Individualised Self-assessment to Enhance Employability in postgraduate students

Dr Debbi Marais

www.abdn.ac.uk

Employability

‘a set of achievements – skills, understandings

and personal attributes - that make graduates more likely to gain

employment and be successful in their

chosen occupations, which benefits

themselves, the workforce, the

community and the economy’

www.abdn.ac.uk

Link with Retention

• How does enhancing employability improve retention?• For Postgraduate students - Non-progression

main reason for discontinuing • Proven relationship between learning and

employability• skills that facilitate learning such as being able to

analyse data, solve complex problems and to communicate effectively, can also enhance an individual’s employability

• Improving chances of progression = better student retention

www.abdn.ac.uk

Why postgraduate?

• PGT students - unique group • Short intensive period of study • Diverse graduate/professional backgrounds and

nationalities• Previous experience and skill levels • Educational experiences • English language proficiency

• Induction programmes • To ease the transition of international students

into new learning environment• Not individualised or reflective in nature

www.abdn.ac.uk

Aim

• Develop an online resource to extend employability provision for PGT students• self-awareness

employability questionnaire on MyAberdeen

• individualised feedback and links to supportive employability resources

www.abdn.ac.uk

Process

1. Skills Audit• Self-assessment• Tailored feedback• Signposting to supportive resources

2. Reflection

3. Articulation

www.abdn.ac.uk

1. Skills Audit

• Self-assessment of employability skills based on HEA employability profile for Health Studies & UoA Postgraduate Attributes

Academic Excellence

Critical Thinking &

Communication

Learning & Personal

Development

Active Citizenship

www.abdn.ac.uk

1. Skills Audit

• Complete prior to self-assessment questionnaire

• Existing non-credit bearing courses • Academic writing skills (AW1001)

• Summarising a given text in ≤150 words within 1 hour

• Different article extracts for different programmes• Assessed by Programme Coordinators using

standardised rubric ito accuracy of summary AND language (grammar, punctuation and spelling)

• Skills info (SK5003) • 50 Questions regarding basic IT skills required (e-

mail, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, internet)• Yes (score 1), No (score 0) or Unsure (score ½)

• Psychometric testing – Profiling for success

www.abdn.ac.uk

Profiling for Success

• University Careers Centre acquired via the ‘Profiling for success’ website

• Freely available to registered students

• 4 identified for I-SEE • Abstract reasoning skills• Numerical reasoning skills• Verbal reasoning skills • Type Dynamics Indicator Form

• ~10 min each

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Feedback

• Academic writing skills • CAS uploaded in MyGrades with standardised

feedback and signposting to either online support (CAS 6-8) or SLS language workshops (CAS <6)

• IT Skills• Score (/50) in MyGrades automatically• Automated feedback of ‘correct’ if answered YES

and signposting to specific online guides and page reference for specific section if NO/UNSURE

• Psychometric testing• Score and individualised feedback emailed to

student from website

www.abdn.ac.uk

1. Skills Audit

• Self-assessment Questionnaire• Provide scores from various sources for:

• Academic writing skills; IT Skills; Abstract, Numerical and Verbal reasoning skills and Personality Typing results

• Self-rating of:• Communication skills/academic writing (essays,

exams, oral and poster presentations, publications, referencing)

• IT skills (basic word processing, TurnitInUK, track changes, data base search)

• Group work• Personality typing (awareness of strengths and

weaknesses)• Social/civic responsibilities/engagement

www.abdn.ac.uk

Feedback

• Self-assessment questionnaire

• Automated and Individualised• Best responses as correct

• Identifying development areas

• Signposting for links to supportive employability resources

• Online • Workshops/courses within the University

www.abdn.ac.uk

2. Reflection

• Record progress in e-portfolio • Directions on how to create own e-portfolio

provided

• Reflect on progress using a checklist • After 6 months• Identify development areas• What has been done?• What do you plan to do?

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3. Articulation

• CV template

• Supportive documentation with tips

• Link to Career Services

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Implementation

• Division of Applied Health Sciences PGT students

• 2013/14 academic year

• As a Compulsory non-credit bearing induction course

10

854

14

41 MSc students

Nursing/Midwifery Public Health

International Health Economics of Health

Human Nutrition

www.abdn.ac.uk

Progress

Academic writing (5 Oct)

IT skills (15 Oct) Skills Audit

(2 Nov)

Checklist (1 Mar)0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

36 36

25

13

2 1

9

7

3 4 7 14

7

On time Late No progression Non-completion

E-mail reminders

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Academic Writing scores

CAS 18-2027%

CAS 12-1741%

CAS 9-11

19%CAS 6-

814%

• N=38

• CAS Range - 6 to 20

• Mean Score – 13.95

• 5 Below CAS 9 [Signposted to Online Resources]

Not reported accurately in Skills Audit -12 Unanswered and 7 Don’t know

www.abdn.ac.uk

Rating of English Language

Excelle

ntGood

Averag

ePoor

Unansw

ered0

5

10

15

20

25

Language Rating • Poor self-rating

• Excellent [8-20]

• Good [6-17]

• Average [9-14]

• Poor [20/unanswered]

www.abdn.ac.uk

IT skills

• N = 37

• Range 21 – 50 (/50)

• Mean score – 43.38

• 27 >40 score

• 3 poor skills

<25; 2

26-34; 1

>35; 34

Not reported accurately in Skills Audit -9 Unanswered and 7 Don’t know

www.abdn.ac.uk

IT Self-rating

Excelle

ntGood

Averag

ePoor

Unansw

ered0

5

10

15

20

25 • Poor self-rating

• Excellent [>48]

• Good [19-50]

• Average [32-43]

• Poor [25]

www.abdn.ac.uk

Self-confidence

Only if a

sked

Give oth

er chan

ce first

Answer im

mediately

02468

1012141618

Response to questions

Group Prefer on own15.4

15.6

15.8

16

16.2

16.4

16.6

16.8

17

17.2

Teamwork

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• 4 unanswered Strengths and weaknesses

• 3 Don’t know and 5 unanswered what friends and peers would describe

• 6 unanswered Personality typing, 2 can’t find, 5 only 1 letter Exce

llent

Good

Averag

ePoor

Unansw

ered0

5

10

15

20

25

Self-rated Leadership

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Challenges

• Not accurate self-reporting / don’t remember

• Poor self-rating

• Not understanding feedback

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ChecklistPossible Development Area Yes Attended/

DoneNo but support

Communi-cation

Oral 12 9 2

Verbal reasoning 12 9 1

Written 11 9 1

IT

PP 11 8 1

Posters 12 6 1

Word 8 6 0

Excel 7 4 0

www 5 5 0

e-mail 6 6 1

Literature search 7 7 2

Referencing 11 10 1Active Citizenship Attributes 7 4 0

UK CV 3 1 2

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Checklist vs Skills AuditPossible Development

Area Yes Skills Audit

Communi-cation

Oral 12 3 Never, 11 classmates/lay audience, 17 Nervous public speaking

Verbal reasoning 12 25 Below/Average

Written 11 Only 2 published, 5 poor/average language skills

IT

PP 11 15 irregular/never used

Posters 12 21 never

Excel 7 7 identified

e-mail 6 2 identified

Literature search 7 4 identified

Referencing 11 3 identified

UK CV 3 18 Don’t have

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What did the students think?

• Do you think I-SEE had any impact?

• What did you find most helpful? • [prompts for specific stages in

the process – skills audit, reflection and articulation]

• What did you find least helpful?

• What do you think could help or be added?

• How can we improve engagement?

• Do you think improvements/development should be on your own initiative or followed up by programme coordinators?

19

7 MSc Human

Nutrition

7 MSc

Nursing/ Midwifery 5

MSc Public/ International

Health

30-60 min depending on time available to students

www.abdn.ac.uk

Impact of I-SEE

• Initial responses were fairly unsure to this question - a lot of shrugging and some head shaking

• Students seemed divided according to their previous exposure or experience (local vs international students)

Not a total waste of time as it did reaffirm what I

already knew, but perhaps more useful to others who have not done this before.

This is needed in the ‘real world’

so everyone should do it

It was helpful to me but I wasn't

really sure what it was for, perhaps if

we knew earlier on, we would have taken part more.

I already have a job and a career, so I did not see the

use of it for me - it was a bit of a waste of time for me -

but I can see it can be useful for others who have not had this at undergraduate level.

www.abdn.ac.uk

Comments on usefulness

• Responses differed between • International and Home students • English home language speakers or 2nd language

• Practical problems with MyAberdeen• MyGrades, e-portfolios and submitting

• Online support (guides) not helpful• Improve engagement

• Explaining aim overall and for each assessment• Better timing of assessments (course workload)

• Reflection least useful ... in the real world this is

what you need to do (reflect) ...

www.abdn.ac.uk

Improvements

• Introductory session • Importance of I-SEE• Use of MyAberdeen especially Mygrades, e-

portfolios• Timing of assessments

• Induction week• When needed• Workload of courses taken into consideration• Rather all do together at one time for checklist

• Additional • Interview skills• Using social media to market yourself• Career information eg. Job adverts

www.abdn.ac.uk

Improvements

• Incorporated into Generic Skills Course• Some sessions less useful/superficial, some very

useful but opinions differ between students – should be tailored to previous exposure and skill levels

• Prevent overlap• Support in terms of workshops / presentations rather

than online support• Provide an opt-out for students who do not

want to complete

• Own initiative or not?

... actually I suppose it is really

our own responsibility ...

www.abdn.ac.uk

Way forward

• Improvements as suggested by students where possible

• Extend to College PGT programmes and PGR students

• Staff engagement

www.abdn.ac.uk

Acknowledgements

• HEA – Individual Teaching Development Grant

• Support from colleagues in the DAHS & CLSM Graduate School

• Research assistant – Ettienne Marais