Engaging employers in re-orienting skills programmes for careers relevancy

1. Engaging employers in re-orienting skills programmes for careers relevancy Dr Zoe Robinson School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University, UK and Gareth Digges la Touche, Golders Associates (formerly MJCA)

2. Talk outline • The wider context • An employer’s view of skills gaps • Case study: reorienting a traditional physical geography skills programme • Benefits and pitfalls of employer engagement Discussion...

3. The Current Context • The need to produce ‘employment ready’ graduates • ….with minimal effort Students expect it Employers expect it

4. HE responsibilities • QAA Code of Practice “to ensure that [HEIs] are meeting students’ expectations in respect of their preparedness for their future career, and that they are producing graduates equipped to meet the demands of the employment market of today and tomorrow”

5. The challenges • Fear that an emphasis on employability will lead to erosion of the development of “critical intellectual skills” • Geographers less successful than other disciplines in forming effective links with the world of employment (Jenkins and Healey, 1995) • Pressures of student numbers, and reduction in the unit of resource for teaching students

6. But what we teach is relevant… • But students don’t easily make the link Therefore we’re failing to fulfil (or even address?) students’ employment expectations

7. Case study: The starting point • A series of traditional physical geography skills-based practical sessions • Soil analysis • Water chemistry • Surveying • Step-by-step workbook assessment • Group work, not all students do all practical work No rationale No reference to ‘real world’ skills/techniques Superficial learning (if any) Limited thinking! Lack of exposure to all skills/techniques

8. Engaging employers • Environmental consultancy a major ‘geo’ employer (although students unaware of) • Stages of environmental consultant engagement: • Identifying ideal skills portfolio and skills gaps • Curriculum design • Providing legislative framework • Presenting introductory material • Evaluating student work • Evaluating project

9. Employers’ concerns • Students/graduates often lack skills in “drawing together disparate sets of information to form coherent evidence-based arguments” • Loss of critical intellectual skills as a result of modularised system • Lack skills making easy transition from university to workplace Gathering data Synthesising data Integrating knowledge Report writing

10. Aims of interventions … • Emphasise career relevancy and context of skills taught • Environmental Baseline Simulation - major part of work of consultancies • Project aim: to produce a technical report summarising the environmental baseline conditions of a lake catchment on the Keele campus

11. The Environmental Baseline Survey

12. Student tasks • Project runs over 3-4 weeks. One 3 hour session/week • Student activities: • Project planning and budgeting • Risk assessment • Field data collection • Surface water samples • Groundwater samples • In situ measurements • Groundwater level measurements • Laboratory analysis • Data analysis • Report production • Personal reflection

13. Skills and knowledge • And ‘subject and career specific skills’ (and knowledge) • -Soil and hydrological field sampling and measurement techniques • -Soil laboratory analytical techniques • -Secondary data sources • -Error analysis • -Careers knowledge etc etc ‘Personal transferable/employability skills’ • Project planning • Group working, management and leadership • Numeracy and data synthesis and manipulation • Report writing • Etc, etc

14. What the students thought… • Generally appreciated the careers relevance and helped engagement - the “real lifeness made it a lot more interesting” • They enjoyed, “learning the methods used by professionals that could one day be crucial to [their] careers” • They valued the “practical skills which could be of use in careers” • These are the same skills that have been taught before

15. Project outcomes • 80% of students had a greater understanding of careers available in environmental consultancy • Greater awareness of the relationship between careers and the curriculum • ‘Looking back’ students saw the benefits of a report-based assessment • Preparation for dissertation • Made to think more about conclusions • Able to ‘place’ different aspects of the project • Does it help having an ‘employer’ introduce the work? • Few students seemed to notice! • When asked explicitly one student said that it was a ‘really good idea’ and showing that it was not just ‘an academic piece of work’

16. Benefits (and pitfalls) of employer engagement • Benefits to all parties • Employers: Recruitment, better graduates • Students: increases careers knowledge • Academics: Helps employers understand what different disciplines do, collaboration potential… If we don’t engage with employers we are seen as teaching in isolation from how the skills and knowledge taught will be applied

17. So… • Existing material can easily be ‘reoriented’ to be more employment specific • Involve industry… • It ensures career relevancy • Places work in a legislative/management context • They’re willing and there are benefits • Report writing based on the drawing together of disparate sets of data is a key employability skill • Engagement with the employability agenda can increase critical intellectual skills Suitable approach for a range of field activities and teaching and assessment formats

18. Thanks

19. Discussion • What are the core subject-specific employability skills of a GEES graduate? • How improve employers’ understanding of subject disciplines? • Ways of reorienting other types of material/assessments to give an employment context?