students: an integrated approach Paul Greenbank Centre for Learning - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Developing the employability of our students: an integrated approach Paul Greenbank Centre for Learning and Teaching

Introduction • Employability can be defined as: A set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy (Pegg et al., 2012, p. 4) • Employability has become a key issue for HEIs • There can be resistance to the employability agenda

Any comments on the case studies: ‘A tale of Two Students’?

Interviews carried out with final year students – just before their final examinations … It’s the fact that the end of uni’s getting so near now and you know I feel I’ve got no plan and I’m going to be graduating and not knowing what will I do. Recently I’ve been trying to do everything because I just couldn’t ignore careers. I thought OH GOD I need a job lined up for when I graduate. All these graduate schemes, they’re all closing too and I‘ve I just saw the deadlines, panicked and put been kind of leaving my assignments, but a couple of applications in. It was just a now it’s oh my assignments (laughs). case of trying to get SOMEWHERE. I don’t know who I am anymore (laughs). I think when I first came to uni I was stronger I knew what I wanted and stuff but now I feel a bit like – I don’t know what the word is – a bit lost because I’ve been in education all my life and like it’s coming to an end and when you do leave and you’re having a full on job like it’s worrying. I’ve been like for years doing essays and you’re not going to be doing essays really. I don’t feel prepared DEFINITELY not (starts crying).

Preparing students for the transition from education to employment: overview Reflect on (and change?) their ‘competency values’ Understand the Develop their Action plan (graduate) labour decision-making market skills Personal capital ‘Know themselves’ and the type of career/job they want Skills for the recruitment and selection process Strategy for applying for jobs

Understanding the (graduate) labour market • http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/graduates-in-the-labour-market/2013/video---graduates-in-the-uk-labour-market- 2013.html?translation-component=&calling-id=77-337889&currLang=English&format=contrast • More competitive • Risk of unemployment & underemployment • More diverse and vertically segmented graduate labour market • Recruitment often begins whilst students are still at university • Employers are adopting more rigorous and sophisticated recruitment and selection strategies

Recruitment and selection methods Method 1999 (%) 2009 (%) Only accept on-line applications 2 81 Only accept paper applications 98 11 Willing to accept CV 50 7 Telephone screening 10 40 On-line exercises 2 36 Psychometric tests 27 66 Personality tests 35 64 Numeracy tests 25 80 Verbal reasoning 23 71 Interviews 100 98 Assessment centres 21 85 Redmond (2010, Table 25, p. 144)

Skills (values, personality traits, etc. ) o Most cited skills and o Skills (and attitudes) attributes according to demanded of Maher and Graves (2008, graduates according pp. 16-17): to Redmond (2010, p. 42) – in order of • Communication importance: • Team working/working with others • Self-confidence • Oral communication • Self-motivation • Team work • Self-management • Enthusiasm • Problem-solving • Motivation • Numeracy Of course • Initiative • Commitment students will • Leadership need to find out • Intellectual skills • Commitment exactly what • Other skills (e.g. flexibility/adaptability, sort of skills and • Interpersonal skills IT/computer literacy, ability to work attributes • under pressure, ability to cope with Organisation specific uncertainty) • employers are Foreign language skills seeking

Students should critically reflect on their competency values Living for today Future orientation v v Purist orientation Player orientation v Fate/dependency Agency/proactivity v Intuition Rationality

Students should develop their decision-making skills System 1 thinking System 2 thinking (Intuition) (Rational decision-making )

Students need to ‘know themselves’ and the type of career/job they want Personality Skills Values Occupation Sector Organisational size Self-employment Portfolio worker

Integrated approach: overview Unfreezing Reflection Input (labour market, Action Reinforcement decision-making, preparing planning for the recruitment and selection process) Action

Approaches • Pedagogic – ‘Transformative pedagogies’ (unfreezing) • Challenge existing values (critically evaluate past decision- making behaviour) • Multiple case studies (in conjunction with analogical encoding) • Lecture input (including use of outside speakers) • Developing future possible-selves (feared, ideal, possible) According to Rossiter (2007 ‘[P] eople are more likely to take action … if they have a well developed possible self … If an individual really cannot envision herself or himself doing something, it is unlikely that behaviour will be directed towards that end’ (p. 90)

• Pedagogic (continued) – Emphasis on active learning and the development of student skills and attributes – Focus on groups of students • Key role for … – Careers advisers – Personal tutors – Personal Development Planning (PDP) – Higher Education Achievement Report? (HEAR) • Curriculum development … – Employability modules – Credit for extra- curricular activities (recognition of ‘life -wide learning’)

Action planning Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 • Identifying ‘future • Continuing to develop • Strategy for applying for possible selves’ and evidence personal jobs capital • Setting career objectives • Reflecting on progress in (including contingency • Refining career the recruitment and plans) objectives selection process • Developing and • Developing skills for the evidencing personal recruitment and capital through selection process curricular and extra- curricular activities

Resources see: http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/clt/professional-development/events/ Developing decision-making skills in students: an active learning approach Guidelines for personal tutors: helping students to develop their employability Resources on employability Publications