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(1)

Herding Cats in Search of Employability Skills

- Bridging the Employer Engagement Gap

(2)

In This Session...

Some context…why are we here, for example?

Employability Issues in Higher Education

Outline of an employability project (

WITH HEALTH

WARNINGS!

)

2012-13…

HE in FE…

Down the road…

I’m New here…

I’m just after your ideas

A bit o’ science / theory

You do some of the WORK..

K?

(3)
(4)

Darn it!…I should’ve

stuck with teaching…

(5)
(6)

OK, What’s Wrong With This Equation?

(7)

Our Employability Context

North West Region*

2

nd

highest population density (490/KM

2

)

10% of UK GVA (13% of UK manufacturing GVA)

3

rd

largest expenditure on R&D by business in UK

Highest UK (pc) number of start up businesses

15 Major HEIs and 29 HE in FE Centres

All seeking to develop links with local communities

All facing the same economic and political challenges

All competing for the same students and employers!

(8)
(9)

Background & Context

Industry-driven

origins

The vocational /

academic

continuum

Proximity to

local

community

Why do our

(10)

Our Educational Imperatives

Develop links with ‘industry’

Embed ‘employability’ into the curriculum

Equip graduates with ‘employability skills’

Match these skills to Employer Needs

Deliver value as defined by:

National comparators (KIS)

Students at the heart of the (education) system

Employers

(11)

Benefits of ‘Community Embedding’

Integrating employer based research into the curriculum enhances the

overall learning experience

Shah & Treby (2006)

Collaborative Partnerships between HE and employers provide benefits

including:

Widening Participation

Workforce Development (Foskett, 2005)

Students learn better when allowed to apply their learning in

collaboration within ‘applied’ settings

Harker, M and Harker, D (2007)

Enhances development of creative problem solving strategies in

undergraduates

(12)

Some questions…

-

Does our proximity to local

communities give us any

advantage when seeking to match

students with organisations in

(13)

How Do We Connect to

Local Communities?

Do outside organisations know we are here?

Do they know what we (i.e. our students) do?

Does TIRI mean anything to them (yet)?

Do they know how to access us / engage?

Do we engage effectively?

(14)
(15)
(16)

What do we know?

“..as we know, there are

known knowns

; there

are things we know we know. We also know

there are

known

unknowns

; that is to say we

know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also

unknown unknowns

-- the

ones we don't know we don't know.

(17)

Employability Models

(18)

What we do to Install Employability

Academic / teaching

Embed in curriculum

Refinement Opportunities

Essays

Reports

Examinations

In-class activities

Research activity on & off campus

Opportunities to Apply Skills

Placements

Year out

(19)

However:

If our teaching & learning strategies for

‘employability’ are really working....

Shouldn’t we expect students to know how to

engage employers / organisations in terms of

their studies?

(20)

Why isn’t there a student queue looking for

project opportunities?*

Em

plo

(21)

What Happens if…

You ask undergraduates:

(maybe from any discipline):

“If you could research

anything within your

subject area, what would

you choose?”

(22)

What Happens if…

You ask undergraduates

:

“What kind of organisation

would you like to work with

for your final year project /

dissertation?”

(23)

Typical Student Responses

(to prev.

questions)

Thud

“Eh?”

FUD

“I’m worried I might not be able to make a

difference”

“I’ll just end up making the tea..”

What’s Gud?

“What are employers looking for?”

“Can’t you just tell me what I should do.?”

I’m ok, Bud..

(24)

Academic Issues

Normal Distribution of abilities

‘Thud’ to Critical Faculty continuum

Should we issue ‘Health Warnings’ for employers?

Ensure expectations set & managed

Student Engagement

Getting students to:

Listen!

Attend all key sessions

Read the instructions!

Read around their subject(s)

(25)

Issues in Employability

A lack of consistent and effective mechanisms to

bring students and employers together

Students don’t always know what they don’t know,

especially adding value to a potential employer

Employers often aren’t aware that they can engage

undergraduates on bounded / low risk tasks (or that

we would really like them to do this!)

Success looks different from every student /

employer perspective

(26)
(27)

An Alternative Approach

(28)
(29)

Alternative Science

“Thin Slicing”

There is evidence that humans can make reliable

judgments about complex propositions based

upon very little information (Gladwell, 2005)

The concept of ‘thin slicing’ underpins the premise

behind ‘speed dating’ and appears to have

(30)

Speed Dating ???

For Students AND Employers??

Multiple ‘engagement opportunities’

Themed, streamed and facilitated

Lots of data to validate the concept

Health warnings (both sides of the table!)

Expectations managed prior to event

(31)

Precedents -

(Business)

Speed Dating

(32)
(33)

The pilot (2012-13)

(34)

The Event

November 2012

‘Topped & tailed’ with informal Networking

1pm-3.30pm inclusive ish..

44 employer representatives from East Lancs

SME

Public & Third Sector

Large employers (manufacturing, services)

(35)

Speed Networking for Students - Prep

For Employers

Recruited via personal network

and ‘Employer Engagement

Unit’

Pre-event online

questionnaire / registration

Asked to consider potential

project areas and prepare a

short pitch for each

Briefed pre-event about the

(36)

Speed Networking for Students – Prep(ii)

For Students

Part of research methods

module

In-class workshops to

identify initial areas of

interest

Students completed online

streaming tool to narrow

focus

Used outputs to create a

(37)

Results

Too late in academic year to impact most Y3 students

Only 2 Y3 potential projects scoped

27/48 Year 2 business students identified potential

projects with local organisations

14/27 (52%) ‘matches’ taken forward as basis for final

year project

10 projects completed per original TOR

5 additional projects from ongoing conversations

between students and local organisations

(38)

Learning?

Better than ‘traditional’ approach (i.e. assignment driven

employer engagement)

Created effective and enduring links to potential employers

Employer engagement needs to be early in the academic

year

Created significant additional overhead (work) for module

team

Worth a try!

Next time, involve students more in the organisation and

(39)
(40)

Selected References

Ambady, N., Bernieri, F. and Richeson, J. (2001) “Advances in Experimental Social Psychology”

(p201-272 Elsevier, 2000)

Foskett, R. (2005) “Collaborative partnership between HE and employers: a study of workforce

development” Journal of Further and Higher Education. Vol 29, No 3 pp 251-264

Gladwell, M. (2005) Blink! The Power of Thinking without Thinking. Penguin Psychology Publishing

Kaplan, M. (2008) “Love: You have 4 minutes to choose your perfect mate.” Nature. Vol. 451 Issue

7180, p760-762.

Sewell, P. and Dacre-Pool, L. (2010) ‘Moving from conceptual ambiguity to operational clarity –

Employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education’. Education and Training. Vol 52 No.1 pp88-94

Shah, A. and Treby, E. (2006) Using a Community Based Project to Link Teaching and Research: The

Bourne Stream Partnership. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. Vol 30 No 1 pp 22-48

Wood, D. And Bilsborow, C. (2013) Enhancing Creative Problem Solving in the Higher Education

(41)
(42)

The Workshop Bit…

Working in PAIRS:

Ask the other person to explain about one

employability initiative in their area that

either

:

Worked (….why / how?)

OR

Didn’t Work (…. why not?)

2-3 minutes each (max) – make some notes 

Be prepared to share what you have learned

OR

If you can’t find an initiative, talk about issues

you’ve encountered around the Employability

(43)

OK.. What have we got?

What works ?

What doesn’t work?

Impacts?

Issues around

—United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

References

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