Employability in the curriculum – a no-fuss approach

1. Employability in the curriculum – a no-fuss approach DrErrietta Bissa School of Classics University of Wales Trinity St David

2. A bit of history… • The Classics Employability Project started in 2009/10. • The School of Classics in UWTSD has about 210 FTE UGs, and some 20 FTE PGs. • We teach Greek and Roman history, culture and literature, as well as Greek and Latin. • The idea was to embed employability in the curriculum within existing subject-specific modules, rather than add a bolt-on module.

3. Aims of the Project • Provide students with a set of skills that make them more employable in the long-run. • Make these skills part of the curriculum. • Preserve (and increase) student satisfaction rates.

4. Method • Identify key skills wanted by employers but not as yet covered in the curriculum • Embed these are part of assessment in existing subject-specific modules. • Pilot the idea in 2009/10. • Keep on, if successful, in later years.

5. Skills-training can and is part of modules, often as part of formative assessment: Ex. group work in seminars, presentations in tutorials, reflection over feedback • HOWEVER • Such skills-related activities are not obvious to employers • There is no way for students to show/prove their competence at them if part of formative assessment • Often students do not recognise them as part of skills training and thus fail to articulate them in their quest for employment Skills and Assessment

6. Main Hurdles • Possible effect on student satisfaction • Possibility of students not realising that they are becoming more employable • Staff workload increase • Some staff do not want to consider changing assessments

7. Assessment Types tried • Portfolios – using formative portfolio to inform summative portfolio • Reply to scholarly article – to encourage formal discussion and reporting • Oral presentation – individual and group • Group essay/wiki • Reflective reports on group work, presentation (own and peer) • Webpage creation • Take-home examination (Students received the examination paper at 9.15am and had to return a completed essay of 3000-words by 3pm on the same day. Aim: Recreate work-place pressure to complete assignment within a business day)

8. Life of Assessment types

9. Student Satisfaction in modules with employability-specific assessments

10. Students’ Recognition of Employability Enhancement 2009/10 2012/13

11. Workload considerations

12. Results • Student satisfaction remains excellent. • Students recognise the importance of acquiring new skills and that these enhance their employability. • Some assessment types are too workload-intensive. • Employability-specific assessments have been adopted by diverse members of staff, but this cascading can be slow. • Staff have become more flexible as to types of assessments used in modules, and types considered for new modules.

13. Some issues for managers • Validation or re-validation of modules due to change of assessments • Providing training for staff, particularly new staff, regarding marking and moderating these types of assessments. • The first time staff use a different assessment method, there will be some workload increase. • It is imperative that administrative support is available for some types of assessment (take-home examination, webpages).

14. The future • We are still trying to find a way to help students with their NUMERACY skills. • Considering very carefully providing more take-home exam opportunities • Still looking for a more satisfying method of group assessment.

15. Applicability across subjects • Classics is a very traditional subject, like many of the Humanities. • Employability is a less prominent feature of student thinking than in more hands-on subjects. • Embedding via assessment types has worked. • It is essential to identify the skills that are not covered by traditional assessments. • There is a limit as to how far one can take this approach – see the issue re numeracy.

16. Thank you Errietta Bissa e.bissa@tsd.ac.uk