Peter Knight, The Open University, UK

Enhancing employability through pedagogic practices

Bologna

See handout #1 for summary.

“The degree awarded after the first cycle shall also be relevant to the European labour market as an appropriate level of qualification.” (Bologna)

Lifelong learning (Prague)

Quality assurance?

Overview

Employability: a discourse

Responses

Co-curricular

Curricular

Actions

Being strategic

Employability is the hook …

… for talking about, advancing and researching:

The quality of the student experience.

Good learning.

Valued academic practices.

On the basis of international research evidence.

Employers talking

Employer satisfaction with new graduate hires:

Complain of specific failings — no general HE programme could anticipate them.

Handout #2

The ESECT view

A set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations.

Consistent with thinking in other countries — Hong Kong (Ed Ko), Australia (Simon Barrie), Canada (Alan Wright), USA (Marcia Mentkowski).

Has attracted attention at European conferences.

Complex outcomes of learning

Advanced (but ≠ formal operational thinking).

Slow (10000, 5000, xxxx hours).

Fuzzy (precision only at the expense of validity).

See the modern version of Bloom’s taxonomy, handout #3.

Employability: a discourse

Responses

Co-curricular

Curricular

Actions

Being strategic

Co-curricular responses (1)

Co-curriculum

All those arrangements made outside the ‘regular’ curriculum for the educational enrichment of the undergraduate years

Careers provision

Student Union activity

Includes all other special certification of skills, out-of-class work (e.g. graduate enterprise), voluntary work, optional work experience/placement, and …

Co-curricular responses (2)

‘Add-ons’ have significant but limited power.

The predicament of careers services. The ‘co-curriculum’ and unequal access. Slow growing achievements. Fails to capitalise on what subject areas can

contribute if well taught.

Employability: a discourse

Responses

Co-curricular

Curricular

Actions

Being strategic

Curriculum responses (1)

Employability lies less in curriculum content than in curriculum processes.

An entitlement approach to learning, teaching and assessment.

A programmic approach to employability, learning, teaching and assessment.

Curriculum responses (2)

The LTSN/GC Learning and Employability series (2004).

Yorke, M. (2004) Employability in Higher Education: what it is and what it is not. York: the Learning and Teaching Support Network.

Yorke, M and Knight, P. T. (2004b) Embedding Employability into the Curriculum. York: the Learning and Teaching Support Network.

Employability: a discourse

Responses

Co-curricular

Curricular

Actions

Being strategic

Action #1

Offer an alternative to the ‘toxic waste’ view of employability.

Action #2

Refresh web sites, module handbooks, programme guides, open day materials, programme specification, etc.

Action #3

Awareness

For staff: creating a learning culture. ‘This is how we do things around here’. Rules of the assessment game. Rules of the job-getting game.

For students: knowing what you know. Self-awareness. Claims-making. CV building.

Action #4

Look at teaching: do practices support the development of complex outcomes?

Sufficient variety?

Sufficient coherence?

Action #5

Look at learning:

Problem-based?

‘in the wild’?

Encourage autonomy?

Encourage collaboration?

Cumulative?

Action #6

Look at assessment

Grading-focused?

Learning-oriented? with complex outcomes in mind?

Self- and peer-assessment? Building curricula vitae

e-assessment?

Action #7

Audit LTA practices at programme level.

Modular programmes?

Action #8

Use tools to help employability audits

www.esect.co.uk.

Action #9

Tune and tighten the programme.

Action #10

Work with student unions/associations

Course reps and curriculum

Action #11

Careers advice and guidance …

… and curriculum.

Action #12

Research and knowledge transfer: develop the evidence base

Action #13

Professional bodies

Employability: a discourse

Responses

Co-curricular

Curricular

Actions

Being strategic

Pascarella and Terenzini (2005)

College can affect students. Key elements include: Diversity Engagement Quality of the whole experience (in and out of

class).

Challenges to Course-based approaches. Default ‘instructional’ patterns. ‘Bedrock cultures’.

From tactics to strategy?

More readings

Barnett, R. and Coate, K. (2005) Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education and the Open University Press.

Knight, P. T. and Yorke, M. (2004) Learning, Curriculum and Employability. London: Routledge/Falmer.

Pascarella, E.T. and Terenzini, P.T. (2005). How college affects students (Vol 2): A third decade of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Yorke, M and Knight, P. T. (2004) Employability: judging and communicating achievement. York: the Learning and Teaching Support Network.

Contact

Peter Knight,

Institute of Educational Technology,

The Open University,

Milton Keynes,

MK7 6AA

peter.knight@open.ac.uk

http://iet.open.ac.uk/pp/peter.knight/