Becka ColleyCareers AdviserNational Teaching Fellow

“Yes, but what difference does it

make?”

Waaaaaaaaaaay back in the mists of time.

Before Twitter.

When Facebook had less than 1 million users in the UK.

When MySpace was popular

I was…

Working at a different

University

Supporting learners making the transition

from work based learning to HE studies

Seconded to write business case for new cross

University skills support unit (approved and

launched in Oct 2006)

Gleaning ideas to help students manage the

transition into University more effectively.

“I don’t know why I’m here.”

“I don’t feel confident about University level studies. I couldn’t even enroll online. I feel stupid”

“What do I need to know in order to be successful at University?”

SaPRA v1Used across University from 2006-2012MidwiferyPharmacyCombined StudiesPsychology

Academic Reading

Academic Writing

Expectations about University

Individual Skills

Communication Skills

Confidence with IT

Awareness of Ecoversity

Library Skills

Initially successfu

l

Difficulties getting

academic buy in

SaPRA eventually ceased

“I have excellent communication skills and I am a strong team player.”

“My clinical training has provided me with a diverse set of relevant skills for this post.”

“One of my strengths is being able to adapt and differentiate teaching to suit the pupils learning styles so they can achieve the lesson objective.”

Unable to evidence what

they can do.

Unaware of what they are

capable of.

Implied evidence, not

explicit.

Superficial statements.

Superficial. Boring.

Generic.

Padding and waffle

No evidence at all.

Lack of relevant, real

examples.

“I have great customer service

skills :D”

“I have developed effective customer service skills

through my role of Student Adviser where I… ”

aPRA

Rank levels of confidence in different skill areas

Produce high quality, effective evidence

Create action plan, identify review dates

Complete SaPRA

Generate evidence

Create action plan

Review with Personal

Tutor

Re-do SaPRA

Generate additional evidence

Update action plans

Build portfolio of

evidence

Become more

reflective & self aware

Student needs to take ownership

Constantly reviewed

Iterative process

TEEE Model Anderton & Murrin-Bailey

Personal Skills* Identifying my Skills* Individual Skills* Self Awareness Skills

Employability Skills

* Communication* Team Working

Digital Skills* Builds on outputs from recent JISC1 report

Well, that’s just wonderful.

But what difference does it make?

• Understand & Identify

BasicYear 1 / Level 4

• Develop & Transfer

IntermediateYear 2 / Level 5

• Apply & Communicate

AdvancedYear 3 / Level 6

“I think SaPRA has allowed me to identify areas of myself which can be improved, and has allowed me to understand how I can improve these areas which is beneficial for me.”

“It enabled me to highlight my strengths and weaknesses and then produce an action plan to overcome these weaknesses.”

“SaPRA enabled students to not only audit their current experience and skills, it also helped them to reflect on priorities for development and set targets for what they needed to do in order to enhance their employability skills.”

“The SaPRA tool is very easy to use and very effective at bringing together a process of self-managed learning.”

“The business school has begun to embed SaPRA across all degree programmes to enable students to understand what they didn’t know about themselves”

2015/16

PE PGCE

PE and School Sports

Sports Nutrition and Exercise

Professional Education

Business School

2016/17

Social sciences

Performing Arts

Biology

Biggest difference is the bespoke element

Personal Skills* Identifying my

Skills* Individual Skills* Self Awareness

Skills

Employability Skills

* Communication* Team Working

Digital Skills Additional Skills* Numerical

* Working under pressure

* Problem solving* Leadership

* Subject specific

Business School implementation

Agreement of Edge Hill graduate

attributes

Support for personal tutoring

system

Replacement for the HEAR?

https://careerhub.edgehill.ac.uk/Form.aspx?id=556929

http://ehu.ac.uk/pra