1. Smoothing the path from undergraduate to employee: MMU
Library’s contribution to study skills & employability online
resources
Emily Shields, Manchester Metropolitan University, e.shields@mmu.ac.uk
Employability Online (EO) and Skills online (SO) are VLE courses at MMU created to
produce engaging and interactive modules from which students can pick and mix as
needed. SO consists of a number of modules exploring study skills whilst EO looks at
how these study skills, such as writing, numeracy and information literacy can be
taken a step further and used within the workplace.
These courses are MMU-wide collaborative initiatives, bringing together a range of
departments and expertise from across the institution. The library’s involvement with
Skills Online was a collaborative partnership between InfoSkills (MMU’s IL brand)
and the Faculty Student Support Officers. This then led to the library being invited to
work on the Employability Online resources, working with partners from all over the
university such as the Careers Service, Learner Development, Research Enterprise
and Development as well as individual academics with subject specialisms.
Information Literacy and digital literacy are often seen as academic skills, mainly of
use whilst studying, but involvement in this project has provided an opportunity to
show its importance and applicability in the workplace. Perhaps as importantly, these
projects have also been an opportunity for library staff to showcase skills and
knowledge and promote these to other staff within MMU, as well as to students.
Participation in the Teachmeet will allow for a demonstration of the two products,
discussion of the rationale to the projects and the library’s involvement in more detail,
and consideration of the benefits of future potential collaborative work.