Dr Raphael Hallett, Dr Henry Irving & Alexandra AndersonA University of Leeds USEF Interim Report which details regional employer perceptions of graduate skills and competencies, before mapping the way the Faculty of Arts has responded to the ‘employability’ agenda.

It pays particular attention to the way modules are described in relation to ‘learning’ and ‘skills outcomes’, and looks at the way module descriptions embed or ignore the language of employability.

The report then looks at current assessment practices and asks how far these are providing employability training and skills for our students.

University of Leeds

J a n u a r y 2 0 1 4

Assessing Employability within the Curriculum

Assessing Employability within the CurriculumPart 1: Regional Employers’ Attitudes to Graduate Employability

1. Background and Research Method

This report, commissioned as part of the University of Leeds USEF project ‘Assessing Employability within the Curriculum’, examines the key competencies and behaviours that regional employers expect from graduates. It also investigates their perception of University of Leeds graduates in particular, and the role they see the academic curriculum playing in nurturing graduate attributes and professional readiness.

The decision to undertake a series of interviews with local and national employers emerged as part of the project’s objective to compare definitions of employability from different perspectives (e.g. university, student and employer) so that we represent different sectors of interest and engage in a critical debate about what constitutes ‘student employability’ for different stakeholders.

More crucially, perhaps, the survey follows from the urgent need to balance the University’s institutional definitions of graduate employability (defined prominently in the Employability Strategy, Careers Service literature and Leeds for Life skills typologies) with the current and evolving definitions of those people who actually host, live and define ‘employability’ in practice: the employers themselves. A key objective of our project is to set institutional and professional ideas about employability in a more rigorous and dynamic dialogue, allowing for our policies on student employability to be nuanced by varied input, and for our provision of employability opportunities to respond to a changing external environment.

An understanding of diverse employer perspectives on what actually constitutes ‘graduate employability’ allows us to deepen our consultation with employers as we engage in delivering employability skills and opportunities as part of the curriculum. It also sets the platform for potential collaboration with regional employers in questions of programme, module and assessment design and delivery, subjects analysed more closely in part 2 of this report.

Our provisional portrait of employer expectations and attitudes in relation to ‘graduate employability’ emerges from the basis of evidence from eight detailed interviews with regional employers and from a selection of completed electronic questionnaires.1 This evidence base will be extended in Phase 2 of this USEF project to cover a greater range of employers, paying particular attention to University of Leeds alumni employers who will have a perspective on both University and professional spheres, and be able to comment on the transition from one context to the next.

1 The transcribed employer interviews and completed questionnaires are available for scrutiny in Appendices 1 & 2

2. Research Findings

2.1. Perceptions of University of Leeds Graduates

When asked as to whether University of Leeds graduates were more or less skilled when compared with other UK university graduates, employers’ responses were generally positive. The University of Leeds is rated highly for being part of the Russell Universities Group (See Interview 8.9, Questionnaire 1.1.4). In comparison to other universities within this group, Leeds’ graduates are seen as at least equally qualified and when compared across all UK universities, employers tend to rate Leeds applicants as being above average. University of Leeds has an excellent reputation for developing employable graduates and employers trust this reputation when hiring (Interviews 2.8; 5.7, Questionnaire 1.2.1). Key advantages of University of Leeds graduates over other HE graduates include their ability to demonstrate good employability skills such as team-working and independence. As a generally defined cohort, graduates from Leeds are considered favorably and many employers would provisionally prioritise Leeds graduates for future employment opportunities.

Employers note both passion and pride in University of Leeds graduates and this positive attitude about the education and experience they receive reflects well in both interviews and employment. Simon Horniblow, Managing Director of Campus Life, argued that Leeds’s graduates are, in this respect, “in a completely different class then students from any other university. My colleague and I both agreed that they are completely different. We’ve had four or five students from Leeds and they are very proud of their education” (Interview 4.6).

Employers have been keen to express the need for their applicants to have a university degree. While applicants without a degree level qualification are often considered, university graduates are typically preferred. Jilly Langley, a Creative Group Head at MediaCom has noted that graduates tend to “push themselves harder because they have worked hard to get a job. They are ready and willing to work really hard while others are just continuing along their career“(Interview, 5.9). The surveyed employers tended to ask specifically for graduates even at entry-level positions. Some employers however attributed this to an academic oversaturation, which has led to the job market becoming increasingly competitive (Interviews 2.1, 5.8 and 5.9)

When questioned further about the importance of a university degree, employers tend towards asking specifically for graduates at all levels of their organizations but for more senior positions they would not discriminate against the person without a degree, regarding varied work and career experience as invaluable. For junior positions, employers comment that graduates are willing to learn and typically have a well-rounded background nurtured by their academic studies, including knowledge of, and reflection about, the theory behind their subject (Interview 2.13). However, employers do comment that, compared to someone who has done an apprentice, or worked in industry after GCSE or A-Level qualifications, university graduates do not have comparable office and administration skills. While this is a consideration, employers generally agree that these skills can however be learned relatively quickly through ‘on the job training’ (Interviews 2.2, 3.5, 8.5, 8.9, Questionnaire 1.1.9, 2.1.11).

Importantly, our findings show that employers do not typically differentiate between degree subject and discipline types as long as graduates show good employability potential. Employers believe this

is potential is demonstrated through a combination of academic achievement, work experience and the ability to articulate their achievements (Interview 1.5, 2.4, 5.11). For more specific, high skilled jobs (such as web design or product design), employers prefer degrees in the applicable field but do not consider subject-specific skills as dominant over personal attributes (Interview 5.11, 6.3). It was generally considered by employers that degree scholarship and level of achievement were matched in importance by co-curricular activities and work experience. Generally graduates who explained and evidenced a balance of the two, and who also showed strong interpersonal skills, were preferred above others in recruitment.

2.2. Graduate Attributes & Behaviours

Employers were asked to discuss the most significant ‘graduate attributes’ that they look for when recruiting at graduate level. Their responses were not guided by predefined lists of skills or competencies, but interviewees were encouraged to think about ‘behaviours’ as well as skills, so that we might understand better what employers value in graduates as they adapt to workplace cultures and etiquette.

i) Communication Skills

Employers consistently emphasise the success of graduates who are confident communicators and who are able to present themselves well in one-to-one and group scenarios. Since many of the tasks required in graduate careers are client facing, our employers believed it imperative that graduate employees are able to communicate well with others (Interview 1.1, 4.11, 5.2, 6.2, 7.2, 8.2). These communication skills are discussed further in the sections on team working (d) and presentation (e) skills where they are more specifically understood.

One of the implications of this emphasis on flexible communication skills is that the ‘lone scholar’ culture of scholarship and research, still maintained in many areas of the university curriculum, and especially in arts and humanities subjects, looks increasingly out of step with the expectations of employers. The extent to which the University of Leeds curriculum is adapting to produce graduates with multi-faceted communication skills is investigated in part 2, section 7.1.

ii) Commercial Awareness

Commercial awareness is highly valued by employers and they especially like to see this demonstrated in graduate CVs and subsequently in interviews. This awareness is typically described as a ‘personality trait’ as much as a developed ‘skill’ and has been linked by employers to a graduate’s curiosity, passion and enthusiasm. Commercial awareness is demonstrated as an interest in particular professional sectors and an understanding of the wider environment in which the organization operates (Interviews 1.5, 2.12, 3.5, 5.6, 6.2, Questionnaire 1.1.5, 1.1.7, 1.1.12) . Commercial awareness is also defined as careful research into your company and sector, analyzing its practices, history, culture and language. Such definitions would suggest that the scholarly and critical skills developed through an Arts degree are very useful for developing a nuanced, reflective form of commercial awareness, but it is not presently clear that employers, module tutors or students pinpoint that link between academic research and commercial understanding. This issue is explored further in Part 2, section 7.2.

A graduate’s ability to demonstrate commercial awareness can be nurtured by extra-curricular activities. It is thought by employers that these are crucial to exhibit a student’s interests and abilities outside of subject-specific scholarship. Employers believe that this kind of commercial engagement can be achieved through creative activities such as writing a blog / article about a particular career or organisation, and by more traditional methods such as obtaining a work shadowing position (Interviews 1.1, 1.4, 2.11, 3.2, 4.12, 5.3, and 6.3).

Due to a sense of academic inflation, employers expect applicants with more internship and placement experience (Interviews 2.1, 5.9). Students must be better prepared for this requirement and it is typically graduates with well-rounded CV’s, detailing curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, that are chosen for interview.

iii) Team Working Skills

Team working skills were important to each employer we interviewed, and there are evident concerns that this is not being fully developed at University. Although students are seen to be participating in an increasing number of group work activities and presentations, the employer perception is that these academic scenarios still do relatively little to anticipate a working environment. Team working is regarded as a key behavioural skill for graduates, as most jobs require regular interaction and negotiation with others, including managers, co-workers and clients. Jilly Langley described this as the “balancing act of dealing with a lot of different people all at the same time” (Interview 5.2).

As many students spend most of their curricular time working on their own for personal scholarly goals, it a can be a very hard adjustment to trust other people and work hard together to complete a task (Interview 1.4, 2.9). Simon Shaw from Brass Insight highlighted graduate difficulties in working on multiple projects with multiple team members, and feels that graduates need to trust other members on their team (Interview 2.9). Jilly Langley highlighted a weakness in “contributing in team meetings and brainstorming… When it comes to an open forum, recent graduates are less likely to contribute.” This contribution is especially important as employers want participation from new graduates as it is “their new, fresh ideas that are most valuable” (Interview 5.3).

Employers thought that it was necessary to consider how graduates might be better prepared when they are introduced to the collaborative culture of the workplace. Flexible team working skills are a necessity for all employers and it is important to contemplate whether Faculty of Arts (and University of Leeds) students have the opportunity to acquire these skills by their graduation. This question is explored further in Part 2, section 7.3.

iv) Independence

Independence is an important behaviour according to employers, and something commonly associated with graduate rather than non-graduate applicants. Academic study at Leeds gives students excellent research skills, developed within the university curriculum, which provides for independent learning outside of lectures and tutorials (Interviews 5.2). Adam Robinson, Managing Director of Disruptive Group believes that Arts graduates “normally have the ability to self manage and work independently and they have a good range of research and reporting skills outside their core skill sets” (Interview 7.3).

It is reassuring in this sense that a core academic skill, nurtured by research-based learning and independent study, is closely related to graduate competence by many employers. This is also a conclusion evidenced by Treherne and Rowson’s 2011 University of Leeds UTF report on Student Research and Employability,2 and should be emphasised to counterbalance some of the perceived drawbacks of the ‘lone scholar’ research culture that predominates in certain parts of the curriculum.

v) Presentation Skills

According to employers, good presentations skills are imperative to a graduate’s skill set. Presentations are used to communicate with colleagues as well as clients and form a vital part of day-to-day employment. While employers are aware that the university is currently including

2 Treherne, M. and Rowson, A.; Students, Research and Employability in the Faculty of Arts, University of Leeds UTF Report, July 2011. See here for an online summary, accessed December 2013.

presentations in the curriculum, they would like a further emphasis on their use. They would like for students to learn to accept feedback, as well as the ability and confidence to defend every aspect of their work, to imitate a client or manager in the work environment (See Interviews 3.11, 4.11, 5.4, 7.3, 8.3, 8.11; Questionnaire 2.1.9)

Employers do think it is the responsibility of the University to ensure that graduates have team working skills, as it can be taught in the curriculum through group presentations and projects. Although individual learning is very important, graduates need to focus on their work as process, and not as a competition. In the workforce an employee is expected to be able to present and adapt to varying audiences and it does present the question as these scenarios are anticipated at all by the presentation skills developed in the curriculum. Students should be able to present to their fellow students and accept feedback from them, just as they would eventually present to their work colleagues (Interviews 1.4, 2.12, 4.11, 6.11, and 8.11). Feedback from your peers is an important aspect of presentations at the workplace and students do not receive this peer review with their modules. Feedback is generally given by a sole tutor and takes place as a written assessment where there is not always an opportunity for an in depth discussion. Employers require graduates who are able to not only accept but act on feedback, with the additional skill of defending their work combined with a willingness to change (Interviews 1.4, 2.12, 4.11, 6.11, 8.11).

vi) Critical and Analytical skills

Critical and analytical skills are highly regarded by employers and necessary in every field of work. When describing history graduates, Simon Horniblow felt that they were “very analytical and research-based”. He did find that this led to some difficulties in actually implementing their work: “They could write them the best document in the world but if you asked them to implement it they suddenly seemed unsure as to how to do that.” (Interviews 4.5, 6.2) This raises the question as to whether the university currently allows students to apply their knowledge and ideas in working scenarios or contexts beyond the ‘abstract’ space of the essay. This concern can also be directly linked back to a requirement for improved commercial awareness as discussed in section (b), above. This concern is investigated further in part 2, sections 7.5 and 7.6, where we look at the ability to adapt academic skills and ideas to the workplace.

2.3. Graduate Attitudes & Approaches to Employment

As part of our interviews, we asked each employer about the particular strengths and weaknesses they identified in graduates as they entered processes of application, interview, acclimatization and early career work.

Employers identified a recurring weakness in interview skills. The academic achievements of graduates can often win them the interview, but when they are then required to articulate themselves and demonstrate their competencies and positive behaviour characteristics in a more pressured situation, they tend to struggle.

It is generally considered that graduates must be able to answer interview questions in relation to experiences they have had. Additionally they must relay interest back to company activities and future company goals. Employers believe graduates should have a commercial awareness of the industry and have used their research skills to gain an understanding of the company (Interviews 1.2, 2.14, 4.5, 5.13, 6.4 and 7.3). It was emphasized that graduates must apply the research skills they were taught in their degree to prepare for interviews (Interview 3.13) and that this is often not demonstrated. Jennie Jones emphasized the need for graduates to come to interviews interested and excited about the company and what it does, rather than only being interested in simply getting a “job” (Interview 3.2).

Graduates need an awareness of the rhetoric of academia and employability. Simon Shaw believes it is important that graduates know the words and their meanings. The danger is that students talk in general terms, where they won’t or can’t be specific. Applicants need to be able to give examples and be specific. This is extremely important and at the core of an interview. Sometimes this is a confidence issue. Applicants should be bold, list their skill and communicate them clearly with enthusiasm. Don’t just use the language like “commercial awareness” without knowing the meaning (Interview 2.14).

There was a concern that graduates had expectations of their potential employers that were too high and expected too much from companies right away. This includes increases in pay, expectations of positions above their experience level as well as responsibilities. Graduate applicants were sometimes considered rude or disinterested when complaining about starting pay rates or of tasks assigned to them. (Interviews 3.9, 7.3)

It is considered that University of Leeds graduate applicants stand out when they write a personalized cover letter. Instead of simply addressing it with “To Whom It May Concern” or “to Sir or Madam”, it is agreed that graduates applying for employment positions should research who is receiving and reviewing the applications and address it to them specifically. Graduates should have the ability to be concise and direct, demonstrating a confidence in their abilities and their capability to express themselves effectively (Interview 2.6).

2.4. Graduate demonstration of “Everyday” Professional Skills

Whilst employers regularly drew our attention to the above skills and attitudes, they were often at pains to insist that it was the ‘nut & bolts’ of certain kinds of working behaviour, routine and decorum that also mattered. Many employers insisted on ‘mundane’ but essential competencies such as knowledge of appropriate email decorum and proper grammar and communication. Such skills are often considered weak in graduates whilst being essential for business operations (Interviews 1.1, 1.4, 5.4, 7.6). Dan Blades, the Design Product Manager from Dynamic and Olivia Phalp, Graduate Recruiter for Ernst & Young, were adamant that graduates lack attention to detail in application and work situations. This was evident to them in the day-to-day communications such as composing emails and using appropriate language (Interview 1.2).

This suggests again that students can prepare and critique rigorously in relation to academic material and contexts, but fail to apply those skills to career planning, applications and professional development. Students are seen to struggle to identify activities in their academic programmes that will transfer to career development, despite increasing attempts by module and curriculum designers to label and signal the way employability training is embedded in the curriculum and its learning and assessment.

Employers have noted strong weaknesses in day-to-day digital skills and workplace etiquette. Employers would like to see graduates who are more highly skilled in Microsoft Office software (especially Excel) and who are used to applying such software to non-academic tasks. Graduates additionally need to refine their writing skills to portray themselves strongly in cover letters and CVs (Interviews 1.1, 3.11, 7.6). Although skills in day-to-day IT skills and email communications were identified as weakness of Leeds graduates, it was thought that many of these skills could be quickly developed through workplace training, and that the curriculum is not wholly responsible (or suitable) for developing what are often context-dependent professional skills. There was a recognition that just as there are ‘subject-specific’ skills at University, so there are sector, company or workplace-specific skills that are best trained within their respective contexts, and that graduate training, work experience and work placement opportunities within the curriculum are best placed to nurture these skills.

2.5. Student Involvement in Extra-Curricular Activities

When asked which are most important to an employer, outstanding academic achievements or recognizable professional attributes, employers replied that they wanted to see a range of both. Simon Shaw attributed this to an academic oversaturation of graduate applications. Employers now often prefer to welcome graduates with a first class honours, a masters degree and work experience. Employers expect the best applicants to have extra-curricular achievements such as internships and work placements on their CVs (Interviews 2.1, 1.3, 5.9), encouraging work-based learning but understanding that the curriculum can only achieve so much in developing graduate readiness.

Employers believe that graduates coming direct from academia have little exposure to the daily commercial tasks that are essential to succeeding in an employment role. The university only gets them up to a certain point. Depending on the employment, six months work experience will often give students more relevant experience than a degree will (See Interview 2.5). The university can give students awareness and preparation, but students are not actually applying their skills to the real day-to-day tasks and requirements of employment. Where the university offers programmes that include a year out in employment, employers see applicants with much higher employable skills. Employers increasingly look for “positions of responsibility” that demonstrate proactive work beyond core academic studies. Cherished examples include taking up an administrative role within the department and volunteering within the community. Such experience demonstrates that the students have made an effort to develop themselves (Interview 1.1).

Employers agree that they would give preference to graduates who went above and beyond academic training and exploration. They prefer students who are already involved in industry and have the ability to demonstrate this interest. They want to ensure that the graduate has not just done the bare minimum academically. Employers emphasize that students need to be able to demonstrate long-term aims and objectives and additional show strategic planning and progression towards those goals. Whether it is work experience, internships or skill development, demonstrating interest in a sector or employment field is extremely beneficial and will significantly increase their competitiveness over other graduates (Interviews 1.1, 3.4, 4.7, 4.11, 5.3, and 6.6).

These findings force us to recognize the need for the academic curriculum to embed opportunities such as work-based learning and volunteering in its optional and elective offerings. However, it also forces us to recognize that there are limits to what an academic curriculum is seen to be responsible for, and that employers respect students who step out of curricular provision to achieve more self-orchestrated opportunities. These are seen by employers as partly structured by University opportunities but also - and rightly - dependent on the initiative of the student. We can be confident that initiatives such as the Leeds for Life project and the ‘Decide – Plan – Compete’ structure of Careers provision are the correct sorts of framework to allow students to fulfil such employer expectations.

3. How Can The University of Leeds Improve Student Employability?

i) Providing employability training within Academic Courses

In response to the overall question of ‘developing employability within the curriculum’ the question often arose as to whether the development of employability competencies and behaviours is in fact the university’s responsibility. Employers are aware (and happy) that students will not be completely polished in business skills, and generally use interviews to find if there is potential rather than fulfilment in these areas. Employers like to shape graduates once they are in the company, and are conscious that this is generally expected of them as employers (Interviews 2.2, 3.5, 8.5, 8.9, Questionnaire 1.1.9, 2.1.11). Simon Shaw said that as an employer, they are willing to do 40% of the training if the university has covered the other 60% (Interview 2.2). This should make us aware that the notion of ‘complete’ graduate readiness can actually be both a false hope and an undesirable outcome, since employers want malleable, flexible, adaptable graduates (just as universities desire malleable rather than ‘fixed’ or ‘resolved’ minds at entry-level and in transition). The ‘complete’ university graduate is just as much an anathema as the ‘complete’ level 1 student.

Having found this, employers believe that there is much more that could be done to enhance curricular preparation for professional success. Employers argue that having additional input into the curriculum will serve to help everyone involved. They are excited about the prospect of being more involved in processes of module design and delivery, of being involved in the development of students and in helping students become aware of the workplace environment. As part of greater interaction with the university, employers get to meet the students who show the most potential and who they will eventually be interested in recruiting (Interviews 1.3, 2.13, 4.9, 6.6). This is already demonstrated by several employers who hold guest-lecturing positions at the University of Leeds. Many of the employers interviewed expressed a direct willingness to help develop employability skills as part of the curricular offer, rather than merely acting as hosts for work experience or as visiting recruiters and speakers.

When asked specifically about work-placement modules, employers felt that it is the university’s responsibility to ensure that the students are aware of and have access to placements. They prefer the students to show initiative and self-governance in applying for placements themselves, to demonstrate their interest in that sector or company. Employers would choose the graduates who are the type to take on this responsibility themselves, demonstrating the passion and work ethic they look for in applicants, but it was recognized that the university has a key role in sign-posting and advising on these opportunities. Employers want universities to play a facilitating role in ensuring its student’s get real life employability skills (Interview 1.2, 3.4, 4.7, 4.11, 5.3, 6.6, Questionnaire 1.1.11).

Most employers are keen to help the university in curriculum design or in coming to work with students. They believe this will help in the early development of transferable workplace skills. Simon Horniblow believes it is crucial to “involve members of industry and employers wherever possible” (Interview 4.9). He thought it would be especially helpful to be “involved on panels looking at their work, which would open their eyes as to what is expected of them” (Interview 4.9).

ii) Changing Assessment Processes

We gave employers the chance to talk specifically about the types of assessment we use within the curriculum and whether these acted to promote skills useful to professional contexts. Whilst there were clear limits to the knowledge employers had of how we currently assess our students (an interesting finding itself), the University is recognised as innovative in assessment types such as team presentations and group work, but further emphasis on these areas is highly recommended, so that the collaborative nature of professional work is foreshadowed.

Notably, employers welcome the design of more high-pressure assignments for students, beyond the conventional structure of controlled examinations. These could replicate (or at least anticipate) the mutable conditions of professional project work, client interaction and customer relations. Suggestions were made for shorter, more intense assignments that have to be completed in a matter of days. Changes might be made halfway through an assignment to demonstrate how a client changes his or her mind (interviews 3.11, 4.11, 8.8). Such assessment types would naturally rub against the green of University QA expectations regarding the clarity and stability of assessment outcomes and criteria, but employers suggested that a certain edge of ‘managed unpredictability’ in assessment would better prepare students for the mutability of workplace demands.

Some employers, whilst respecting the conventions of academic study, felt that assessment techniques (including essays, presentations and exams) focus too heavily on the knowledge of theory and lack any measurement of the application of theory, a much more valuable skill in the workplace (See Interview 7.4). Employers have thought that including employers more widely on assessment panels would help students get used to receiving feedback in a ‘professional’ register, while at the same time learning to defend their work and achievements in relation to non-academic contexts and values (interview 4.11).

These initial findings about the way employers perceive learning activities and assessment types within the university curriculum set the scene nicely for Part 2 of our report, which looks in detail at the learning outcomes and assessment types currently advertised and deployed within Faculty of Arts modules at the University of Leeds.

Assessing Employability within the CurriculumPart 2: Mapping the Faculty of Arts, University of Leeds

1. Background and Project Aims

The development of our students’ ‘employability’ is a key agenda within the University of Leeds’ Curriculum Enhancement Project (CEP).The Core Programmes Threads (CPT) group is charged with evidencing where employability skills and awareness are integrated - at each level - within the curricular offer at Leeds. This centrality presumes that we already have, and will develop further, a range of modules, learning activities and opportunities within the curriculum that enhance employability skills.

The University’s aim is to develop these in both explicit and implicit ways. The design of modules that overtly provide transferable skills and employability opportunities is matched by a commitment to develop student learning activities within modules that have clear links to employability (activities such as collaborative research, project management and public liaison). The strategic objective is to ensure that each of our students:

Leave us as a highly skilled, well-developed individual able to make the transition into the workplace easily … [and able to] talk confidently about their attributes and skills, and the way in which these have been shaped.3

The discussion of graduate skills and employability is a prominent and contested discourse, and one which stretches well beyond the domain of employer-university relations into a growing pedagogic literature and a lively field of HE debate and governmental policy-making.4 It is a narrative that is central to student education at the University of Leeds, as demonstrated by the prominence of the Employability Strategy and its focus on nurturing graduate readiness through Leeds for Life, a bespoke online platform used by students to chart ‘experience and attributes [developed] from the academic curriculum and co-curricular activities’.5

This University Student Education Fellowship (USEF) will explore the implications of this commitment to employability in terms of module and programme design, specifically analysing the learning activities and assessment types deployed as part of that design. The project builds upon findings that emerged from the earlier University of Leeds Teaching Fellowship (UTF) ‘The Rhetoric of Employability’ (September 2012). That research concluded that (i) ‘employability’ is particularly meaningful to students when embedded within, or relevant to, their chosen disciplines and (ii) that students are able to articulate the skills and attributes most effectively when these are flagged and

3 Choosing Leeds, University of Leeds webpage, http://www.leeds.ac.uk/info/20026/choosing_leeds (accessed Sept 2012).

4 Raphael Hallett, The Rhetoric of Employability: Bridging the University-Employer Divide (University of Leeds UTF Project Report, 2012), pp. 9-11.

5 Raphael Hallett, The Rhetoric of Employability, p. 11 and University of Leeds, Employability Strategy, p. 124 (accessed Sept 2012).

assessed as part of their academic development.6 It argued that the curricular integration of specific ‘employability’ skills – or behaviours – means that a balance needs to be struck (and a dialogue created) between the practical benefits of employability and the rich, subject-specific opportunities that the University of Leeds has to offer.7

This USEF project sets out to suggest ways that the dialogue between scholarly inspiration and employability provision (which are seen as intimately connected rather than separate) can be maintained by adapting programme design and assessment practice to meet the challenges posed by employer expectations and the HE ‘employability’ agenda.

Taking its cue from the issues raised by graduate employers in the Employers Attitudes and Opinions section, we focus on current practice within the Faculty of Arts. The report examines how diverse programmes and modules have responded, partly responded, or failed to respond to the challenge of manifesting our commitment to employability within the taught curriculum.

2. Project Methodology and Structure

The findings and recommendations of this report are based upon the mapping and analysis of all credit bearing modules offered by the Faulty of Arts during the 2012/13 academic year. This comprehensive process covers learning pathways from a student’s first year transition to their third year dissertation.

In keeping with the CEP and University’s Employability Strategy, particular attention was paid to the ways that the development and assessment of skills and behaviours are embedded in the curriculum. Whilst this involved a survey of innovative design and method, care has been taken not to assume that more traditional forms of learning and assessment are less useful in the shaping of graduate attributes and skills.8 Instead, the report focuses upon the way that all assessment types are explained within module descriptors, and analyses the crucial relationship between stated

6 Raphael Hallett, The Rhetoric of Employability, pp. 32-3.7 Raphael Hallett, The Rhetoric of Employability, pp. 28-31.8 This crossover between scholarship and professional competence is explored in Abi Rowson and Matthew

Treherne, Student Employability and Research in the Arts (University of Leeds UTF Project Report, 2011).

The Project Aims

1. To respond to the question of ‘student employability’ by surveying current provision within the University of Leeds curriculum

2. To chart the ways in which module design has evolved to integrate learning activities and assessment types that nurture ‘employability skills’

3. To analyse whether employer expectations in relation to ‘graduate attributes’ are being considered / met as we re-design and deliver the academic curriculum

4. To use the Faculty of Arts as a detailed case-study, asking how the culture of module design, description and delivery has been influenced by the ‘employability’ agenda

5. To offer a set of recommendations concerning module and programme design, focussing especially on diversity of assessment

‘learning outcomes’ and ‘skills outcomes’ and the assessments that measure student performance in relation to these outcomes.

All initial findings are based upon information provided by the University of Leeds’ Undergraduate Module Catalogue, the baseline information provided to students as they consider their module choices and check module content, assessment and outcomes.9

The following analysis does not intend to summarise the entire mapping process.10 It will instead address some of the main questions raised by the ‘Employers Attitudes’ research (detailed in Part 1). The first section provides the context, overviewing the Faculty’s academic offer and detailing the Faculty’s approach to employability, before setting out the current role of assessment in developing skills and behaviours. The second section of the report is more specific. Drawing upon findings from the companion report into ‘Employers Attitudes to Graduate Employability’, it adopts a case study approach to analyse the current range of learning activities and assessment types designed (in part at least) to develop a ‘employability’ skill or attribute. The findings appear under the following headings, which are drawn up to reflect prominent graduate abilities identified by our employer research:

Communication Skills Flexible Group-Working Digital Literacy

Commercial Awareness Applying Knowledge Responding to High Pressure Deadlines

Confidence andMotivation

Adapting Academic Skills to the Workplace Responding to Feedback

The report ends with some conclusions about the developing relationship between academic skills and professional attributes, and offers a set of initial recommendations about curriculum re-design, and a series of key questions to consider during the USEF project’s next phase.

9 The next phase of USEF research will explore module design and delivery in more depth, using interviews with module convenors and tutors, and student feedback and comment, to get a more detailed picture of how ‘employability ‘ is being packaged, delivered and received within the curriculum

10 Appendices are instead provided to allow readers to look at the findings for individual schools and departments within the Faculty of Arts, see pp.__

3. The Faculty of Arts: Programme Content & Module Provision

The Faculty of Arts describes itself as ‘one of the most popular … in the UK’ and teaches approximately 5,000 undergraduate students.11 It is split into five Schools, which are in turn home to numerous institutes and departments, and offers degrees in a diverse range of subjects ranging through Classics, Languages, Linguistics, English Literature, History, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, and the study of diverse cultures and civilisations. With the Faculty placing particular emphasis on the strength of its academic research profile, research-led teaching and research-based learning (also CEP priorities) are integral to student education in the Faculty, in all programmes.12

Within this multidisciplinary, research-based context, we ask how far it has been possible to build modules which satisfy the heightened expectations (held by employers, government policy, HE strategists and students themselves) of a modern curriculum that prepares students for graduate ‘readiness’ and professional excellence, as well as academic achievement.

During 2013/14 a total of 689 undergraduate modules were ‘live’ within the Faculty.13 376 of these modules were available within various parts of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, 85 in the School of English, 87 in the School of History, 65 in the School of Philosophy (incorporating HPS), 38 in Classics and 36 in TRS. The majority of these undergraduate modules are worth 20-credits, although there are a number of exceptions.14 There are also important structural differences between Schools, with the School of Modern Languages and the School of Classics tending to offer more synoptic (‘long, thin’) modules that run across both semesters, with most other Schools adopting a more segmented, Semester-long modular structure.

11 About the Faculty of Arts, University of Leeds webpage, http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/info/20030/faculty_of_arts/1321/about_the_faculty_of_arts (accessed Oct 2013).

12 About the Faculty of Arts, University of Leeds webpage, http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/info/20030/faculty_of_arts/1321/about_the_faculty_of_arts (accessed Oct 2013).

13 Including 29 separate study abroad options, 2 industrial placements, 4 ‘students in schools’ options, 5 independent study options, 1 proctoring module and 26 dissertations or ‘long essays’

14 Most of the dissertations and placements which range from 40-120 credits, the nineteen 40-credit Special Subjects offered by the School of History, the 21 10-credit modules offered by Philosophy and the five 10-credit modules offered at level one by TRS

4. The Faculty of Arts: Integrating Employability within the Curriculum

4.1. Employability & Enterprise modules

An audit undertaken by the Faculty of Arts Education Enhancement Officer in February 2012 identified 18 Faculty modules (2.6% of the total) that were especially attuned to issues around employability and enterprise.15

These 18 modules were drawn from across five Schools and included a range of different design approaches. The links with employability were obvious in some cases (for example, in ENGL 8001 ‘English Work Placement’, MODL 2001/2005 ‘Linguists into Schools’ and FREN 3730 ‘French as a Professional Language’). However, the audit also drew attention to those modules where employability was developed more implicitly (for instance, in THEO 3360 ‘The Religious Mapping of Leeds’ or ENGL 3276 ‘Language, Identity and Community’ where there was an obligation to research within, and present outputs to, the regional community). Conforming to a broad definition of employability education, these 18 modules seek to develop students skill set in a variety of ways: from the development of a business-orientated lexicon (FREN 3730, GERM 3060 ‘German for Professional Purposes’, ITAL 3350 ‘Specialised Uses of Italian’ and SPPO 3062 ‘Spanish in an Economic and Business Context’) to an enhanced commercial awareness (SPPO 3570 ‘Viva! Contemporary Film and the Marketing of Latin American-ness’). Practical, collaborative work in a variety of research projects is also provided by a set of modules (HIST 2550 ‘Research Collaboration, Communication and Enterprise’; HIST 2540 ‘History Students in Schools’; HIST 2535 ‘Historical Research Project’; LING 3010 ‘Linguistic Research Exercise’ and PHIL 3010 ‘Proctoring’).

This USEF project’s wider research, which looks beyond the more explicitly titled ‘employability modules’ has accommodated a range of modular manifestations of employability. Concentrating on the way that employability is explained to students within module descriptors, however, this broader survey still only identifies 50 modules with explicit references to employability within catalogue summaries (7.25% of the total).

This list of 50 modules includes those which allude directly to the workplace (for instance, EAST 2327 ‘Japanese Business Now’, EAST 3102 ‘Chinese Language for International Trade and Business’ and EAST 3262 ‘Advanced Japanese Context 2: Business and Marketing’). Yet it also includes modules with a more conventionally ‘academic’ focus. HIST 1840 ‘Investigations in International History’, for example, includes a clause about ‘improving the employability of our undergraduates’ as a learning outcome.16 THEO 2300 ‘Studying Religion in Context’ takes a student development approach by invoking ‘career and academic skills auditing’ whilst THEO 3240 ‘Interdisciplinary Dissertation’ is similarly keen to emphasize that it will enhance ‘professionalism’ alongside a host of other skills.

15 See appendix.16 There is an interesting skew to the way this outcome is phrased and targeted. It seems to respond more to

School strategic achievement than to a student’s development. The question of whether we target module descriptions and summaries properly to a student audience is part of the broader question of how we target our rhetoric of employability

4.2 Learning Outcomes & Skills Outcomes

Beyond explicit reference, many more Faculty of Arts modules hint at their potential employability benefits by invoking the ‘transferability’ of scholarly skills, or by alluding to the broader development of competencies and behaviours that have links with professional scenarios. In nearly all cases these statements are made within a set of ‘learning objectives’ or ‘skills outcomes’. A total of 401 modules across the Faculty include a distinct set of ‘skills outcomes’ as part of their module descriptor (58.2% of the total), with roughly half of these making reference to some form of transferable skills.

The School of English provides the most coherent and consistent championing of transferable skills, with 82 modules (96% of their total) including a distinct set of ‘skills outcomes’ which include reference to communication skills, critical reasoning, time management and IT. In many Faculty areas, ‘skills outcomes’ are explicitly tied to employability. For example, 26 out of 38 modules (68%) in the School of Classics refer specifically to ‘transferability’ whilst modules such as ENGL 3019 ‘The Practical Essay’ reference ‘group dynamics’ and the ‘ability to negotiate and pursue goals with others’, aligning module description to common tropes of workplace behaviours.

However, these direct references (or clear allusions) to employability are still the exceptions, rather than the rule, within module ‘skills and learning outcomes’. Much more common are examples of modules invoking purely subject-specific skills or making no link with their broader application (this is particularly acute within language provision). Revealingly, even a number of the modules identified and celebrated in the 2012 ‘Employability and Enterprise’ audit (mentioned above) fall into this category:

PHIL 2888 ‘Proctoring’ notes that ‘students should be able to chair a discussion effectively’ and be able to ‘express clearly in writing a good understanding of the educational principles on which proctoring is based’. However, it says very little about the seemingly obvious ways these skills could be applied to many systems of management, mentoring and guidance in professional contexts.

HIST 2335 ‘Historical Research Project’ is similarly focused on the immediate academic context and notes that students will be required to ‘develop and employ information literacy and research skills’. The description of these kinds of skills, together with the collaborative project work that the module allows, might easily be pushed towards more explicit analogies with workplace activities, pushing the word ‘employ’ towards its close relative, ‘employment’.17

17 This interim report accepts that in many cases, this extension of reference to employability can happen as the tutor explains and delivers the module. This process will be analysed in the convenor, tutor and student interviews that will form the next stage of USEF research.

4.1. Key Points

Previous ‘employability audits’ have focussed on modules explicitly branded as such in their titles and epitomes, indentifying only 18 such modules (2.6% of the total) in the Faculty of Arts

This project research satisfies the need to examine those modules that have more implicit claims to developing employability, and to look at the way they are designed for, and described to, a student audience

THEO 1140 ‘Religion in Modern Britain’ also defines itself in terms of ‘academic skills’, with only a hint at their application in the statement ‘the combination of written work, oral presentations in seminars, and fieldtrip studies will … offer [students] experiences of studying of a more general value’.

Whilst such findings do not undermine the potential for these innovative modules to nurture employability skills and awareness, it does raise questions about whether the Faculty of Arts and University are fully communicating the potential of these modules to students who are considering enrolment.18

4.3. Differences between Schools

Our survey has illuminated notable differences between Schools. As noted above, the School of English has the most coherent approach with all but two of its module descriptions including a set of ‘skills outcomes’. Whilst not often explicitly billed in terms of employability, the skills invoked are recognisably transferable and tend to be echoed by a parallel set of ‘learning outcomes’ which are sometimes augmented by clauses referring to employability or ‘graduate attributes’.

Similar approaches are taken by the School of Classics, where 26 of 38 modules (68%) make explicit reference to ‘transferable skills’, the School of History (where 58 modules - 64% - invoke ‘transferable skills’ but only 4% mention employability) and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, where 223 modules (59%) include ‘skills outcomes’ and 32 (9%) refer to employability. The position in TRS is more mixed, as only 15 modules (42%) explicitly refer to ‘skills outcomes’, despite four explicit mentions of employability and many examples where it is implicitly invoked.

The School of Philosophy appears more resistant towards registering skills development and using the language of employability. Indeed, just six modules (12%) include skills outcomes (with one additional PHIL module and seven additional HPS module including these within learning objectives), and there are no explicit mentions of employability whatsoever.

These statistics provide a useful indicator. Nonetheless, given that they often relate to generic statements that are repeated across a number of modules, they are a blunt measure that might record the prominence of ‘cut and paste’ style ‘templates’ rather than thought-through descriptions, and they can obscure some of the survey’s most interesting findings.

18 This question is particularly urgent as the Curriculum Enhancement Project embarks on marketing its ‘discovery themes’ and ‘discovery modules’. The clarity of internal communication and the efficacy of ‘marketing’ such modules will shape the success of this project, particularly for the ‘Personal and Professional Development’ and ‘Enterprise and Innovation’ Discovery Themes.

4.2 Key Points

Modules with clearly defined ‘skills outcomes’ tend to articulate strong links to employability

Even Faculty of Arts modules that are designed with clear attention to employability show gaps and inconsistencies in the way they articulate and map their ‘skills outcomes’

4.4 Differences within Schools: Modern Languages

There are some important variations in practice at departmental level. For instance, the overall figures for the School of Modern Languages mask a variety of approaches – with 84.6% of MODL modules including ‘skills outcomes’ compared to only 29% of those run by the Department of Linguistics and Phonetics. Such differences are even more pronounced when considering explicit references to employability, with zero references made by the Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies and 16 made by the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS).

It is the enthusiasm with which SPLAS modules have adopted a language of employability (particularly relating to Study Abroad) that has ensured that the School of Modern Languages comes out ‘highest’ in a survey of modules which mention ‘employability’. This can be related to recent case-studies of innovative module design which embrace learning activites and assessment types which oblige students to adapt academic knowledge to different media and audiences. For example, the module SPPO 3640 ‘Discovering Spanish Voices Abroad in a Digital World’, specifically bills itself as ‘a professional skills’ module, requiring students to work with an archive of oral interviews to create an audio documentary, and to disseminate that output as a podcast.

4.5 Changing ‘skills’ emphasis at Levels 1, 2 and 3

The level at which modules are offered can also lead to differences of description. In some areas of the Faculty, the emphasis on skills seems to drop off as modules ‘mature’ from Level 1 to Level 3. This perhaps stems from an academic understanding of student progression 'beyond' core or introductory skills, with skills interpreted primarily as ‘academic competencies’ learnt early on, as students make the Level 1 transition to University study and research. ‘Academic skills modules’ tend to cluster in Level 1 in disciplines such as History, English and Modern Languages, and there is a more general ‘phasing out’ of the language of skills as modular delivery progresses through Level 2 and 3.

4.4 Key Points Cultures of module design and description can vary strongly within composite Schools

in the Faculty Adjacent departments take very different stances on whether to highlight

employability skills and opportunities within their modules

4.3 Key Points

Many Schools use the language of ‘transferable skills’ to augment that of ‘skills outcomes’, and this language signals modules with an employability remit or element

The Faculty of Arts accommodates a spectrum of efforts to engage with employability skills in module description. English maps them most consistently, and Philosophy shows most resistance to the discourse of employability

For instance, whilst 91% of the Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies’ Level 1 descriptors include skills outcomes, only 27% of modules at Level 2 and 3 do the same. In another example, those modules which include ‘skills outcomes’ in the Department of French talk in terms of ‘enhanced skills’ (rather than describing new ones) once they move beyond level one.

This logic of module progression ‘beyond mere skills’ clashes problematically with the language of student development (for example in Leeds for Life) which presumes the continuous development of skills and a heightened need to emphasise and articulate co-curricular skills at Levels 2 and 3, in relation to graduate employability. This clash of agendas is exemplified in the way the phrase ‘graduate attributes’ dries up in School of English module descriptors beyond Level 2, just when such a descriptive emphasis would seem most relevant, as students approach the end of the degree and speculate on applying their learning and development to other contexts.

Though merely indicative at this stage of research, such a 'dropping off' in the rhetoric of employability within module descriptions at Level 2 and 3 might reflect a common dilemma, a widespread rift in the way we perceive academic development on the one hand, and professional development on the other. As modules develop in terms of their research intensity and academic specialism at Levels 2 and 3, they can seem more 'remote' from the discourse of core skills and generic competencies. On the other hand, higher level modules are evidently ‘closer’ to the context of graduation where issues of skills and competency become more relevant.

Treherne and Rowson have also argued, in their 2011 UTF project on Research and Employability in the Arts, that it is these research-intensive, Level 2 and 3 modules that - despite seeming more remote from core skills - actually carry the greatest potential to develop the independent working, initiative and creative thinking that employers celebrate in graduates.

In these kinds of cases, the long-standing perception of difference between scholarly skills and graduate attributes seems to re-entrench itself in the way modules are described, with the language of academic specialism jostling out the discourse of ‘graduate readiness’. Whilst it is understandable that a language of, and focus on, academic specialism might eclipse a more general language of employability in Level 2 and 3 module descriptions, the proximity of these modules to a student's transition to work suggests we should do more to explain the link between research and employability skills. This would involve not just a change to the way we describe modules, but the design of assessment types and learning activities that signal the often obscured link between scholarly research and employability.

The sporadic and inconsistent nature of the way skills are outlined and described, within Schools as well as within the Faculty, also hints at a wider question of the signposting of student progress. For instance, in the School of History, a standardized skills statement is used in Level one survey modules and level three Special Subjects alike, despite the modules providing very different learning activities and assessment processes. This is an example, perhaps, of QAA benchmarks being imposed on a whole array of modules without much thought, and superimposed to satisfy the ‘skills’ agenda.

If we remain committed to ensuring that our graduates are able to reflect upon the ‘way in which

[their skills] have been shaped’, then a more thoughtful approach seems necessary: one where we prompt students to think about the different skills that different modules develop, about the links that exist between scholarly and professional abilities, and about the way study programmes can encourage an incremental and reflective, rather than repetitive, form of skills development.19

A focus on self-conscious skills acquisition is now encouraged by the 'Leeds for Life' personal tutoring framework and the 'living CV', which encourages students to develop a reflective narrative, charting their development of skills and attributes.20 Module descriptors prove less open to this kind of developing narrative, because of their theme-specific and segment-like framework.

Programme descriptors and programme criteria for assessment suggest one solution to this, allowing for a more holistic way of describing the way scholarship develops skills over a 3 or 4 year period.21 But if we expect our students to identify and articulate the different type and level of skills that our modules inspire, shouldn't we offer module descriptions and assessment types that explicitly prompt that reflection?

4.6. The absence of ‘Skills mapping’ in Module Summaries

Differences in module description become more pronounced when the focus falls upon those modules which do not explicitly or implicitly talk about skills. Indeed, as demonstrated by the 2012 UTF report on the Rhetoric of Employability, it is still common ‘to find a module description that expresses, true to resilient logic, a description of the academic content and activities the module offers, and little more’.22 19 Choosing Leeds, University of Leeds webpage, http://www.leeds.ac.uk/info/20026/choosing_leeds

(accessed Sept 2012). It is notable that SPPO does talk in terms of development – e.g. its dissertation describes a process of ‘consolidation of the cognitive, practical and interpersonal skills acquired in Levels 1 and 2’.

20 Leeds for Life landing page: “Preparing You for The Future: We want you, as a Leeds graduate, to stand out by your ability to talk clearly and confidently about your knowledge, skills, attributes and experiences, to benefit you on whatever route you take when you leave us. https://leedsforlife.leeds.ac.uk/ accessed 05/12/13

21 The second half of this USEF project will include analysis of programme-level statements about employability, and look at how far students engage with programme-level learning and skills outcomes and marking criteria

22 Raphael Hallett, The Rhetoric of Employability, p. 14.

4.5 Key Points: In some areas of the Faculty of Arts, there is a dropping off of employability / skills

reference in Level 2 and 3 modules This may be explained by a presumption that modules move beyond provision of ‘core

skills’ as they become more academically specialised and sophisticated There is a clash between perceptions of ‘academic skills’ and ‘professional skills’, which

means they compete for space and emphasis in lists of learning and skills outcomes The language of academic specialism tends to eclipse that of employability skills in

higher level modules This trend in module description is problematic in that students are expected to be

more aware of skills development and ‘graduate readiness’ at Levels 2 and 3, and are prompted to map skills development consistently through platforms such as Leeds for Life

A total of 124 of Faculty modules (18%) were found to offer no reference to skills at all. This was most pronounced in the History and Philosophy of Science, with 58% of the modules not referring to any skills benefit. HPSC 2111 ‘Reading Texts in the History of Ideas’ and 2115 ‘Introduction to Reading Texts in the History of Ideas’, which aim to build academic skills for students, encapsulate this stance. Instead of a list of skills outcomes, they offer the light-hearted assertion that: ‘In this module you will learn how to read’, a statement with some honest content value, but one also designed to parody (and resist) the need to chart the 'competencies' that a module develops.

With 48% of modules making no reference to skills, the Department of East Asian Studies is another obvious example, standing in stark contrast to other Departments in the School of Modern Languages, suggesting that module designers in this department are resistant (possibly for well justified reasons) to entering into the process of skills description and auditing.23 When the figures for EAST modules are examined in greater detail, a clear distinction can be drawn between different strands of the Department’s provision. Bluntly, there are fewer links to employability or transferable skills in those modules focused on China and East Asia than there are in those focused on Japan, a result, perhaps, of differing traditions of academic focus and the individual research specialisms of particular teaching staff.

There are, however, some more perplexing cases. Take the example of Theology and Religious Studies (TRS). This School was identified by the February 2012 audit as being home to a large proportion of modules which delivered on a commitment to employability and enterprise (three modules were identified, putting the School on a par with English and History, despite having less than half their provision). This review has also identified modules like THEO 3360 ‘The Religious Mapping of Leeds’ and THEO 3900 ‘External Placement - TRS Beyond University’ as best practice examples of ‘embedded employability’. It is, therefore, puzzling to find that these modules eschew distinct skills outcomes, and curious that THEO 3360 says nothing about how the experience of undertaking ‘research trips, interviews [and] liaison work’ could be applied in professional contexts. GERM 3060 ‘German for Professional Purposes’ provides a similar example with a distinct mention of employability and ‘specialized professional terminology’ but an absence of ‘skills outcomes’ that might complement this description.

In some cases, then, it is the case that module learning and assessment activities have an obvious link to ‘employability skills’ without this being explicitly communicated in module outcomes. It may be the case that this inconsistency is levelled out by the more detailed module documentation and tutor guidance, but these omissions in the top layer of the programme catalogue are noteworthy.

23 One of the aims of the next phase of this USEF project is investigate these areas of resistance to the 'rhetoric' of employability and to give voice to the reasons many module designers fail or refuse to accommodate it. Interviews with programme leaders and module designers will take place between January and June 214.

4.6 Key Points:

Almost a fifth of Faculty of Arts module summaries make no reference to ‘skills’ at all Some module descriptors are deliberately resistant to engaging with ‘skills’ mapping,

choosing (sometimes pointedly) to describe academic and subject-specific progress in basic terms

Some modules that are explicitly designed to enhance employability choose to ignore the mapping of ‘skills outcomes’ too, revealing inconsistency or a move to other ways of signalling such development

5. Faculty of Arts ‘Graduate Attributes’: Comparing academic & employer perspectives

Having surveyed the way employability skills and outcomes are integrated and described in Faculty of Arts modules, it is important to define the kinds of student attributes these modules promise to develop. From this basis, we can then see whether a dialogue exists between the qualities and attributes the University expects to be nurtured by the curriculum and the qualities and attributes sought by graduate recruiters.

5.1. Faculty of Arts Student Attributes

When the Faculty’s provision is taken as a whole, it is possible to form provisional conclusions about the dominant skills, competencies and behaviours promoted by the student education it delvers. Indeed, leaving aside those modules which are most specifically orientated to employability, a relatively common typology of abilities emerges across the Faculty:

1. Critical Reasoning / Analysis: This is invoked in some form by module descriptions across the entire Faculty. In the Schools of English and History the term is included as part of the generic ‘skills outcomes’ used by the majority of modules. In the School of Classics it is not included in any of the lists of ‘transferable skills’ but is invoked within module descriptions. For example, CLAS 3880 ‘Society and Culture under Nero’ notes the ‘ability to analyse critically various forms of literature and material evidence as historical sources’. Approaches in SMLC differ according to the genre of module but do tend to conform to the general trend – for example, SPPO 3280 ‘Identity in Chicano/a Literature and Latin America’ pinpoints ‘the capacity for critical reflection and judgement in the light of evidence and argument’. By contrast, references to critical analysis within the School of Philosophy (and HPS) tend to be more about self-critique and are linked to the construction of arguments.

2. Effective Communication: Skills of effective oral and written communication are also widely invoked. This is again included within the generic skills outcomes used by the Schools English and History (with History invoking the ‘communication of complex ideas’). This is matched in the School of Classics by a commitment to ‘verbal and written expression’ as transferable skills. SMLC also places great emphasis on this area – with ARAB 3073 ‘Muslim Intellectual Encounter with Contemporary Thought’ noting that it will develop ‘written communication; interpersonal communication [and] oral presentation’. The situation in TRS and Philosophy is more mixed but there are a number of mentions: PHIL 2221 ‘Ancient Philosophy’ includes ‘i) reading; ii) writing; iii) thinking; and iv) oral presentations’ as specific outcomes.

3. Research Skills: This skill-set is evident in the Faculty module summaries, but more mixed in reference. The School of English again includes these within its generic statement and notes that they promote ‘information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance’ as well as IT skills. In the School of History this is explained at the ‘ability to locate, handle and synthesize large amounts of information’. The School of Classics says less about research skills but does note and ‘the use of IT resources’. Such skills are also invoked by some THEO modules but this is less consistent. Elsewhere, this skill-set tends to be reserved for explicitly research-based modules where the prime assessment type is a dissertation or research project.

4. Team Work: This skill is evident across the Faculty, but sporadically. The School of History places some emphasis on team work with a clause about ‘constructive engagement’ with peers. Team working is also invoked in some of the School of English’s provision, with Theatre Studies’ modules including a sophisticated clause on ‘an understanding of group dynamics and an ability to implement this understanding in a variety of contexts; The ability to negotiate and pursue goals with others’. There are more numerous references within SMLC, with FREN 2280 ‘Culture and Society in Early Modern France’ noting ‘team work in preparing and delivering group presentations’. A similar approach is taken by Philosophy, with PHIL 2888 ‘The Philosophy of Food’ stressing, with a distinctive turn of phrase, ‘the ability to discuss amicably and fruitfully with one’s peers and teachers questions of interpretation and evaluation’ and, more conventionally, ‘the ability to co-operate as a member of a team in the preparation of group work’.

5. Time Management/Organisation: This is included within the School of English’s generic skills statement and is apparent, but less common, across the Faculty. Whilst implied by the School of History’s invocation of ‘self-direction’, the School of Classics ‘organisation of personal study’ and Department of Arabic’s ‘self-management’, this attribute tends to be reserved for research-based modules with particular emphasis on independent learning, e.g. dissertations.

Other general skills evident across the Faculty include ‘engagement with alternative cultural contexts’, the ‘self-reliance’ promoted by Study Abroad options, and the crucial language skills of students undertaking degrees in SMLC. There are sometimes hints at ‘flexibility’ and ‘creative and imaginative skills’ which anticipate the kinds of ‘soft’ graduate attributes sought in the workplace . There were also references to ‘Ethical Awareness’ within HPS and THEO modules and of professionalism within THEO and LING modules. These intermittent but increasing references to cultural awareness, professionalism and ethical sensitivity are evidence, perhaps, of the Curriculum Enhancement Project’s ‘core threads’ being identified, mapped and articulated more explicitly over the last two years.

Each of the above categories can be related to those included within the Leeds for Life rubric (albeit with few mentions of ‘Commercial Awareness’ or ‘Leadership’). They also correspond well to the emphasis placed on ‘Communication’, ‘Independence’, ‘Analytical Skills’, ‘Presentation Skills’ and ‘Team Working’ mentioned within the ‘Employers Attitudes and Opinions’ report (section 1). The extent of this overlap and dialogue will be tested further in the next section. It is also noteworthy that these findings conform to the ‘skills in communication, creativity, problem-solving, project management [and] interpersonal skills’ identified by Matthew Treherne and Abi Rowson’s report into employability within a research-led education.24 Nonetheless, given that their research drew particular attention to the importance of signposting students to the ‘long-term benefits of [their] education’, the disparities in their mapping and articulation in Faculty module descriptions remains a crucial issue.

24 Matthew Treherne and Abi Rowson, Students, Research and Employability in the Faculty of Arts (University of Leeds UTF Project Report, 2011), p. 11.

5. Key Points

Modules claim to develop similar attributes across the Faculty, with critical analysis, communication skills and research ability being the most common

Team working and organisational skills are also commonly referenced, but are more sporadic

There is already a clear foundation for a dialogue between the scholarly skills promised by Faculty modules and the ‘graduate attributes’ sought for by employers. However, this dialogue is inconsistently articulated in module summaries

5. Key Points

Modules claim to develop similar attributes across the Faculty, with critical analysis, communication skills and research ability being the most common

Team working and organisational skills are also commonly referenced, but are more sporadic

There is already a clear foundation for a dialogue between the scholarly skills promised by Faculty modules and the ‘graduate attributes’ sought for by employers. However, this dialogue is inconsistently articulated in module summaries

6. Employability and Assessment Types in the Faculty of Arts

The Faculty of Art’s increasing adoption of a language of employability raises questions about how the skills, competencies and behaviours identified within module outcomes can be set in dialogue with the graduate attributes most commonly sought be employers. It also raises the issue of how such skills are encouraged, ingrained and measured by assessment types. Before making recommendations, it is important to outline the dominant and traditional forms of assessment in the Faculty, and to speculate on their relationship to ‘employability’.

The following paragraphs chart the most common assessment types used within the Faculty during 2012/13. In order of popularity these were: essays (used in the assessment of at least 432 modules25), exams (used in 421 modules), oral presentations (used in 134 modules 26) and dissertations or extended essays (forming the basis of 26 modules). Minority assessment types including VLE postings, book reviews, film analyses, poster presentations and those more explicitly targeted at employability are examined in the case studies which follow in section 8.

6.1 Essays

Essays are the most commonly used form of assessment in the Faculty of Arts, with at least 432 modules (62.7%) employing piece of assessed writing. This figure hides numerous differences in length, style and assessment weighting (this project has defined an essay as a piece of writing between 1,000 and 3,000 words targeted at a particular question). These differences are particularly marked between Schools. In SMLC, for example, where language provision tends towards the use of unseen examinations and continuous oral assessment, the essay is a minority assessment (with just 32 modules – 37% of the total – in the Department of East Asian Studies including an assessed essay). The picture is markedly different in the School of History. Here the essay remains a core component of assessment (with 76 – or 91.5% – of modules including an assessed essay).27

The continued importance of the assessed essay to Arts assessment has implications for employability as the 2012 UTF report identified assessment criteria for written work as being ‘perhaps the most resistant discourse to change’.28 There are evident distinctions between the academic ‘nuance’ sought for in good essays and the professional ‘nous’ sought by graduate employers, but the positive responses about Leeds graduates garnered from employer interviews suggest that it is worth considering the ‘employability’ benefits of rigorous, conventional assessment. Conventional forms of assessment have always succeeded in developing certain employability skills, so long as they are designed and deployed well.

According to the School of History’s marking criteria, a first class undergraduate essay will be:

Acute and nuanced in its critical analysis and use of evidence; display sustained intellectual independence; clearly and compellingly argued; focused throughout on the question; based on wide and appropriate reading; historiographically informed and

25 An additional 16 modules included essay length ‘assignments’, ‘reports’, ‘critical responses’, etc.26 This figure does not include oral examinations or presentations made in a foreign language.27 Even the exceptions (which include the Dissertation and Long Essay) tend to include a written task of

equivalent style or length.28 Raphael Hallett, The Rhetoric of Employability, p. 15.

demonstrate an intellectual command of differing historical interpretations; fluently written; factually accurate; and very well presented.29

Given the emphasis on communication, independence, confidence and analysis in the ‘Employers Attitudes and Opinion’s report, a graduate with a record of essay achievement will have demonstrated their ability in half of the ‘key competencies’ identified by our sample of employers, if the marking scheme is correctly applied and understood. The question is whether it is made clear that these competencies are being developed by essay assignments.

Very few links are drawn between essay writing and graduate attributes and employability within module descriptions. The focus remains on the essay as a summative assessment of subject-specific knowledge. There is little explanation of the process undertaken or the potential for its application into a non-academic field.

The main exceptions to this are found when essays are replaced by consummate reports (see ‘Adapting Academic Skills’ case study below) and where they are broken down into constituent parts. CLAS 2800 ‘Evidence and Enquiry in Classics’, HIST 1055 ‘Historiography and Historical Skills’ and HIST 1817 ‘Skills and Concepts in International History’ are the clearest examples of this ‘deconstructed-essay’ approach, which guides students through the process of constructing a bibliography, analysing sources and planning their output.

The reflective approach taken on SPPO 2430/31 ‘Modern Spanish-American Literature’ and 2670/71 ‘Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema’ is also noteworthy – with students completing a 50% assessed 2,500 word essay before a 20% assessed second draft with commentary on their feedback. In such cases, where the students are asked to reflect on the activity they are engaged in, its constituent parts and its developmental stages, the value of the process as well as product of essay writing is highlighted. This tends to signpost the scholarly skills that are relevant to professional ‘processes’ of work, too.

6.2 Exams

Exams are the second most commonly used form of assessment in the Faculty of Arts. Taken as a whole, 421 modules (61.1%) contain a written task under controlled conditions (105 of these are from language-based modules where exams predominate).

Whilst exams are (with the exception careers with on-going professional examinations, such as law, accounting and medicine) more idiosyncratic to the world of education, it is again worth noting that an exam should enable students to develop competencies that echo the language of employability – for example analytical skills, clarity of expression, independence, resourcefulness and the ability to work under pressure. Again, however, module descriptions remain focused upon the exam as a summative, subject-specific assessment and there are no obvious links drawn between this dominant part of students’ assessment and their graduate readiness / employability.

It is problematic that controlled examinations (which command such importance across the Faculty and generally carry more percentage weight than essays) are so poorly explained or justified in terms of they way they can test and develop skills that are relevant to time-pressurised professional

29 University of Leeds, School of History Marking Criteria, 2013.

contexts. In such contexts, it is never hard to find examples of activity where the clarity, structure and impact of written communication, under pressure, are treasured, even if the audience and conditions are very different.

6.3 Oral Presentations

Assessed oral presentations are found in 134 non-language modules across the Faculty of Arts (19% of the total). In addition to this, 7 non-language modules include assessed poster presentations (see section 8 point I) and at least 53 more include a non-summative presentation (these are sometimes explicitly billed as a ‘formative task’ but are often described as being simply ‘unassessed’). The School of History again emerges as the most reliant upon this form of assessment, with 44 instances found at levels two and three. Nonetheless, it is clear that presentations are also important within SMLC: with the Department of Italian including a 10% assessed presentation in almost all of its level two and three modules and the Department of French using a non-assessed variant heavily.

Presentations are explicitly useful in terms of employability. The interviewees spoken to as part of the report on ‘Employers Attitudes and Opinions’ consistently identified presentation and communication skills as crucial. It was noted that the ability to communicate ideas to different audiences was a vital part of day-to-day employment. The emphasis that our employers placed on team work also suggests that group presentations might be particularly useful in shaping graduate attributes (the fact that a number of interviewees feared that not enough was being done in this area makes such findings all the more important).

It has already been noted that Arts modules tend to link presentations into the provision of transferable skills for effective oral and written communication (see section 6 above, ‘Graduate Attributes). Yet, whilst there are some direct links made between the assessment of student presentations and this commitment to skills (as was the case in PHIL 2221), these are still not widely or strongly linked to a discourse of employability within module descriptors. In many cases, presentations seem to be regarded as a convenient package for the development and assessment of academic argument, with the presenter looping ideas back to an academic audience of peers and tutors. The main exceptions to this are set out below in section 8.

6.4 Dissertations

Dissertations and ‘long essays’ are used across the Faculty, with 26 separate modules using a piece of extended writing based upon independent research. The dissertation is usually a 100% piece of assessment (the exception being ENGL 3022 ‘English Language Dissertation’ which includes a 20% assessed PowerPoint presentation) and represents a substantial piece of independent scholarship. Given that the dissertation is so often regarded as a crowning moment of a student’s undergraduate training, and nearly always occurs in the final year, it perhaps also holds the most potential in terms of employability. Our employer interviewees certainly identified ‘independence’ and ‘analytical skills’ as key graduate attributes.

The clearest links between the dissertations capacity for academic excellence and employability are made within the School of English. The module descriptor for ENGL 3372 ‘Dissertation’ invokes the term ‘graduate attributes’ and notes that:

Students will emerge … endowed with skills, which include project management, time management, research, and academic writing and referencing … [They] will have developed skills in critical thinking, independent working, planning and organisation, analytical skills, flexibility of thought, use of knowledge and research skills. The Dissertation module develops a sense of academic professionalism in building an awareness of one’s own skills and abilities, and confidence in articulating them; in managing time and workload effectively; in reflecting on, and benefitting from, one’s own learning and that of others.

Similar approaches are taken within parts of SMLC. The School of Linguistics’ LING 3200 notes that students will develop research skills, including the ability to find and retrieve information, the organisation of material, ‘the ability to manage quantities of complex information in a structured and systematic way’, the capacity to work independently and ‘good time management’. The Schools of French and Arabic place a strong emphasis on ‘critical analysis’, ‘communication skills’ and – in ARAB 3200 – ‘working under pressure’ and the development of ‘a sense of self-reliance and adaptability’. The School of History’s somewhat brief mention of ‘defining a complex problem [and] the self-discipline to work alone on a major self-directed project’ and the ‘range of transferable skills’ mentioned by the School of Classics also suggest an awareness of such benefits.

Elsewhere the dissertation is explained in a more academic or subject-specific sense. Thus, whilst stressing the importance of ‘critical reflection’, SPPO 3430 talks in terms of ‘project work’, an understanding of ‘historical frameworks’ and the use of ‘appropriate style conventions’. The School of Theology is also primarily concerned with fostering academic professionalism, documenting but failing to articulate the transferability of skills in ‘participant observation, field-work, statistics, questionnaire compilation and analysis’. ENGL 3022 ‘English Language Dissertation’, LING 3010 ‘Linguistic Research Exercise’, EAST 3500 ‘Undergraduate Dissertation’, MODL 3020 ‘World Cinema Dissertation’ and SLAV 3102 ‘Russian Dissertation’ are focused on their respective subject areas.

The remaining subjects are simply lacking in any detail. Thus HPSC 3600 ‘HPS Dissertation’ simply notes that it will ‘develop research and analytical skills concerning a selected topic pursued in depth’ whilst dissertations in the Departments of German, Italian and School of Philosophy do not include any skills outcomes whatsoever.

The overall picture is that the dissertation, whilst potentially nurturing many areas of graduate competency, is often portrayed as more explicitly ‘academic’ than essays. The employability benefit of such projects has tended to be underplayed or missed, except in a few well-articulated exceptions. In line with our findings in 4.3, this suggests that at these mature points in the curriculum, the language of academic specialism and subject specific research tends to eclipse the language of employability skills, just as students approach the horizon of graduation and the professional world in which these skills are sought.

7. Employer ‘Competencies’ and their impact on Assessment culture

The analysis has so far focused upon a fairly generic definition of employability, using the University and Faculty’s own emphasis, and has traced its manifestation (and absence) in module descriptors. The following section will expand upon this by considering eight key areas of competency identified within the ‘Employers Attitudes and Opinions’ research.

For each of the key areas of competency, case studies have been drawn from those modules offered during the 2012/13 academic year, to demonstrate how the Faculty of Arts has responded to the challenges posed by the strategic emphasis on curricular provision of employability. These case studies should not be regarded as unproblematic examples of ‘best practice’ since little research has been undertaken into their effectiveness or level of student satisfaction.30 Instead, they have been selected, using the criteria supplied by employers rather than the University itself, to demonstrate the variety of ways that employability can be interpreted and introduced through module and assessment design.

7.1 Communication Skills

“The ability you need to produce the right content for the client” Simon Horniblow (Interview 4.3)

Communication skills were explicitly mentioned by all the employers interviewed for the ‘Attitudes and Opinions’ report. Particular emphasis was placed upon the ability to communicate ideas in different media and in relation to different audiences. This was seen to require a mixture of written, spoken, digital and multi-media skills, showing sensitivity to the demands and expectations of different groups.

Every module offered by the Faculty of Arts assesses these in some form. Yet essays, exams and presentations do not directly translate into workplace communication and our employers’ definition of communication skills tend to be more practice-based (e.g. the ability to write coherent incisive emails rather than displaying ‘nuanced critical analysis’). Which examples within our learning activities and assessment types give students more relevant experience in modes of professional communication?

Most of the 134 presentations considered by this project invoke a fairly traditional approach to communication. Neither the School of History nor the Department of Italian (the two heaviest users of presentations) give much detail of presentation format within their module descriptors. Nonetheless anecdotal evidence suggests that the approach is perhaps close to the usage of ‘OHP, power point, video & DVD, Board etc’ noted by ARAB 1055 ‘Introduction to the Middle East’. Statements about ‘interpersonal communication’ give a further general clue as to criteria in East Asian Studies, but in the Faculty-wide descriptions of ‘presentations’ there is rarely any pointers about diverse media, audience and objective (the conditions that tend to define workplace communications).

HIST 2550 ‘Research Collaboration, Communication and Enterprise’ and THEO 3360 ‘Religious Mapping of Leeds’ are the most explicitly practical examples. Both modules include research with community groups and used a mixture of methods for dissemination. Thus HIST 2550 is 50%

30 A challenge for the next phase of the USEF project will be to assess student experience of, and satisfaction with, modules that embed employability skills in innovative ways

assessed by a (student-defined) public-facing output and THEO 3360 a 15% presentation to a community group following on from a written report. HIST 2550 explicitly notes that this will require ‘initiative and creativity’ to present ideas ‘via new platforms and in unfamiliar contexts’. Both modules also link into the competencies mentioned in 8.2, 8.3 and 8.5.

7.2 Commercial Awareness

“Individual students need to be aware of where they are going after the three years and preparing themselves for that. Whether it be work experience, internships [or] writing a blog” Simon Shaw (Interview 2.12)

Employers defined the term ‘commercial awareness’ as an understanding of the culture and conventions of different sectors of work. It can include current debates and developments in that area as well as the broader etiquette, values and ethos of the workplace. For Simon Shaw, it meant quite simply ‘demonstrating that you have some sort of interest in the area of the work you want to do’. This raises the question about how far we encourage our students to apply their research and critical skills to the areas of professional work and culture they are interested in.

The link drawn between academic and career research is made implicitly in some module descriptions. The best example of this is found in HPSC 2307 ‘Science, Culture and Society in the Industrial Age’. As with most of the School of Philosophy and HPS’s offer, this module does not provide a distinct set of skills outcomes. Yet, as it notes that those enrolled will ‘appreciate how scientific change in a given period can be related to contemporary changes in culture and industry’, it nurtures a certain level of student career awareness.

Those modules which explicitly set out to address this area are much more specific. Thus MODL 1301 ‘Intercultural Competence: Theory and Application’ notes that it will ‘focus on [the] challenges and realities of multicultural business and management’ and developments within ‘workplace environments’ (this is assessed by a group presentation and a 1,500 word essay). EAST 2325 ‘Organisation, Management and the Economy in Japan’ and 2327 ‘Japanese Business Now’ take a similar approach. Both note that students will develop ‘an extensive foundation for critical analysis of contemporary changes and challenges of the Japanese business environment’ and explain that this will test their comprehension of ‘materials relevant to Japanese business and economy’ (this module is also assessed by a presentation and an essay).

This approach is furthered within specialist language modules. EAST 3102 ‘Chinese Language for International Trade and Business’ notes that it will combine ‘Chinese language skills and business knowledge’ allowing students ‘to communicate with native speakers … on particular topics of trade and business in a professional manner’. This module is assessed via practical exams but does include the formative analysis of ‘dialogues [from] business negotiations’. EAST 3262 ‘Advanced Japanese Context 2: Business and Marketing’ has a similar focus.

The Departments of French, German and Spanish include similar modules but have adopted a more diverse approach to assessment. Thus FREN 3730 ‘French as a Professional Language’ is assessed via two 10% 5 minute presentations based upon French business news and also includes a number of role plays (these feed into a 40% 1,000 word take-home ‘portfolio exam’ and a 50% 2.5 hour unseen exam). GERM 3060 ‘German for Professional Purposes’ uses a 30% group poster presentation, 30%

2,000 word report and 40% 2 hour exam. SPPO 3062 ‘Spanish in an Economic and Business Context’ is the most interesting example and uses a selection of small assessed tasks including the production of a business letter, a journalistic article, an investment report, a marketing plan and a report from a meeting of directors. Clear case-studies here, of professional practices, audiences and expectations guiding assessment types within modules designed in dialogue with the workplace.

Other modules seek to match their academic content with increased commercial awareness. SPPO 2650/51 ‘The Spanish Regional Melting Pot: The Old Same History?’ notes that it will enhance students understanding of Spanish culture and their ability ‘to work in professional non-academic contexts’ by critically assessing journalistic, academic and government resources and taking part in simulations and role-plays (60% of the module’s assessment is found in an online task where different students undertake the ‘roles of journalists, politicians, historians and advisors’). THEO 3900 ‘External Placement - TRS Beyond University’ and HIST 2550 ‘Research Collaboration, Communication and Enterprise’ apply similar skills to real life contexts and provide opportunity for work-related learning by placing students in contexts of professional and public engagement

7.3 Flexible Group-Working

“Teamwork and collaboration is important, with colleagues as well as clients. This barrier should be broken down, and the university should create more collaborating projects for students.” Dan Blades (Interview 1.4)

This competency invokes the ability to work in different teams as well as the ability to fulfil diverse roles within a team. It is related to abilities of persuasion, negotiation, compromise, liaison, collaboration, empathy, listening and leadership. This competency was emphasised within all of our employer interviews and appears as a common, though not consistent, skill in Faculty of Arts module descriptions.

There are numerous examples of group work across the Faculty of Arts with the majority relating to formative group presentations. A smaller number of examples are formally assessed. These examples include presentations like the 10% group presentation in FREN ‘Twentieth and Twenty-First Century French Fiction’, the 20%, 30-minute presentation in PHIL 2888 ‘Philosophy of Food’ and the poster presentation in GERM 3060 ‘German for Professional Purposes’.

A smaller number of examples of group-working relate to assessed group projects. On an implicit level, LING 1060 ‘Language Projects’ includes individual reports but encourages students to ‘complete project sheets in groups during study sessions’. ENGL 1040 ‘Language Methodologies and Research Methods’ and MEDV 3310 ‘Magic and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages’ include an assessed report on a group project. In other cases group projects are themselves assessed. PHIL 3180 ‘The Power of Words’ is the most obvious example of this taking place in a traditional module, with a 40% assessed group project alongside a 60% essay.

Non-traditional modules take this further. THEO 3360 ‘Religious Mapping of Leeds’ involves group research trips, interviews and liaison with community groups and is assessed via a 10,000 word group report and presentation given at a public event. It has already been noted that HIST 2550 is 50% assessed by a group output defined through collaboration with community or business groups. PHIL 3010 ‘Proctoring’ involves students leading group discussions and the module literature notes

that students have to show a ‘responsible attitude in the fulfilment of duties which affect other people’.

7.4 Presentational Skills & Digital Literacy

“We do a lot of presentations and talking with clients every day. So I think practical presentations and building those communication skills are important. [Students] could present to employers on a panel and get used to receiving feedback and defending their work, explaining and being able to back up your argument and show that you really understand and articulate a point.” Simon Horniblow (Interview 4.11)

This competency is related to the ‘Communication Skills’ mentioned above in 8.1. Nonetheless, as the ability to present information and ideas to a professional standard was mentioned in most of our interviews, it seemed important to provide additional focus here. Great emphasis was placed upon the ability to use digital tools, with the stress on information and IT literacy particularly interesting given that the University of Leeds’s decision to adopt an overarching ‘Digital Strategy for Student Education’.31 The question we considered regarded the current opportunities available.

Computer-based tasks tend to hold most weight in introductory or specialists modules. For example, EAST 1010 ‘Basic Chinese Language 1’ and MODL 1010 ‘IT for Language Students’ are both explicit about the importance of IT skills (with the latter including a pass fail skills audit). Likewise, the supernumerary CLAS 1025 ‘Introduction to Academic Skills’, THEO 1025 ‘Introduction to Academic Skills’, ENGL 1000 ‘Studying and Researching English’ all prioritise online delivery and participation. At a more specialist level, HIST 2535 ‘Historical Research Project’ is based around the creation of a publically available wiki page (worth 50% of the module mark) whilst SLAV 3113 ‘Russian (New) Media’ is designed to help students ‘differentiate between various forms of media’ by enabling them ‘to conduct media research’ (this is assessed via a 25% 1,000 word media project). The ‘professional skills’ module SPPO 3640 ‘Discovering Spanish Voices Abroad in a Digital World’ is perhaps the most advanced module design in this respect. Based around the creation of audio documentaries and using an archive of oral interviews, it is insistent that students will ‘acquire the skills and attributes to build their own professional digital profile’ and will become competent ‘users in software for podcast production’.

There are some examples where this is integrated into a more traditional syllabus. HIST 1840 ‘Consensus and Contention: Investigations in International History’ includes the production and assessment of a group webpage; MODL 2230 ‘From Film Noir to Asia Extreme: Questioning Genre in World Cinema’ includes the creation of a non-assessed formative wiki page on a particular genre term; PHIL 2402/22 ‘Topics in Epistemology: Theory and Evidence’ and PHIL 3215 ‘Advanced Topics in Metaphysics of Science’ include formative VLE assignments and the ability to substitute the essay for a 50% assessed wiki. FREN 3585 ‘Camera Lucida: Theory, Practice and Writing of Photography’ also deserves mention for its pledge that students will be able to ‘manipulate computer-generated photographs’ by the module’s end.

7.5 Applying Knowledge and Ideas

31 See http://www.leeds.ac.uk/qat/policyprocedures/digital-strategy.html

“While you may be taught about it at University and given examples and scenarios, it’s just not the same as the real world. That awareness cannot be taught in a learning environment, only in a working environment.” Jennie Jones (Interview 3.5)

This competency related to both the application of knowledge in real-life contexts (i.e. scholarly ideas and research in professional, public or civic contexts) and within ‘mock’ scenarios. Many of the modules which emphasise this aspect have already been mentioned in some guise. They tend, therefore, to be those which are most attuned to the employability agenda. Other examples can be found within practice-based modules, particularly in TRS and the Department of Linguistics.

In TRS this provision begins from the outset. THEO 1140 includes a clear fieldwork element and is assessed via a 20% ‘planning activity’ and 40% final report alongside a more traditional 40% essay. This is continued throughout the degree: with obvious examples like THEO 3360 ‘The Religious Mapping of Leeds’ complemented by a wider focus on application of knowledge into other areas. Thus THEO 3280 ‘Religion, Politics and the Future’ notes that students should be able to ‘integrate scholarly research with current public discourses’ and THEO 3190 ‘Religion and Global Development’ invokes an awareness of the ‘ways in which academic research can be translated into policy (impact and knowledge transfer)’.

In Linguistics, LING 1060 ‘Language Projects’ is a particularly interesting example, as it specifically notes that students will ‘apply practical skills gained in LING 1050’ and the ‘theoretical background gained in LING 1070 and LING 1080’ to a practical analysis of data from unfamiliar languages. This is continued at level three with additional, practical project work in LING 3010 ‘Phonetics and Phonology in English’, LING 3310 ‘Interactional Linguistics’ and LING 3200 ‘Linguistics Dissertation’.

There are also some practice-based modules in the Schools of English and History. In ENGL 3303 ‘Telling Lives: Reading and Writing Family Memoir’ this involves the creation of a 3,000 word family memoir. In ENGL 2018 ‘Performing the Past’, 3227 ‘Surrealism and the French Stage’ and 3365 ‘Theatricalities: Beckett, Pinter, Kane’ this involves a performance-based element. Attention has already been drawn to the HIST 25XX cluster of modules (which are explicitly based around reflection on and the application of History).

The innovative application of knowledge and ideas in more traditional modules is rarer. However SPPO 2430/2431 ‘Modern Spanish-American Literature’ provides a model of how this can be achieved. The module is explicit about its intention to shape each student’s commercial awareness (by encouraging them to ‘articulate their own values’ and to apply these ‘in a real-life context’. The module is partially assessed by a student-led literary competition exercise where each member of the group writes a Spanish language review of a favoured text before judging other entries in a series of Spanish language workshops (this activity is worth 30% of the overall assessment). The module then describes how this is fed back into a form of commercial awareness in sessions that encourage students to consider the role of the arts in contemporary culture.

7.6 Adapting Academic Skills to the Workplace

“I believe it is the responsibility of the university to ensure students graduate with applicable, cross sector skills that are not solely focused in one small area of expertise. Often I believe university

education develops people with such a narrow (although incredibly deep) range of knowledge in one area, which can make it very hard for them to find employment.” Adam Robinson (Interview 7.5)

This competency is related to ‘applied knowledge’ but suggests a specific ability to identify and articulate the scholarly skills that will be transferable to the workplace. Again, many of the modules which emphasise this aspect tend to be those which are most explicitly attuned to the employability agenda. The most obvious examples are found within specialist language modules and those which offer opportunities beyond the University.

The specialist language modules noted in 8.2 (EAST 3102, EAST 3262, FREN 3730, GERM 3060, and SPPO 3062) encourage students to think about the application of their skills into the workplace. This is consolidated in many of the assessment types, with EAST 3102 including formative ‘mock negotiations’ over business issues and SPPO 3062 using a selection of small assessed tasks including the production of a business letter, a journalistic article, an investment report, a marketing plan and a report from a meeting of directors. A similar approach is taken in SPPO 2090/91 ‘Portuguese Language Skills’ which includes CV preparation and mock interviews. It must also be emphasised that SPPO 3062 ends with the opportunity for students to gain automatic validation from the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and European Business School. This is the only mention of a professional qualification found across the entire Faculty of Arts.

The other main examples are found in modules that embed placements or engagement in the regional community, THEO 3900 ‘TRS Beyond University’, MODL 2001/05 ‘Linguists into Schools’ and HIST 2540 ‘History Students in Schools’. Transposing students into the workplace, such modules aim to promote self-reflection, develop communication skills and enhance skills in ‘problem-solving’ and ‘ability to prioritise [competing] workloads’. While this is developed in a secondary school setting in the latter examples, HIST 2540 is keen to emphasise that such skills are transferable: evidence that the student ‘work in collaboration with an organisation outside the University’ and are able to present their historical understanding ‘in an appropriate format for a non-academic audience’.

It is worth noting at this stage that only three modules in the Faculty made direct reference to Leeds for Life in their module descriptors. These were HIST 2550 ‘Research Collaboration, Communication and Enterprise’, MODL 1010 ‘IT for Language Students’ and CLAS 1025 ‘Introduction to Academic Skills’ which calls on students to reflect on their personal skills by using Leeds for Life web-forms to complete a 25% assessed blog and 75% assessed VLE exercise. Greater integration of online module information and the Leeds for Life platform (beyond generic tic boxes in module outlines) would be one way of helping students articulate the employability they develop within the curriculum.

7.7 Responding to High Pressure Deadlines

“We have also struggles with some of the graduates meeting deadlines, and it might help if the university employed ridged deadline consequences and communicated to the student that deadlines in employment are imperative to the trust in a relationship with a client.” Peter Slevin (Interview 8.8)

Our employer interviewees defined high pressure deadlines primarily in relation to short-term and changing project work that would require flexibility and the ability to change outputs. This was seen as essential in relation to the changing demands of clients and noted as deficient in many graduates as they arrive in the workplace. Peter Slevin was not alone in suggesting that this requires a shift in

culture. Jennie Jones also noted that ‘more intensive deadlines would be much more realistic and beneficial to students’ (Interview 3.11), whilst Shimon Shaw similarly noted that ‘work placements … tend to be more realistic and chaotic’ (Interview 2.9).

This project, perhaps unsurprisingly given the NSS-measured need to make assessment arrangements clear and fair, has struggled to find examples of assessment types which accommodate uncertainty and unpredictability. Indeed, whilst undoubtedly exerting their own stresses, the ubiquity of essays and exams suggests that our students are primarily assessed in a highly structured way: where deadlines, assessment requirements, marking criteria, and even questions, are likely to be available up to eleven weeks before the assessment takes place. This is even the case for modules like HIST 2550 ‘Research Collaboration, Communication and Enterprise’ and THEO 3360 ‘Religious Mapping of Leeds’ (albeit with the caveat that changing partner and client demands are included in these modules). This begs the question of whether our learning activities and assessment practices are flexible and challenging enough to anticipate the dynamic demands of the workplace.

This is not to say that innovation is not possible or necessary in this area, or that more traditional assessments cannot be adapted. Indeed presentations and formative exercises (for example, source analysis) could provide scope for high intensity activities with deliberately mutable objectives. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some modules incorporate group debates, where individuals and teams have to adapt their argument to altered briefs and objectives. Such activity is not visible as a formal aspect of assessment, however.

Since graduate assessment centres often favour these kinds of high pressure, mutable activities, we might speculate that forms of University assessment should be adapted to adumbrate these activities and train students in the requisite skills. Our present conclusion must be that current module design and description plays very little attention to the unpredictable and pressurised conditions of many workplaces, and that if we believe it is the job of the curriculum to anticipate such employability conditions, further innovation is needed.

7.8 Reacting to Criticism & Feedback

“It’s never a finished product and not one single person’s project. [Graduates] need to accept criticism and be willing to change. But you also want someone who fights their own corner and are confident enough to back up every single bit of their project and able to answer everything. You never know what the client is throwing at you.” Phil Millward (Interview 6.10)

The ability to defend, justify and elaborate on ideas when challenged and questioned was raised by a number of our interviewees. Academic feedback is an area that the University of Leeds places great emphasis on both as a current Curriculum project and the NSS category that has perhaps been discussed more than any other. However, considering the importance of the continuous feedback and response graduates receive in professional project-working, our current models of assessment may not allow for sufficient reflection and response from the student.

The most obvious examples of teaching that encourage this competency are those which include a specifically reflective task. ENGL 1040 ‘Language Methodologies and Research Methods’ and MEDV 3310 ‘Magic and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages’ have both already been mentioned for their

use of a group project. Both consolidate this by including an assessed reflective report on the development of that project. SPPO 2430/31 ‘Modern Spanish-American Literature’ and 2670/71 ‘Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema’ are also notable for including a 20% assessed ‘second draft’ with commentary on feedback.

Lastly, attention should be drawn to LING 1050 ‘Introduction to Sources and Methods in Linguistics’ (which incorporates formative peer reviews) and FREN 3070 ‘Bilingual Liaison Interpreting’ for its use of a 40% weighted ‘peer evaluation report’. Such modules create conditions of regular review, response and reflection in relation to scholarly development, anticipating the way a graduate will be performance-reviewed and asked to reflect on their career development.

Section 7 Key Findings: Graduate Attributes and the Faculty Assessment Culture

For each of the key graduate competencies, we found module learning activities and assessment types in the Faculty of Arts that nurtured them explicitly

Such findings are sporadic, however, and there is not presently a culture of module design and assessment that is led (or explicitly shaped) by employers’ identification of graduate attributes

In terms of communication and presentation skills, there are many assessment forms that develop these, but these types tend to lack the diversity, the multi-media form and the high intensity to anticipate the conditions of the workplace

The number of modules which allow students to adapt academic skills and content to contexts beyond the University is on the increase, and constitutes a serious response to the employability agenda. TRS, Languages and History are particularly innovative in this area. However, most modules fail to incorporate assessments that oblige students to communicate to new audiences or adapt scholarly skills to societal challenges and issues.

Assessment and Learning activities are, for many good QA reasons, shaped by clarity, consistency and predictability, to ensure students are well prepared and informed. Such an emphasis leaves little room, however, for students to be trained in behaviours that anticipate the more unpredictable conditions of the workplace, where deadlines, briefs and relationships with clients and partners can change rapidly.

Very few assessment types and learning activities encourage students to think how they could transfer their skills of critical analysis and research to the context of career development and commercial awareness

Although there are some interesting exceptions, few assessment and learning processes allow students opportunities to respond in a structured way to peer and tutor guidance. There are, however, a growing number of module assignments that prompt students to reflect on the skills they develop and the progress they are making.

Leeds for Life, the prime platform for mapping skills development and employability, is mentioned in only three of the Faculty of Arts module descriptions. It is useful to think of ways that online module information and Leeds for Life can be better integrated.

Leeds for Life will host the newly packaged ‘Discovery themes’ and modules, and this will give impetus to a greater dialogue between module design and employability, and between assessment design and key ‘graduate attributes’.