The document provides guidance on designing a learning curriculum to develop employability skills. It lists various people skills, generalist skills, self-reliance skills, and subject specialist skills that employers seek. It prompts the user to identify opportunities in their design to explicitly teach these skills and assess them. It also prompts the user to consider ways to incorporate work-related learning activities and opportunities, tailor modules to student interests, develop professional attitudes, and get employer feedback on the curriculum content.

1. Learning design for employability checklist
What attitudes and knowledge are employers looking for in graduates seeking to enter the
sector?
List 6 subject specific skills that are required by employers in the sector and add to the skill
table below
Using the cards to stimulate discussion and thinking, identify opportunities in your design for
the following skills to be explicitly taught? How and when might you assess these?
People Skills Generalist Skills
Team working Problem-solving / intellectual
Leadership IT/computer literacy
Interpersonal Flexibility and adaptability
Customer orientation Numeracy
Oral / written communication Business acumen
Cultural Awareness Commitment
Self-Reliance Skills Subject Specialist Skills
Self-awareness / confidence 1.
Self-promotion 2.
Initiative, proactivity, self motivation 3.
Networking skills 4.
Willing to learn 5.
Action planning and self regulation 6.
Are there opportunities in your design for students to choose modules or work
areas within a module so they can tailor the content of their course to their
perceived needs / interests?
Where might appropriate professional attitudes developed and discussed with
students?
Have you identified where work related learning activities take place in the course?
How might these made explicit to students?
Have opportunities to increase work related learning in the course been identified
and taken?
Are all students given a basic grounding in ethics within the discipline field?
Can you identify employers who would review your curriculum and provide feedback on its
content?
Adapted from resources produced by Birmingham City University Careers Service www.bcu.ac.uk/studentservices/
careers and The Art of Building Windmills – Peter Hawkins 1999;Graduates Work - CRQ 1997 See also
www.windmillsprogramme.com for details. Generic skills list taken from the HEA Academy Employability audit
http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/resources/audit/employability.pdf