Employability and the sociological imagination: Fostering a critical awareness of employability in a discipline where linkage to professional career development is less clearly articulated

Kety Faina, Gordon Heggie, Jade McCarroll, Neil McPherson, Paul McShane, John Melia, Donna Russell, Iqra Tusadiq

Higher Education Academy: Social Sciences workshop and seminar series 2013-14.

Employability

Partnership

Learner journey

Critical thinking

Targets

Student feedback

Student experience

Research mindedness

Engagement Active learning

Collaboration

Creativity Flexible curriculum

Citizenship

Interdisciplinarity

Communication Change

Student as producer

Curriculum design

Performance

Inquiry-based learning

Peer evaluation

Resilience

Peer-assisted learning

Going round in circlesSearching for an approach to employability

A framework for employability (Cole & Tibby, 2013: 10)

First stepsTwo key developments

• Create a series of core modules that reconfigured the relationship between teaching and research through the introduction of active inquiry-based learning

• Address an employability agenda where students are increasingly viewed ‘as consumers of education and academics’ identifications as producers of consumer (that is teaching-and-learning) services’ (Boden & Epstien 2006: 227)

• Searching for a solution to what Neary (2012) calls the ‘impossible project’

Reconfiguring the curriculumEngaging students in research and inquiry

‘our goal here is to move more curricula in the

direction of developing students as participants

in research and inquiry, so that they are

producers, not just consumers of knowledge’ (Healey & Jenkins 2009: 6)

(encouraging)…’the development of

collaborative relations between student and

academic for the production of knowledge’ (Neary & Winn 2010: 137)

Unpacking the employability agenda

Employability and higher education

‘Many of the graduates I met were unprepared, uninformed and lacking in self-

awareness. They struggled to demonstrate what it was they wanted from a job

and what they could bring to it.

Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (2006)

[Universities need to improve]… the business relevance of undergraduate

courses. Business of course have a key role in stepping up to work with

universities to improve the relevance of course content…[and]..to see moves

to greater flexibility in course design and delivery, leading to courses that fit

better with the needs of businesses…a readiness to take a much greater

share of the market for training provision.’

CBI (2013) Changing the pace: education and skills survey, pg.57

Embedding employability

‘Embedding employability into the core of higher education will continue to

be a key priority of Government, universities and colleges, and employers.

This will bring both significant private and public benefit, demonstrating

higher education’s broader role in contributing to economic growth as well as

its vital role in social and cultural development.’ (HEFCE, 2011, pg.5)

[But]…‘the complexity of employability and the variety that exists in curricula

in UK higher education mean that no single, ideal, prescription for the

embedding of employability can be provided.’ (Yorke & Knight 2006: 2)

Our initial model

Our initial mappingEmbedding employability in the social science curriculum

• Mapping of modules to CIHE competencies and HEA student employability profiles

• Raising staff/students awareness of the way in which employability competencies are embedded in the curriculum

• Promoting graduate attributes

Our initial map

Questioning the employability agenda

‘The concept of employability…was introduced by corporations, marketed

as a response to the need to be flexible in the face of global competition…

Companies…could no longer offer job security to employees and

introduced 'employability' instead, as the new psychological contract. As

such, it forms part of 'the new spirit of capitalism’

(Chertkovskaya, 2013, non-paginated)

Targets, targets, targets

• By the end of AY 14/15, UWS will achieve a graduate-level employment rate of 65% within the annual DLHE survey

2013-14 SFC-UWS Outcome Agreement

• By the end of AY 14/15, UWS will achieve a minimum graduate-level employment rate of 75% for our graduates within 3 years of graduation’

2013-14 SFC-UWS Outcome Agreement

• The proportion of graduate professional/managerial employment will match (within 2%) or exceed average performance of post 1992 Scottish HEI in each subject area’

UWS LTAS V1.1, 5.4

But employability…

• ‘Employability…is about learning and the emphasis is less on ‘employ’ and

more on ‘ability’. In essence, the emphasis is on developing critical,

reflective abilities, with a view to empowering and enhancing the learner.’

(Harvey, quoted in Pegg, 2012: 4)

• ‘Is clearly not the same as graduate employment rates’ (Knight & Yorke 2004: 9)

• Nor is it… ‘something that can be quantified by any single measure. Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey is a measure of employment not employability’

(Cole & Tibby 2013: 6)

The employability agenda Questioning the role of the University

‘[Employability] is now claiming time on syllabi at the expense of academic

subjects and inculcating market values at the expense of free and critical

thinking’ (Sarson, 2013, non-paginated)

‘the public and democratic character of the university is undermined, while

humanities and social sciences which, by their very nature, cannot attract

market interest are marginalized’

(Panayota & Grollios, 2012: 317).

Questioning the role of social science

How do we square the circle?Key issues from Tibby (2012)

• Disparity between students’ perception of

employability and those of employers

• Many students are not engaged with

employability

• Employers and students value work-experience

but barriers exist in provision and access

Understanding what employers want

Most important factors considered when recruiting graduates

Source: CBI. Learning to Grow - Education and Skills Survey 2012

Understanding our students

0 20 40 60 80 100

Language

Degree classification

Work experience

Degree subject

Employability skills

Hamilton

Paisley

Which of the the following do you think are the most important factors employers consider when recruiting graduates (%)

Understanding our students

0 20 40 60 80 100

Yes

No

Do you have a particular job/career path in mind after you finish your studies? (%)

Paisley

Hamilton

Understanding our students

Survey of L7 social science students undertaken in week 1

Understanding our studentsRaising awareness: an employability VLE

Understanding our studentsEmployment and the social sciences

Bridging the gapLearning in partnership

Does it work?What students say

The tasks have been interesting because they gave

an actual taste of what a research is like, on all its

levels, from organisation to practical issues such as

funding or ethical approval

…has given a good insight into real life

problems and opportunities

The research/inquiry based learning focus of the module has been great and grown my

confidence in relation to independent study.

…led to me becoming more aware as to what

employability skills I have been developing whilst

learning in other modules

…made me reflect on my learning journey so far, and I now

feel that it's easier to make connections between skills

developed by doing different types of assessments and the skills sought out by employers

Our new model

Making employability ‘real’

Our employability-integrated assessment map

Have we squared the circle?

Returning to Tibby (2012)

----

Disparity between students’ perception of employability and

those of employers

Our solution: embed in the curriculum through employability-

integrated assessment and partnership learning

----

Many students are not engaged with employability

Our solution: embed in the curriculum through employability-

integrated assessment and partnership learning

----

Employers and students value work-experience but barriers

exist in provision and access

Is WBL necessary? Can WRL be fully embedded in the curriculum?