-8) or SLS language workshops (CAS <6)
• IT Skills• Score (/50) in MyGrades automatically• Automated feedback of ‘correct’ if answered YES
and signposting to specific online guides and page reference for specific section if NO/UNSURE
• Psychometric testing• Score and individualised feedback emailed to
student from website
www.abdn.ac.uk
1. Skills Audit• Self-assessment Questionnaire
• Provide scores from various sources for:• Academic writing skills; IT Skills; Abstract, Numerical
and Verbal reasoning skills and Personality Typing results
• Self-rating of:• Communication skills/academic writing (essays,
exams, oral and poster presentations, publications, referencing)
• IT skills (basic word processing, TurnitInUK, track changes, data base search)
• Group work• Personality typing (awareness of strengths and
weaknesses)• Social/civic responsibilities/engagement
www.abdn.ac.uk
Feedback• Self-assessment questionnaire
• Automated and Individualised• Best responses as correct
• Identifying development areas
• Signposting for links to supportive employability resources
• Online • Workshops/courses within the University
www.abdn.ac.uk
2. Reflection• Record progress in e-portfolio
• Directions on how to create own e-portfolio provided
• Reflect on progress using a checklist • After 6 months• Identify development areas• What has been done?• What do you plan to do?
www.abdn.ac.uk
3. Articulation• CV template
• Supportive documentation with tips
• Link to Career Services
www.abdn.ac.uk
Implementation• Division of Applied
Health Sciences PGT students
• 2013/14 academic year
• As a Compulsory non-credit bearing induction course
10
854
14
41 MSc students
Nursing/Midwifery Public HealthInternational Health Economics of HealthHuman Nutrition
www.abdn.ac.uk
Progress
Academic writing (5 Oct)
IT skills (15 Oct) Skills Audit
(2 Nov)
Checklist (1 Mar)0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
36 36
25
13
2 1
9
7
3 4 7 14
7
On time Late No progression Non-completion
E-mail reminders
www.abdn.ac.uk
Academic Writing scores
CAS 18-2027%
CAS 12-1741%
CAS 9-11
19%CAS 6-
814%
• N=38• CAS Range - 6 to 20• Mean Score – 13.95• 5 Below CAS 9
[Signposted to Online Resources]
Not reported accurately in Skills Audit -12 Unanswered and 7 Don’t know
www.abdn.ac.uk
Rating of English Language
Excelle
ntGood
Averag
ePoor
Unansw
ered0
5
10
15
20
25
Language Rating • Poor self-rating• Excellent [8-20]
• Good [6-17]
• Average [9-14]
• Poor [20/unanswered]
www.abdn.ac.uk
IT skills• N = 37• Range 21 – 50 (/50)• Mean score – 43.38• 27 >40 score• 3 poor skills
<25; 2
26-34; 1
>35; 34
Not reported accurately in Skills Audit -9 Unanswered and 7 Don’t know
www.abdn.ac.uk
IT Self-rating
Excelle
ntGood
Averag
ePoor
Unansw
ered0
5
10
15
20
25 • Poor self-rating• Excellent [>48]
• Good [19-50]
• Average [32-43]
• Poor [25]
www.abdn.ac.uk
Self-confidence
Only if a
sked
Give other c
hance
first
Answer im
mediately
02468
1012141618
Response to questions
Group Prefer on own15.4
15.6
15.8
16
16.2
16.4
16.6
16.8
17
17.2
Teamwork
www.abdn.ac.uk
• 4 unanswered Strengths and weaknesses
• 3 Don’t know and 5 unanswered what friends and peers would describe
• 6 unanswered Personality typing, 2 can’t find, 5 only 1 letter Exce
llent
Good
Averag
ePoor
Unansw
ered0
5
10
15
20
25
Self-rated Leadership
www.abdn.ac.uk
Challenges• Not accurate self-
reporting / don’t remember
• Poor self-rating
• Not understanding feedback
www.abdn.ac.uk
ChecklistPossible Development Area Yes Attended/
DoneNo but support
Communi-cation
Oral 12 9 2
Verbal reasoning 12 9 1
Written 11 9 1
IT
PP 11 8 1
Posters 12 6 1
Word 8 6 0
Excel 7 4 0
www 5 5 0
e-mail 6 6 1
Literature search 7 7 2
Referencing 11 10 1Active Citizenship Attributes 7 4 0
UK CV 3 1 2
www.abdn.ac.uk
Checklist vs Skills AuditPossible Development
Area Yes Skills Audit
Communi-cation
Oral 12 3 Never, 11 classmates/lay audience, 17 Nervous public speaking
Verbal reasoning 12 25 Below/Average
Written 11 Only 2 published, 5 poor/average language skills
IT
PP 11 15 irregular/never used
Posters 12 21 never
Excel 7 7 identified
e-mail 6 2 identified
Literature search 7 4 identified
Referencing 11 3 identified
UK CV 3 18 Don’t have
www.abdn.ac.uk
What did the students think?
• Do you think I-SEE had any impact?
• What did you find most helpful? • [prompts for specific stages in
the process – skills audit, reflection and articulation]
• What did you find least helpful?
• What do you think could help or be added?
• How can we improve engagement?
• Do you think improvements/development should be on your own initiative or followed up by programme coordinators?
19
7 MSc
Human Nutrition
7 MSc
Nursing/ Midwifery 5
MSc Public/ International
Health
30-60 min depending on time available to students
www.abdn.ac.uk
Impact of I-SEE• Initial responses were fairly unsure to this
question - a lot of shrugging and some head shaking
• Students seemed divided according to their previous exposure or experience (local vs international students)
Not a total waste of time as it did reaffirm what I
already knew, but perhaps more useful to others who have not done this before.
This is needed in the ‘real world’
so everyone should do it
It was helpful to me but I wasn't
really sure what it was for, perhaps if
we knew earlier on, we would have taken part more.
I already have a job and a career, so I did not see the
use of it for me - it was a bit of a waste of time for me -
but I can see it can be useful for others who have not had this at undergraduate level.
www.abdn.ac.uk
Comments on usefulness
• Responses differed between • International and Home students • English home language speakers or 2nd language
• Practical problems with MyAberdeen• MyGrades, e-portfolios and submitting
• Online support (guides) not helpful• Improve engagement
• Explaining aim overall and for each assessment• Better timing of assessments (course workload)
• Reflection least useful ... in the real world this is
what you need to do (reflect) ...
www.abdn.ac.uk
Improvements• Introductory session
• Importance of I-SEE• Use of MyAberdeen especially Mygrades, e-
portfolios• Timing of assessments
• Induction week• When needed• Workload of courses taken into consideration• Rather all do together at one time for checklist
• Additional • Interview skills• Using social media to market yourself• Career information eg. Job adverts
www.abdn.ac.uk
Improvements• Incorporated into Generic Skills Course
• Some sessions less useful/superficial, some very useful but opinions differ between students – should be tailored to previous exposure and skill levels
• Prevent overlap• Support in terms of workshops / presentations rather
than online support• Provide an opt-out for students who do not
want to complete
• Own initiative or not?
... actually I suppose it is really
our own responsibility ...
www.abdn.ac.uk
Way forward
• Improvements as suggested by students where possible
• Extend to College PGT programmes and PGR students
• Staff engagement
www.abdn.ac.uk
Acknowledgements• HEA – Individual
Teaching Development Grant
• Support from colleagues in the DAHS & CLSM Graduate School
• Research assistant – Ettienne Marais