Conducting an Employability Audit

Sharon Gedye & Brian Chalkley

LTSN-GEES

Aims / Purpose

To consider why we need to deliver ‘employability’

To think about why we may want to audit our programme

To introduce a programme audit To reflect on the audit and its outcomes

Why do we need to deliver enhanced employability?

Employability is a government priority (economic success, WP)

Used in performance indicators - league tables

Increasingly used in quality assurance/review

Because we want our graduates to be successful

Employability Delivery

There is much existing good practice in delivering employability.

However, it is usually delivered at a module level by enthusiasts only In an ad hoc, piecemeal way

But – employability Is a programme issue (all modules, all staff) should be planned and coherent

Why do we need to audit?

establishes how and where employability-related learning is incorporated into curricula.

offers reassurance to colleagues as to how much is being done already

identifies any gaps in provision provides a programme overview –

important in a modularised programme

Why do we need to audit? - continued

a means of initiating discussion of the issue encourages strategic thinking raises awareness of the issue - sector,

institutional and departmental requirements/aims can be highlighted

encourages re-design of the curriculum and its delivery with employability in mind

How to Carry out an Employability Audit

Based on a system developed by LTSN Biosciences Subject Centre

Electronic version – http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/issues/employability/

Welcome feedback Happy for you to modify to meet your

needs

Audit Contents

A. Your graduate’s employment record

B. Relationships with employers

C. Does your curriculum promote employability?

D. General

The Task

Work in pairs One of you, who is familiar with a programme,

responds to the questions. The other poses the questions, scores and

records the answers. You have 25 minutes.

Using the Employability Audit Score each item on the basis of satisfaction with programme

provision: 0 = not considered; 1 = weakly; 2 = adequately; 3 = strongly.

For each item with a score less than 2: What could be done to improve the score? Do resource or other constraints make any of these

proposals unrealistic? Then identify

Which two changes could be made that would be most improve employability provision for the course?

Can a realistic action plan be formulated to introduce these two changes and others into the course before the next intake of students?

A. Your Graduate’s Employment Record

Has graduate employment destination data been circulated to academic staff within the last 2 years?

Are current students aware of the types of employment your graduate’s enter?

Has your department carried out its own surveys (in order to provide more useful data than the First Destination Survey)?

B. Relationships with Employers Do you know what employers perceive to be the

strengths and weaknesses of your graduates? Do students meet relevant professionals / employers

as part of their course? Do you have good communications with the main

employers of your graduates, both nationally and locally?

Do employers visit your department to give talks about employment opportunities and requirements?

Do employers attend any student presentations?

C. Does your curriculum promote employability? Are employers and former students involved

in the design of your curricula? Do you have an employability policy? Do you have an effective skills map? Do you have a system of personal

development planning (PDP)? Do your students develop commercial and

organisational awareness?

C. Does your curriculum promote employability? (Cont’d)

Do recent graduates visit to talk about their career paths?

Are guest lecturers encouraged to reveal own career paths?

Are students explicitly taught career management skills?

Does your curriculum give all your students the option to engage in a work placement or work based learning?

D. General Is there an effective relationship between the course

team and your Careers Service? Are students explicitly guided in the course to make

contact with the Careers Service? Do staff generally have access to full information about

a student's in-course AND extra-curricula performance (e.g. student's CV) when writing references?

Are your students encouraged to take part in, value and record extra-curricula activities/responsibilities?

Have you considered employability in the context of widening participation?

Discussion: what kinds of changes are needed in your curricula?

Audit Evaluation: What was most useful?; What might need changing?

Other Audits

Audit of skills and attribute development Yorke, M. and Knight, P. (2003). The

Undergraduate Curriculum and Employability. Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team (ESECT) – Perspectives series of employability briefing papers

http://www.ltsn.ac.uk/genericcentre/index.asp follow links for “employability” > “information and resources” > “employability resources”