Enhancing GraduateEmployability

Professor Alison Halstead

PVC Learning and Teaching Innovation

HEA/University of Ulster

May 3rd 2011 a.halstead@aston.ac.uk

April 6th 2011 Headline in Professional Body Journal

‘Universities look to record student employability skills’ Anna Yates

The Undergraduate Durham Award

Leicester Award for Employability

Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) pilot:

Valerie Matthews-Lane

Head of Careers

Purpose of a University Education in 21st Century

Work Readiness

Government initiatives post 1997

►HE for Capability (1988), Enterprise in HE (1989) to embed employability skills

►Dearing – Inquiry into HE (1997) ended the policy debate!

►Funds available for 20+yrs

► Global need

►Different approaches same goal

Expectations of graduates world-wide

►Australia – Graduates complete a set of attributes►New Zealand – Measures under a National

Qualifications Framework►Canada and USA – Critical skills and work-based

learning criteria►Denmark – Qualificatiosn framework requires the

completion of a competence profile►Finland – Skills courses integrated within curriculum

and students personal plans►South Africa – NQF has critical and specific

contributions to personal development and social and economic development of society

Methods of delivering employability skills in the HE curriculum in UK

Total Embedding

Explicit Embedding

Parallel development

Lose skills without trace

Visible Skills Bolt-on developments

Skills disappear in context

Skills in context Limited contextualisation

No explicit assessment

Explicit assessment

Separate assessment

Low impact on curriculum

High impact on curriculum

Low impact on curriculum

DfEE 1997

Research in UK for HEFCE

► In 2003 ‘How much does HE enhance the employability of graduates? Mason, G., Williams,G., Cranmer, S. and Guile, D.►Benefits if structured work experience and employer

involvement in the design and delivery of the curriculum ► In 2006 ‘Enhancing graduate Employability: best intentions

and mixed outcomes’. Cranmer, S. Studies in Higher Education, Vol 31, Issue 2, April 2006, p 169-184. ►Further doubt on benefits of classroom intervention as a

result of academic perceptions of employability skills!

http://www.enhancingemployability.org.uk/

►Project FTDL 5 which aimed to enhance the employability of graduates through the higher education curriculum.

►Contact Angela Maher for more information.

►Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus,

Gipsy Lane, Oxford. OX3 0BP. UK. Tel: + 44 (0)1865 484270 

 

NTFS project 2007-2010 – resources to complement.

► http://www2.bcu.ac.uk/futureproof

Professor Anne Hill and Dr Nick Morton (NTFS) and Dr Celia Popovic, Ruth Lawton and Jenny Eland from CELT and researcher Carmen Tomas

Employability skills for all Kent University careers

Graduates for the 21st Century Strategic thinking –an employability-orientated model

Ruth Bridgstock (2009)

‘The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: enhancing graduate employability through career management skills’

Higher Education Research and Development, Volume 28

Issue 1 February 2009, p31-44

Conceptual model of graduate attributes for employability including career management skills

Aston University

► Founded in 1895, University since 1966► Campus in Birmingham city centre► Student population: 9059 (just over

1,700 International students)► Industry-focused and accredited

programmes► Engineering and Applied Sciences, Life

and Health sciences, Business and Languages

► Very successful at widening participation

► Industrial placement year (70%)► Graduates entering employment (83%)► A top 25 UK University

Graduate employability at Aston

►For over 20 years, Aston has featured in the Top 10 UK universities for graduate employment

►In 2007/8: 83% of Aston students had graduate level jobs within six months of graduation, national average 70%

►This placed Aston 8th in the UK for graduate employability, according to the Sunday Times

►3.7% of Aston graduates were unemployed against a national average of 6%

►Aston is one of only four UK universities where more than 50% of students take a placement year

Aston also leads two additional regional activities

►Graduate Advantage – places West Midlands graduates in companies or organisations on internships

►B-Seen – encourages students and graduates to create their own business by providing training and funding

Aston highest numbers of students on placement

► Benefits of placement years are generally accepted, but exist mostly in vocational degree programmes► Academic performance► Very early career

► Reddy and Moores (2006) showed academic benefits in psychology, in 2011 across all.

Reddy, P and E. Moores. 2006. ‘Measuring the benefits of a psychology placement year’. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 31: 551-67

In 2011: Studies in Higher Education – to be published.

Programme Mark differenceYes vs. No

Significance

(ANCOVA)

Partial η2

(ANCOVA)

Effect Size (d)

ANOVA inter-action

Kendall’s

tau

BSc Human Psychology

63 vs. 60 <.001 .111 0.80 <.001 .237 (p<.001)

BEng Electrical & Electronic

59 vs. 55 n.s. .016 0.35 n.s. .209 (p<.005)

BEng/MEng Chemical

59 vs. 54 <.001 .116 0.73 <.01 .142 (p<.05)

BSc Computing Science

62 vs. 55 <.001 .063 0.82 <.001 .264 (p<.001)

BSc Managerial &

Admin.Studies

62 vs. 57 <.001 .064 0.71 <.001 .146 (p<.001)

A taster: comparison of resultsPlacement year significance once

2nd year mark covaried

Proportion of variance

explained once 2nd year mark covaried

How many standard

deviations the groups differ

by

Significance of year of study by

placement interaction

Association between

placement year and degree class

Summary and other analyses

►Students on the majority of degree programmes show academic benefit from taking an optional placement year nearly any way you choose to measure it

►Further analyses show that the effects :►(i) not due to being a bit older ►(ii) hold for higher and lower achievers ►(iii) hold for all ethnicities

Email: e.j.moores@aston.ac.ukor

Email: p.a.reddy@aston.ac.uk

Aston 2007-2012 Employability skills development

►Integrated and Bolt on – wide variety

►E-portfolio PebblePad adopted in September 2008 – ►Foundation Degrees – work-based►Reflection and embedding of employability competences►Work Experience Year – mentor/tutor liaison►PDP level 1, Level 2 academics with careers and library ►Peer mentoring

►Assessed within the module. ►Credit bearing. Employability modules.►Centre for Learning, Innovation and Professional Practice

►Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice

PebblePad easy to navigate and use

Module Feedback can be built in

What we have learnt

►Success by integrating with explicit, assessed and credit bearing outcomes.

►Teams from academic and service departments working together on employability competences

►Extra curricula Bolt-ons are useful for students that do them.

►Clear outcomes for work- experience – extra benefits►Updating for practitioners►Input to curriculum and assessment from

employers►Final year/Masters/PhD project potential►Knowledge Transfer partnerships and research

possibilities

Aston 2020 – Employable graduates, exploitable research

► Integrated work experience (MSc/Eng)

► Teaching teams, academic and support services

► 98% graduate employability

► Personal Learning System (PebblePad) for all

► Student experience outstanding – NSS all 95%+