This document outlines the agenda and participating institutions of a seminar on embracing employability in higher education institutions. The seminar featured keynote speeches from industry professionals and academics on engaging employers in curriculum delivery and the role of stakeholders in curriculum development. Breakout sessions discussed approaches to embedding employability skills at different institutions, including through volunteering, core skills training, and work placements. Employability frameworks like the CBI guidelines and SFIA were mapped to curriculum delivery and modules in science and technology programs. Collaboration between academic departments, language centers, and libraries integrated employability support into coursework and assessments.

1. Embracing
Employability in HEIs
School of Science and Technology
20 Feb 2013
HEA STEM

2. Participating Institutions
• Higher Education Academy
• Middlesex University
• Aberystwyth University
• University of Bedfordshire
• Manchester Metropolitan University
• University of Tasmania
• Teesside University
• University of Surrey
• Jewish Care

3. Seminar Agenda
09:00 Registration and Coffee
09:30 Welcome
09:40 Keynote I – Prof. Martin Loomes. Dean of School of Science and Technology (SAT)
10:20 Keynote II – Dr. Mark Ratcliffe. Discipline Lead, Computing at Higher Education Academy
11:00 Coffee Break
11:15 First Talk – Dr. Andy Bardill. Product Design “Engaging employers in curriculum delivery”
11:45 Second Talk - Dr. Neville Hall. Biomedical Sciences “Do stakeholders have a role to play in
curriculum development and delivery?”
12:15 Lunch
13:30 Third Talk- Dr. Serengul Smith, Dr. Paula Bernaschina, Adam Edwards and Vanessa Hill.
“Superhighways into the Curriculum and Employability: A Three-Way Collaboration”
14:15 Breakout discussion on approaches and ideas at different institutions
15:15 Feedback and ideas to take awa
16:00 Close – Coffee and Tea

4. Serengul Smith
– Principal Lecturer
– Programme Leader
Paula C. Bernaschina
– Academic Writing and Language
– Learner Development Unit
Adam Edwards
– Liaison Manager
– Library and Student Support
Vanessa Hill
– Liaison Librarian
– Library and Student Support
“Superhighways into the Curriculum and Employability: A
Three-Way Collaboration”

5. Employers view…
The CBI Higher Education Task Force indicates that employers
are least satisfied with new graduates’
– self-management,
– communication skills and
– business awareness (CBI, 2009)
According to the CBI, ‘62% of entrants to the IT sector require
managerial and professional business skills almost
immediately’.
CBI higher education taskforce report – Stronger together: Business and universitiesin turbulent times,
2009, http://highereducation.cbi.org.uk/uploaded/CBI_HE_taskforcereport.pdf
CBI - Confederation of British Industry

6. Our Challenge
There is a clear indication that science and engineering students, in
general, lack employability skills (King 2002) and they have the
misconception that these skills are not necessary in industry.
Students often arrive at university
– with a limited perception of a career they wish to pursue
– lacking a clear view of the IT sector’s needs
How can we make sure that our programmes include specific skill
sets required by industry and cope with the changing needs of the
job market?

7. To tackle this problem
In the School of Science and Technology (SAT), we have formed an
intra-university team and our collaborative work has aimed at:
• Integrating the specialist input, appropriate for the science and
engineering students’ needs, offered by central units directly into
the curriculum;
• Ensuring that staff are aware of the relevance of the sessions to
their modules and, by tying sessions into module related case
studies and projects bring together the expertise and experience
of subject specialist staff and skills and support specialists.

8. There is no one approach for embedding employability across a curriculum. There
are various methods, which may be adopted (York and Knight 2006):
• Employability through a whole curriculum
• Employability through a core curriculum
• Employability related modules within a curriculum
• Work-based or work related learning within a curriculum
• Work-based or work related learning incorporated as one or more components
in a curriculum
Our approach to embedding employability within the existing programmes in the
School of SAT has utilised two of the above methods.

9. The CBI Employability
Competencies
The CBI defines employability
as “A set of attributes, skills
and knowledge that all labour
market participants should
possess to ensure they have
the capability of being
effective in the workplace – to
the benefit of themselves,
their employer and the wider
economy”
18/03/2022
Slide 9

10. Step 1
18/03/2022
• CBI* employability guidelines were mapped onto LDU and LR
academic and professional development activities
CBI* employability guidelines
Mapping carried out by LR
Mapping carried out by LDU

11. Step 2
18/03/2022
Slide 11
EIS
Programmes
Split
into
clusters
Modules
selected
7 Programme Clusters
formed
8 Modules
identified
Then, employability related modules were identified within the
whole curriculum by clustering the existing SAT programmes based
on the shared 1st year modules

12. Step 3
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Slide 12
In the final stage, the selected modules’ leaders identified relevant
and appropriate lab, seminar activities and
assessed work for embedding to be implemented.
Subsequently, the module leaders scheduled these sessions within
the normal module timetable. This means that all students take
these sessions as part of their study, and these are also tied into
their module content, assessment and practical work.

13. Academic Writing and Language
18/03/2022
Slide 13
AWL work is informed by an eclectic range of theoretical and practical positions
Academic literacies
(e.g. Lea & Street, 1998; Lillis, 2003)
Discourse Analysis
(e.g. Fairclough, 1992)
Linguistic ethnography
(e.g. Rampton, et al. 2004)
Writing development
(e.g. Elbow, 1998; Deane & O’Neill, 2011)
Argument studies
(e.g. Mitchell & Andrews, 2000)
English for Academic Purposes
(e.g. Jordan, 1997; Alexander, et al. 2008)
Situated learning
(Lave and Wenger, 1991)
Corpus Linguistics
(e.g. Sinclair, 1991; Biber, et al 1998)
Genre Analysis
(e.g. Swales, 2004)
Functional systemic linguistics
(Halliday, 1995)

14. Academic Writing and Language
Mission
...to empower students to make the effective
language choices they need for the creation
of knowledge and the achievement of
discipline-specific tasks at university.
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Slide 14

15. • Focus has grown from academic literacy to
also include 'workplace literacy'
• Not separate entities but rather a
development from one to the other
• The link between academic work and future
professional work
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Slide 15

16. Delivery
We have found that embedded support is a
more efficient and effective way to assist
students as those who usually need help tend
to be the ones who are least likely to seek
assistance.
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Slide 16

17. Creating awareness
• At this stage in our initiative emphasis has
been placed on:
– Free writing (Elbow, 1998)
– Reflective writing (Moon, 2000)
– Teamwork (Tuckman ; Belbin )
18/03/2022
Slide 17

18. Free writing
Agonising over the structure of the sentence
and their choice of words instead of allowing
their ideas to flow and getting caught up in
the creative process hinders the writing
process (Elbow, 1998).
18/03/2022
Slide 18

19. Free writing
• Students were introduced to this strategy and
given the opportunity to practice it.
• In a survey presented at the end of one of the
modules, 48% responded to the statement 'I
did free-writing to warm up before writing the
coursework’.
18/03/2022
Slide 19

20. Reflective writing
Reflective thinking and writing have been
associated with the 'deep learning' (Biggs,
cited King, 2002) in various learning
taxonomies (Moon, 2000) and have been
seen as important in UK universities over the
last decade.
18/03/2022
Slide 20

21. Reflective writing
• Helps students to develop and refine the
connections between their prior knowledge
and newly gained knowledge
• Assists them to make critical connections
between theory and practice.
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Slide 21

22. Reflective writing
• The concept of metacognition is discussed
and students are introduced to Kolb's
experiential learning theory (Kolb and Kolb,
2005).
• Much of the coursework contains the need for
reflection.
• Students sometimes confuse being reflective
with being descriptive.
18/03/2022
Slide 22

23. Teamwork
“A team is not a bunch of people...but a
congregation of individuals, each of whom
has a role which is understood by other
members. Members of a team seek out
certain roles and they perform most
effectively in the ones that are most natural to
them.”
Dr. R. M. Belbin
18/03/2022
Slide 23

24. Teamwork
Students take part in a team building exercise
•Tuckman's model of team development
•Belbin’s team role theory
•Communication issues
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Slide 24

25. Impact on provision
2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012
Embedded Sessions 25 hours 143.5 hours 133 hours
Voluntary workshops 40 hours 48 hours 114 hours
Tutorials 78.5 hours 129 hours 233 hours
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Slide 25

26. Adam Edwards and Vanessa Hill
Library perspective

27. •Issues
•Ideas
•Solutions
•Plans
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajourneyroundmyskull/4788590225/

28. Issues
• Not embedded
• Inconsistent provision
• Repetitive
• Bad timing
• Lack of information skills
• Teaching methods…….

29. Librarians as teachers
Teaching skills
• Too generic
• Tools based
• Didactic
• Uninspiring
• Too much
• Unfamiliar subject

30. Student research
• Answers
• Facts
• References
• Reporting back
• Easy option
• Fear
Librarians reinforce this!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nottsexminer/6270679714/

31. Get the ball rolling
Move from
“ …lifting and transporting textual substance from
one location, the library, to another, their
teacher’s briefcases.”
To
“…searching, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing,
selecting, rejecting…”
Kleine 1987

32. Inspiration
• Less is more
• Cloning
• Discussion
• Learning by doing
• Learners, not the taught
• Games http://advedupsyfall09.wikispaces.com/Sara+Woodard
Deep Learning

33. Collaboration and coordination
• School plan
• Structure
• Menu
• Mapping

34. Self-
management
Problem solving
Communication
and literacy
Business and
customer
awareness
Team working
Application of
numeracy
Application of IT
CBI Employability Guidelines

35. Initial mapping of Library workshops
Problem solving
Application of IT
Communication
and literacy
•What is Learning Resources?
•Thinking about resources
•Understanding reading lists
•Evaluation
•Searching resources
•Plagiarism
•Search strategy

36. Where we are now
Problem solving
Application of IT
Communication and
literacy
Team working
Self-management
Application of
numeracy
•Thinking about resources
•Evaluation
•Searching resources
•Search strategy
•Group work
•Managing search and results
•Understanding Dewey

37. Measurable impact?
• CCM2426 students survey
• 70 attendees, 39 non-attendees
• Most common mark 60%
• Most common mark bibliography 5/10
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uiowa/8037646993/sizes/c/in/photostream/

38. Measurable impact
Marks Attendees Non-attendees
Mark 55% or less 36% 56%
Mark 60% or more 64% 44%
Bibliography 5 or less 41% 54%
Bibliography 6 or more 59% 46%

39. What they used and why
Search tools used Attendees Non-attendees
Google 70% 85%
Wikipedia 19% 36%
Summon 60% 67%
Library catalogue 46% 30%
Evaluation criteria Attendees Non-attendees
Current 76% 75%
Relevant 74% 75%
Academic authority 64% 56%

40. What next?
•Roll-out framework
•Develop activities
•Improve attendance
•Revalidation

41. The New IT Programme Development
Moving on from embedding the CBI Employability Skills Set into
our existing programmes, The Skills Framework for the
Information Age (SFIA) has been explored and subsequently
embedded into the new IT Programme.
SFIAPlus is managed by a consortium comprising BCS, IET, IMIS, itSMF and e-skills
UK. www.SFIA.org.uk.

42. Why SFIA?
• SFIA is a model for describing and promoting high-level IT skills
standards.
• The SFIA Skills are consistent with the long-term professional
needs of IT graduates.
• SFIA is also a bridging tool, between HE and the industry, which
aims to enable students to have a better understanding of the
employers’ needs.
SFIA is managed by a consortium comprising BCS, IET, IMIS, itSMF and e-skills UK.
www.SFIA.org.uk.

43. In the initial stage of the IT programme development process,
three categories of the QAA’s National Subject Benchmarks
(QAA, 2007, p.12) on Computing have been utilised to form the
basis of the IT programme outcomes.
These are :
• subject-related cognitive abilities,
• subject-related practical abilities and
• additional transferable skills
18/03/2022
Slide 43

44. Foundation of the proposed IT programme

45. SFIA Based Role Descriptions
Kevin Streater
Executive Director, Employer EngagementIT & Telecoms The Open University

46. Why SFIA?
Therefore, the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA,
2011) has been adopted in the context of Information Technology
to represent a range of industry defined IT and employability skills
within the proposed programme.
SFIA is managed by a consortium comprising BCS, IET, IMIS, itSMF and e-skills UK.
www.SFIA.org.uk.

47. BCS and SFIAplus
British Computer Society (BCS) supports degree programmes
that are influenced by research, industry and market
requirements and actively promotes the professional skills
described by SFIA through their accreditation.
SFIAplus is a three dimensional matrix covering the whole of
IT, divided into 6 categories,19 sub-categories and 96 skills.
18/03/2022
Slide 47

48. Mapping onto SFIA
• The learning outcomes of the new IT degree programme have
been mapped onto SFIA as shown below.

51. Mapping onto individual Modules

52. ww.flickr.com/photos/naturalturn/3264726560/

53. Breakout discussion on approaches and
ideas at different institutions
Group 1
• How students can maximise
their potential through
volunteering?
• led by Sonia, Judy and Ed
Group 2
• Core skills (writing,
communication and
information)
• led by Adam, Vanessa and
Paula
Group 3
• Work Placements and Employer
Engagement
• led by Bryan and Carl