Saturday, April 8, 2023 1ALT-C 2012
Practical ePortfolios: Embedding placement reflection and personal development processes
Kirstie CoolinCentre for International ePortfolio Development, (CIePD) Libraries, Research & Learning Resources
www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio @ciepd@kirstie_c
Overview
• Employability skills plus professional learning• Opportunities for learning about work• Employer involvement• Combining career learning and PDP – an
example from Nottingham• Interaction with employers• Another example from Nottingham (Researchers)• What do you think?
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Lets start with a video…
The Academy of Irving, Texas
Relationships – employer/HEI/student
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Placement administrator
Supervisor
Careers
Employer HR
Empl
oyer
men
tor
Challenge space
“The relationship between universities and colleges, students and employers is crucial to ensuring that students experience the higher education they want while studying and leave their course equipped to embark on a rewarding career”(HE White Paper, Students at the Heart of the System, BIS, 2011, p45).
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Relationship
What are professional skills?
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University of Kent www.kent.ac.uk/careers
What else? • Awareness of the employment marketplace• Understanding of the sector• Pathways and module choice• Work/employment opportunities• Different types of employers (SMEs/Social
Enterprise/self employment etc.)• Changing work patterns• Connecting gaps, action planning• Feedback from employers
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Opportunities to learn about work – how can students be supported in joining the dots?
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• Synthesising Career learning and the Course?• “What are my options?”• “How do I want to make a living?”• Skills recognition and showcasing skills• How can relationships between
student/employer/university be improved to support this?
Supporting students to find (out about) work• Access to placements, internships, work
experience
• Access to employers? Milk round? SMEs, microbusinesses, social enterprises, 3rd sector? Self employment?
“More than half of graduates are interested in jobs that will 'make a difference', despite increasing difficulty in finding work” Article in the Guardian 22nd August 2012http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/aug/22/graduates-principles-tough-jobs-market?newsfeed=true
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What do employers want?What do students want?
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How can these be reconciled with mutual benefit
to improve employability learning for students?
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Central place to find placements
Access to employer lists, tagged and searchable by
sector and organisational information
Previous placements information
Careers fairs with wider range of employers
Up to date links to the company application procedures.
Up to date links to the company application procedures.
Information about company project opportunities
Students Employers
Filtered based on interest
A ‘front door’ to the University
Access to research and innovation headlines,
University events
Find student skills for projects
More university engagement with social media for
easier personal networking and identifying key contacts
Knowledge transfer and research partnerships
From recent interviews (SHED Project 2012)
How can learners be motivated?
“Employability can be enhanced through personal development planning, but success will depend upon the extent to which students see a ‘pay-off’ for the effort that they put in.” (Embedding employability into the curriculum, HEA)
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/employability/id460_embedding_employability_into_the_curriculum_338.pdf
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Course and career learning as well as the practicalities of finding
placements, internships and work do not exist in isolation.
Construction Foundation Degree, Derby College“For Derby College, SHED saw the first use of Mahara within the College and in
particular, enabled the College to innovate in their management of student’s professional learning, using it as a platform for peer development, career reflection and learning from employer input.
Students gather information that is related to employer requirements and from that learn how their knowledge appears for an employer. This is not only learning for them, but for their peers and the College in understanding what sort of information is of interest to their employer contacts and how students should be advised to fine tune their employability information to improve their career prospects. “
For students, the ‘pay off’ may constitute short term interaction with employers for seeking work or work-experience which also provides real-world learning about the sectors they are interested in.”
SHED Project Report www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/shed/documents 04/08/2023 Event Name and Venue 13
Using ePortfolio processes for:-• Personal Development Planning (PDP) alongside
practical employability concerns for students.• ‘Marketing’ for students to match their skills to
employer interest• Communication and networking for career
learning• Differentiation in the job market
Self-motivation04/08/2023 Event Name and Venue 14
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“We come to University and
assume that employability is
getting the degree but are starting
to learn that it’s the degree plus
other stuff” (student participant in
SHED project workshop)
“Students would be motivated
to use their e-Portfolio if they
could have it when they leave
to help them find a job”
(Student, Nottingham)
“(ePortfolios) a tool for marketing to
differentiate ourselves to employers”
(Construction students at Derby
College)
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Happisburgh 2012 Kirstie Coolin
Interlude…
Example 1: Placement learning in Nottingham
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School of Biosciences
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Placement journey
Before
Researching employers and sectors,
application, letters, support
During
Recording skills/ relation of placement to
course, journal, feedback
(staff/employers), communication,
support and encouragement
After
Reflection, showcase, resume, career
information
Student-centred e-Portfolio: Placement lifecycle information and activity in one place
Careers/employability learning embedded throughout the lifecycle
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Support and information pages
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(student content)
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Student placement page. She has also created a page about the social side of student life with other
interns in the company.
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During placement – weekly reports shared with supervisor, placements coordinator and in some
cases, employer
(student content)
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Threaded feedback on student ‘placement ‘page’
(student content)
Example 2: Doctoral Training Programme (BBSRC)
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Analysing Research competences
• “The Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is a major new approach to researcher development, to enhance our capacity to build the UK workforce, develop world-class researchers and build our research base.” (Vitae 2010)”
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Using e-Portfolio to:• Integrate core researcher skill development into
the self-directed/professional development aims of the programme – Analysis and action planning
• Placement journal• Student-centred supervisor groups• Plus - technical developments to pull in relevant
University training courses linked to RDF competences for dynamic presentation into student portfolios according to their self-assessed skills gaps.
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• <screen shots – student page, supervisor group etc.>
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Example of student DTP page. We are seeking feedback from students on their suggestions for
analysing and reflecting on their skills needs
A U D I T
Courses
Research
Student searches employer profiles
Student opts-in, ‘releasing’ contact information and showcase
d
i
s
c
o
v
e
r
y
Institutional
Resource
Student
Events
Equipment
Expertise
Placements
Evidence,
skills, showcase
CRM
ePortfolio
Employers
Employer profile
student profile
Details, sector,
projects
Institution employer network
Employer searches student profiles
Professional Learning:
• About employment market
• Employment sectors
• What employers are interested in
• How to organise and present their skills
• Finding placement or work opportunities
• Learning to network (and integrate other
social tools)
Business engagement:
• More reasons to engage
• Easier to find University
resources
• Access to students for work
experience
• Wider range of employers (e.g.
3rd
sector, social enterprise,
SME)
Kirstie Coolin, CIePD, University of Nottingham September 2012
Personal
Administration
Careers and work
Learning + teaching
Over to you...• How can students and employers be motivated to
use new tools for employability?• Where do student, employer and institutional
requirements meet, and what would this look like in terms of processes and tools?
• How can existing institutional learning technology be used to promote student-led professional/employability learning?
• How can students be encouraged to reflect on their personal development autonomously?
• How can relationships between student /employer/university be nurtured to support this?04/08/2023 Event Name and Venue 29
Relevant CIePD Projects
Sharing HE Data (SHED)www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/shed
ESCAPES (..)
www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/escapes
Ingenuity KnowledgeHub
www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/knowledgehubhttp://fishbowl.ingenuitygateway.com
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Thank you
Kirstie.Coolin @ nottingham.ac.uk@kirstie_c
University of Nottingham
www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio
Designed by Gideon Coolin
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