Embedding Employability into the Curriculum: Building in Middle Class Advantage?

1. Embedding Employability into the Curriculum: Building in Middle Class Advantage? Julia Clarke, Raphael Hallett and Greg Miller April 2014

2. The University • Large Russell Group University • Commitment to widening participation – aspiration raising and enabling access • “committed to identifying the best possible applicants regardless of their personal circumstances or background.” • Alternative access scheme for those “who may not be able to demonstrate their talents through grades alone”.

3. University Developments • Employability as a core curriculum thread • Broadening opportunities within the curriculum • Co-curricula opportunities • One-to-one personal tutoring model

4. Key Performance Indicators • Degree Classifications • Retention Rates • Graduate Destinations Positive destinations (Further graduate-level study or Graduate Employment) for UK Domiciled First Degree leavers

5. Institution DLHE Positive Destinations

7. Problems with using DLHE • Non-response bias • Only 6 months after graduation • Significance at programme level • Managerial approach

8. Some moral issues "Like Churchill said: “We are for the ladder. Let all try their best to climb." (Cameron in theTelegraph, 2012) • Oiling the wheels of social reproduction? • Increasing the social capital gap? • Strengthening construct of the ideal graduate? • Discourse of employability – “oven-ready” graduates

9. The “No Escape” Model • Good practice– no additional workload, no stigmatization, reaching the hard to reach • But can we level the playing field whilst ignoring the starting lines?

10. Mind the Social Capital Gap “When I came to university I didn’t know anyone who was in business at all. My background did not really accommodate for networking as such so that was a major benefit for me, just getting to know somebody who could give me a bit of advice outside of an academic setting, being relevant to the workplace as such.” (Second Year Student)

11. Closing the Social Capital Gap

12. Maintaining the Social Capital Gap

13. Widening the Social Capital Gap

14. “another guy who did Access to Leeds but who is significantly better off than I was when I came because he knows people and his parents are actually quite well to do. I don’t know how he came through Access to Leeds..…there’s another girl who’s borderline between getting maintenance grants and not so on paper she looks like she should fit in that other category and yet she doesn’t because she doesn’t actually know anyone.” (Second Year Student)

15. “My parents are teachers so there is no other way that I would have got to speak to somebody who reports to board level of a major plc.” (Second year student)

16. Moving Forward • Tread carefully but purposively • Thinking about the purposes of higher education – meta-cognition vs employability skills • Educating the employers • Recognising engagement is not the same as belonging • Channelling energy and ability at the level of the individual => Qualitative approaches to help understand complexity and context

17. A Way Forward? “… I just want to show to employers that I’m willing to go the extra mile and I don’t just study, there’s so many other things that I want to include. I think, I’m paying for my tuition at university, so I want to make the most of it and the way to do that is not just to study but to make the most of everything else that’s on offer.” (Second Year Student)