Student Employability Profiles

1. Student Employability Profiles Bianca Kubler Employability Works EW

2. Student Employability Profiles • Introduction • Context • Employability • Profiles • Usage • Challenges • Actions Employability Works EW

3. Context • International competitiveness • Student career aspirations • A common language • Working independently • Theodore Zeldin Employability Works EW

4. Theodore Zeldin • "Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards." - Theodore Zeldin. Employability Works EW

5. Employability - a wider view of Skills • Employability is about occupation based capabilities & expertise • that include: • Basic skills (literacy and numeracy) • Generic Skills (communication, team working etc.) • Specific skills (less transferable across occupations) • Most occupations use a mix of the above • Skills provide valuable recruitment signals for employers • Skills must be economically valuable and benefit individuals through higher wages and employers through higher productivity • Employability provides portability in the labour market • Life long learning is key to employability, ensuring both • qualifications and skills meet changing demands in the workplace

6. Employability Matters • Employability promotes: • life long learning • qualities like resourcefulness as well as technical / vocational knowledge and skills • the ability to contribute to society • Supports widening participation and diversity agendas • Employability & employability profiling helps students both during and post qualification to gather and develop specific core skills Employability Works EW

7. Student Employability ProfilesWhy? • Response to demand from Higher Education Subject Centre Network staff for material to support their academic colleagues in making work related skills learning more explicit in course programme design and delivery • Employers consistently stating graduates do not have the required generic skills Employability Works EW

8. What they are Provenance Why Skills and competencies Higher Education Academy, QAA, CIHE Reduce drop out and career wrong turning, increase ability to manage career Student Employability ProfilesWhat? Employability Works EW

9. Student Employability Profiles?How? • Evidence from QAA benchmark statements of the work related skills developable through study of a particular subject • Summary of knowledge taught • Skills mapped against competencies identified by CIHE as ones that help transform organisations • Glossary of Competencies and criteria December 2007 Employability Works EW

10. Employer Competencies • Cognitive skills (problem solving….) • Generic competencies (listen, influence…) • Personal capabilities (lifelong learning, leadership, emotional intelligence…) • Technical ability (ITC ...) • Business and Organisation awareness • Practical and professional elements Employability Works EW

11. Approach • QAA subject benchmark statements used in creating behavioural criteria for each subject • Generic Employability competencies defined by C IHE Employers Group (top 100 plus NHS and SMEs) & from the work of Professor Lee Harvey • Behavioural criteria mapped against generic competencies for each subject criteria • Approach introduced elements of rigour and is similar to job/role analysis work in organisations - applied behavioural research Employability Works EW

12. Analysis • Matching of QAA benchmark statements with generic competency statements and extracting relevant criteria, mapping this to create the templates • Discussion with relevant subject centre staff, use of literature and website information • Drawing on 20 years’ experience of this work across all professional roles in blue chip companies and Professional Bodies • Employers input and endorsement from CIHE policy forum employer members.

13. Example Profile - Hospitality • Degree courses in Hospitality focus strongly on developing critical and analytical problem-solving and general/transferable attributes to prepare students for employment in the business world of the hospitality industry. A graduate in Hospitality typically will have the ability to: • Knowledge • Exhibit the development of knowledge in their particular subject area. • Appreciate and apply the need for a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approach to study, drawing from service, research and professional contexts. • Understand the subject through academic and professional reflective practice. • Apply relevant theories, concepts and knowledge in an industry context. • Demonstrate knowledge of corporate social responsibility issues. • Intellectual Skills • Research and assess subject specific facts, theories, paradigms, principles and concepts. • Critically assess, analyse and evaluate evidence and interpret data, text and trends using appropriately acquired information. • Develop the ability to identify, analyse and develop a range of solutions to routine and non-routine problems and evaluate these solutions within the context of the problem. • Identify and solve problems through the use of innovative techniques and approaches. • Develop critical thinking skills that enable appropriate responses to industry challenges. • Respond to moral, ethical, environmental and safety issues which directly pertain to the subject domain including relevant legislation and professional codes of conduct. • Subject Specific Skills • Understand the operation and management of a range of physical, financial, human and technical resources. • Apply theory to the solution of complex problems within the core areas of hospitality. • Analyse and evaluate food, beverage and/or accommodation service systems, their implementation and operation. • Understand and apply the theories and concepts underpinning consumer behaviour within the hospitality context and develop appropriate responses to this. • Analyse the quality of the service encounter and its impact on the consumer and the service provider. • Identify and respond appropriately to the diversity of stakeholders in the hospitality industry such as customers, employees, organisations and government and external agencies. • Apply, within the hospitality context, appropriate theories and concepts from the generic management areas of operations management, finance and management accounting, human resources and organisational behaviour, services marketing, information systems and technology. • Display an insight into the structure of the hospitality industry and the contribution that it makes to the global economy. • Evaluate the factors that influence the development of organisations operating within the hospitality industry. • Review and analyse the political, technological, social, environmental and economic factors which affect the supply of and demand for hospitality. • Transferable Skills • Exercise communication and presentation skills, • Make a sustained argument with clear structure and presentation. • Interact effectively with individuals and groups, organise a team effectively and treat others’ Employability Works EW

14. Example Template Employability Works EW

15. Outputs • 53 subject specific profiles produced for 24 Subject Centres • Composite Academic Guide produced with HEA • Composite Employer Guide produced with CIHE • Glossary of behavioural criteria descriptors by generic • competency for use by Subject Centre staff. • Reflective questions on competencies & behavioural criteria developed to support students’ personal development planning (PDP) • Subject Centres have basis for subject specific competency framework Employability Works EW

16. A Tool • SEPs can be used : • in a tool box for employability development • input to PDPs, CVs and career planning • as a basis for evidencing curriculum based skills development • evidence to market a subject to pre university students and also employers December 2007 Employability Works EW

17. Students awareness of skills being developed ability to articulate skills basis for strengthening PDPs, CVs and career planning boost to life long learning capability Academics attract more quality applicants reduce retention issues curriculum can be steered to bring employability to life (impact of formal assessment) Benefits: Employability Works EW

18. Benefits for Employers • A common language • Improved return on investment in employment marketing and recruitment • Reduced risks in hiring from new sources (reflecting effect of widening participation and diversity) • Improved interview & assessment criteria for graduate recruitment Employability Works EW

19. Beneficiaries • Students • Vocational subjects • All subjects • Parents • Careers practitioners • Academics • Employers Employability Works EW

20. Challenges • Promote transparency and understanding • Nurture learning • Foster work ready skills • Stimulate capacity to develop and adapt • Help self awareness and self confidence • Support diversity agenda Employability Works EW

21. Lessons and Implications • Concept of ‘employability’ here to stay • Academy staff are key bridge builders to employment and employability • Value for all but particularly for widening participation and diversity agendas • Possible to reconcile academic values with work related learning Employability Works EW

22. Consider • How relevant is this to your own situation? • How useful might this approach be? • Will one size fit all ? • What might be your next steps? Employability Works EW

23. Useful Websites http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/employability/disciplines http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/default.asp http://www.cihe-uk.com/index.php Employability Works EW