DEPICT: Employability and Technology Research Reports

1. DEPICT: Employability and Technology Research Reports Esme Caulfield DEPICT Project Manager University of Salford

2. Aim of Reports: To provide an overview of current literature on employability and enterprise and to explore the use of technology assisted employability learning Objectives of Reports: • To review the outcomes of the 3-year ERDF-funded Enterprise Bootcamps • To review current literature and surveys conducted with businesses about their graduate skills requirements and make national comparisons • To investigate views of SME employers in creative and cultural industries and make national comparisons • To review existing uses of technology and e-learning in the delivery of employability skills training in HE and beyond

3. Reviewing outcomes of the Enterprise Bootcamps • Bootcamps ran from 2008-2011 • Ran in partnership with RISE (Latvia) and University of Agders (Norway) • Students worked in cross-cultural groups on real-life projects with SMEs to develop the SMEs business

4. Key findings: • Giving students the opportunity to work together in cross cultural groups can encourage the development of new skills and capabilities • Giving students the opportunity to develop as a team helps them work in ways where they can contribute their individual strengths and abilities to the team • Engagement with real-life employers and business challenges provides meaningful learning experiences • Providing a variety of methods for students to feedback and present ideas (film, drawing, audio, written, using technology) engages all learning types and encourages creativity

5. Literature Review: Understanding employers skills’ needs across Europe • Looked at current literature around graduate employability from across Europe and each partner country • Identified the challenges and opportunities for graduates • Investigated policy and practice relating to graduate employability • Analysed the employability skills required by creative and cultural industries

6. Key findings: • The creative sector is a growing sector and has a wider impact on the economy beyond the narrow confines of businesses that are designated as creative • There is considerable consensus across Europe with regard to the skills required in the creative industries • Skills in demand include: business skills; digital and ICT skills; generic transferable skills • A clear trend in demand for more highly skilled workers at professional and associate professional levels across all industries (including creative) • Many new creative and cultural industries jobs are temporary/casual contracts, often associated with weaker training and development opportunities • Graduates wanting to work in creative and cultural industries need to take responsibility for maintaining and developing their skills

7. Skills that Skillset have identified as priority areas for the Creative industries. • Skills Intelligence – employer needs – Creative Industries

8. Skills that Skillset have identified as priority areas for the Creative Media industries. • Skills Intelligence – employer needs – Creative Media industries

9. Review of using online learning technologies for employability skills training in HE • Looked at a range of case studies and reports on best practice from Europe and beyond in using technologies for online education • Critically reviewed case studies from DEPICT partners on their current practice • Asked the following questions of each technology: • What is the technology called? • Who is using the technology? • What learning outcomes was the technology proposed to meet? • How useful/effective is the technology?

10. Key findings: • Huge amount of good practice already exists • Important not to make assumptions about the level of digital literacy of students • To be truly effective, on-line learning must be designed with the user in mind • Communication is crucial for success – users need to be able to communicate with each other and tutors • Technologies should be able to link with existing resources and content • Few universities have fully engaged with online games, apps and social media – still lots to explore!

11. Challenges in producing the reports • Availability of data – differences in the quantity and quality of data from partners countries and European regions • Knowing when to ‘stop’ – this is a constantly developing area of practice and knowledge • Drawing meaningful conclusions from such a wide range of data

12. Next steps: • Reports will inform the next stages of the project • Choosing learning technologies • Designing seminars • Reports publicly available at http://depict.eu • Disseminating findings across Europe