Presentation at HEA Social Sciences learning and teaching summit 'Engaging legal education'. As part of the Higher Education Academy’s commitment to support strategic development within disciplines, this summit event provided the opportunity to bring together an expert audience to discuss and plan actions on a key area of our work. This presentation forms part of a blog post which can be accessed via: http://bit.ly/1iv2kYu For further details of HEA Social Sciences work relating to 'Supporting the future of legal education' please see http://bit.ly/1ezsxUf

1. Embedding Personal Development
Plans: A Pilot Study
Dr Richard W Whitecross
School of Accounting, Financial Services
and Law
Business School

2. Overview
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Background to the pilot
PDP
The Pliot – an overview
Review of skills and values embedded in LLB Programme
Identifying Personal Development Needs
Implementing Personal Development Tutors
Creating Development Opportunities
Evaluation and Report of the Pilot
Next phase and future work.

3. University leavers lack the essential skills
for work, employers warn
Large numbers of students
are leaving university
lacking the basic skills
needed to get by in the
workplace, according to new
research.
A poll of company leaders
found that just under one in
five businesses believe
graduates are “work ready.”
The conclusions will add to
concerns that…universities
are too focussed on
ensuring that young people
pass exams at the expense
of equipping them with life
skills.
The Telegraph, Graeme
Paton, 12 September 2013.

4. Background to the Pilot Study
• Current project on the changing landscape of legal practice
in Scotland and implications for legal education.
• Summer Research Assistant.
• “What I wish somebody had told me in first year, but they
did not…or maybe I just did not hear them”.
• LETR June 2013 - 3 areas identified
• HEA Law Strategic Project – September 2013.
• Legal Profession, Dispute Resolution and Ethics course
• Ashursts' presentation.
• Focus of the pilot is to share and learn from other law
schools and colleagues.

5. Personal Development Plans
A structured and supported process undertaken by an
individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance
and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational
and career development.
(Quality Assurance Agency, 2001, Guidelines for Higher Education
Progress Files, Gloucester, QAA)

6. Personal Development Plans (contd)
Research shows that students who engage in effective
personal development planning activities:
• understand how they learn and how this affects themselves
and their personal, academic and career activities and
choices both now and in the future
• improve their general skills for study, personal and career
management, including self-evaluation
• gain increased confidence and self-direction by developing
an ability to articulate their goals, their learning and their own
strengths and weaknesses.
(Adapted from PDP (2006) The Higher Education Academy)

7. Competencies
What?
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Commercial awareness
Numeracy skills
Communication skills
Leadership skills
Problem solving skills
Self-management skills
Team working skills
Specific skills – Legal analysis and reasoning, Research
skills, and Computer skills.

8. The Challenge
“Work” seems a long way off for Year 1 students – 5 years.
Yet many already “work” to fund their studies and do not
recognize that experience as valuable for their PDP.
• How do we engage 18 years old in thinking about their
development?
• How do we explain and illustrate a competency in a manner
that is meaningful to them?
• How do we enable our students to make the first move
towards taking responsibility for their personal development –
it can be daunting.

9. The Pilot
Aim
To develop a model for the development of student PDPs incrementally
from Year 1 – Year 4.
4 main strands of activity:
• Review of Skills and Values Embedded in the LLB Programme
• Identifying Personal Development Needs
• Implementing Personal Development Tutors
• Creating Development Opportunities
Evaluation and Pilot Report

10. Research Advisory Group
A short term, mainly virtual RAG has been established:
• Karen Aitchison (Head of Academic Practice, Office of the
Vice Principal) ENU
• Dr Gerri Mattews-Smith (Community Health) ENU
• Lesley-Anne Barnes Macfarlane, (Law) ENU
• Isla McCrone (Employability) ENU
• Professor Gavin Little (Law) Stiring University
• David Meighan, Law Society of Scotland.

11. Review of skills and values embedded in the LLB
Programme
• At present transferable skills are implicitly embedded in the
core law courses. Each core course will be reviewed.
• The review will identify the general and specific skills in each
course.
• Course leaders will be asked to demonstrate how the skills
are developed and how, if necessary, the skills can be made
more explicit to ensure that students recognise and engage
meaningfully in their development, for example, through an
appropriate assessment that demonstrates a key skill.
• The review will identify and make explicit how skills are
incrementally developed from Year 1 to Year 4.

12. Review of Skills and Values Embedded in the LLB
Programme
How:
• Work with colleagues from Law and from the Employability
team.
• Desk exercise – followed up with discussions with module
leaders/module owners.
• Need to be sensitive to concerns of colleagues and how this
is handled.

13. Identifying Personal Development Needs
A central aspect of the project will focus on working with law
students to identify their PDP needs.
• The project will focus on Year 1 and Year 3.
• Based on lessons learned it will be implemented across
Years 1 – 4.

14. Implementing Personal Development Tutors
The project will pilot the allocation of Personal Development
Tutors (PDT).
The pilot will focus on Year 1.

15. Creating Development Opportunities
Focuses on identifying opportunities for law students to
develop a range of skills, notably working with others,
communication skills and professional standards and values
(e.g. confidentiality).
This will include:
• Piloting a Law Student mentoring programme.
• Working with a local Citizen Advice;
• Networking opportunities with alumni and legal professionals.

16. Evaluation and Reporting
In April / May 2014, the project will be evaluated.
• The evaluation of the project will include a review of the
project materials.
• Advisory panel to comment on preliminary report.
• Presentation of findings and best practice on PDP to an
invited audience of law teachers and professionals (summer
2014).
• A preliminary report of the project to be presented at the
HEA Conference in May 2014.
• Final Report (June 2014).

17. Next phase and future work
• Learning and Applying the Lessons
• Piloting and embedding Confident Futures across Years 1 – 4.
• Introducing opportunities for Assessment centres and other forms of
recruitment.
• Developing a flexible Professional Practice Module
• Planning an evaluation of new approach to PDP.
• Consideration to be given to alternative approaches to engaging
students in their Personal Development.
• Invitation to other law schools to a workshop to discuss best
practice, common challenges and possible approaches to ensure that
law students are provided with and take up the opportunities created for
them.

18. Feedback from students
“Hearing Mark made me sit up.” (Reflective diary, year 3)
“I worked harder this year…it paid off but my time
management is still poor”. (Reflective diary, Year 3)
“I don‟t know what I want to do, but listening to Mark and to
Mike I know I need to work on my c.v.” (Reflective diary, Year
3)
“Tell Mark „thank you‟”. (comment from Year 3 student).

19. …now for your suggestions or thoughts
My contact details are:
R.Whitecross@napier.ac.uk