The document discusses the importance of employability in higher education. It provides definitions of employability from various sources and perspectives. It also outlines the steps Birmingham City University (BCU) is taking to embed employability in the student experience, including making employability skills explicit in degree programs, providing work-related experiences for all students, and supporting staff development through programs like the Master of Education.

1. Should employability be at
the heart of the student
experience?
Ruth Lawton
University Learning & Teaching Fellow
for Employability
Birmingham City University

2. It’s important to students

3. Graduate (un)employment

4. Headline news

5. Employability may be headline news – but what is it?
A colleague overheard two late-teens discussing a poster advertising
Northampton Uni - the headline for which was 'Number 1 for
employability’
• girl 1 - what is employability?
• girl 2 - is that getting a job when you
finish?
• girl 1 – isn’t that employment?
• girl 2 - so what's employability?
• girl 1 - there's no such word!

6. My plan
• The push for ‘employability’
• The issue of language and
understandings
• BCU’s
targets, aspirations, intentions, explici
tness
• Life-wide, extra curricular, co-
curricular…it’s the crowd that matters
• CPD for us all

7. Why go to university
Apply to Uni says:
Top 10 reasons for choosing to
go to uni
1. To get ahead in the job
market
2. To follow a vocation
3. To have a career, not just a
job
4. To have more money –
eventually
5. To train your mind
6. To develop new skills
7. To be more independent but
with support
8. To gain in confidence
9. To follow up on what
interests you
10. To have a blast
http://www.applytouni.com/articles/why-go-to-
university.aspx
The Student Room says:
• There's still a lot less people do degrees than don't
• Almost all courses increase your earning power
• It's an alternative to living with your parents for
another 3 or more years.
• you're in a position of strength, a position from
where you can diversify into a number of different
careers.
• It's an expierience. Some people like furthering their
education you know
• Because you want to, no other reason. Don't go if
you don't want to
• To get out of my hometown. To challenge myself. To
escape stagnation… To become educated, in ways
other than academic. To meet new and interesting
people. To party a lot. To hopefully get a decent job
at the end, even if I don't have a clue what I want to
do exactly...
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=717824

8. Why is employability so important?
• Increasing emphasis by the government to
enhance employability in the University
curriculum.
• Increasing emphasis by the government to
make pre-University students aware of their
actual career prospects (e.g KIS data).
• Increasing emphasis on employability by
professional regulatory bodies and
education organisations (HEA, QAA).
• Increasing role of employability in University
league tables.

9. Students at the heart of the system
• emphasises employability in
degrees.
• universities and employers
should be involved in
course design.
• emphasis on work
placements/ sandwich
years across degrees.
• students should be made
aware of their job and
salary prospects before
they commence a course

10. League Tables

11. League table by fee / loan repayment / earnings?
• http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/graduate-
earnings-by-institution-dangerous-data/2004377.article
“The project has now gathered data
from HM Revenue & Customs’ PAYE
database and linked them to
individuals’ Student Loans Company
information, giving an initial sample
of 170,000 graduates.
For the first time, the project will
measure graduate earnings in the
long term and plot them against the
institution attended and subject
studied. It aims to estimate for each
institution the proportion of loans
never repaid by graduates - the
resource accounting and budgeting
(RAB) charge”

12. Employers have views too

13. • That was pretty much all about
employment… so what is employability?

14. Employability is…
• Global and individual
• Fashionable and traditional (1926!)
• Meaningful and meaningless
• All about language, culture and
understanding Hallett (2012)

15. My favourite definition of employability
‘To be employed is to be at
risk, to be employable is to be
secure’ Peter Hawkins 1999
NB In his latest book (2012) Pete talks about
Working, Learning, Playing and Giving

16. Your turn
Activity - What is your definition of
employability?
Turn to person next to you - two minutes each
Would your students (and other stakeholders)
agree?

17. My second favourite(s)…
‘Employability is having a set of
skills, knowledge, understanding and personal attributes
that make a person more likely to choose, secure and
retain occupations in which they can be satisfied and
successful.’ (Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007 - 2012 revision in italics from
discussion)
Or what about career adaptability
‘the capability of an individual to make a series of successful
transitions where the labour market, organisation of work and
underlying occupational and organisational knowledge bases may
all be subject to considerable change’ (Bimrose et al, 2011)

18. BCU: Partners for Success
• PfS
– Began 4 years ago with RoLEx (Redesign of
Learning Experience)
– Drivers both extrinsic (NSS, THE, DLHE etc)
and intrinsic (core values)

19. PfS - Four themes
• Target setting and monitoring
– Deans to programme teams
• Admissions and transition
– Communication especially
• Student Engagement and Support
– Personal tutor for all students
– Student engagement with curriculum design
– Flagging ‘at risk’ students
• Employability and Employment
– Included in programme approval process
– All students to have opportunity for work-related experience
– Employability skills to be explicit
– OpportuUNIty scheme
– Employability & Entrepreneurship support – during and after university

20. Employability and Employment
– All students to have opportunity for work-
related experience – in each year of study eg
placement; live project; employer-based
dissertation; SAP; internship -
– Employability skills to be explicit
– OpportuUNIty scheme – part-time and
temporary employment at BCU
– Careers and employment advice embedded
throughout student journey- incl graduates
– Employability & Entrepreneurship support –
during and after university

21. ‘Employability skills to be explicit’
• ‘Skills’ Part of programme approval, design and
review
• To include Person Specifications and confidence /
competency monitoring for OpportUNIty
• Currently BCU Employability Skills
– 22 skills: actually
behaviours, qualities, attributes as well as
skills – very much mine
• In future – need revision - SHL Great 8?
(Bartram 2012)

22. SHL Great 8
• Leading and Deciding: Takes control and exercises leadership. Initiates action, gives direction and
takes responsibility.
• Supporting and Co-operating: Supports others and shows respect and positive regard for them in
social situations. Puts people first, working effectively with individuals and teams, clients and staff. Behaves
consistently with clear personal values that complement those of the organisation.
• Interacting and Presenting: Communicates and networks effectively. Successfully persuades and
influences others. Relates to others in a confident and relaxed manner.
• Analysing and Interpreting: Shows evidence of clear analytical thinking. Gets to the heart of complex
problems and issues. Applies own expertise effectively. Quickly learns new technology. Communicates well in
writing.
• Creating and Conceptualising: Open to new ideas and experiences. Seeks out learning
opportunities. Handles situations and problems with innovation and creativity. Thinks broadly and strategically.
Supports and drives organisational change.
• Organising and Executing: Plans ahead and works in a systematic and organised way. Follows
directions and procedures. Focuses on customer satisfaction and delivers a quality service or product to the
agreed standards.
• Adapting and Coping: Adapts and responds well to change. Manages pressure effectively and copes
with setbacks.
• Enterprising and Performing: Focuses on results and achieving personal work objectives. Works
best when work is related closely to results and the impact of personal efforts is obvious. Shows an
understanding of business, commerce and finance. Seeks opportunities for self-development and career
advancement

23. The crowd
• HEAR & proliferation of extra curricular awards
- Intention – student standing out from the
crowd
• BCU partnership approach
- Intention – raise the crowd
eg ‘Not an oxymoron: embedding extra curricular
activities in the curriculum’
• ‘Learning from extra-curricula activity’
module: any programme.

24. Why are ‘skills’ so important
• We need to have a record of our
experiences – for CV’s / applications
• To have the record we need to recognise our
experiences (media experience story)
• We need to review this and keep it up to date
• We need to be able to articulate our
experiences and skills
• We need to be able to present them
appropriately

25. Your record
• How many of you have a CV?
– When did you last update it?
• How many of you are on LinkedIn (or
equiv) professional networking sites?
– When did you last update it?

26. You and the SHL Great 8
Look at the list and definitions
• What have you got?
• How do you feel about your ratings?
• Do the ratings matter for you and your
employability?
• If they do matter, what can you do about
it?

27. Supporting staff
• ‘Encourage and facilitate process for BCU
professional and academic staff to offer
support to students…’ (PfS)
– M.Ed in Learning & Teaching in Higher
Education
– Support for HEA Professional Standards
Framework

28. M.Ed Suite & Employability
Semester 1 Semester 2 Cross year
PG Cert Mod 1: Exploring Philosophies of
Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
PG Cert Mod 2: Applying Learning and
Teaching Theory to Discipline/Practitioner
Contexts
Negotiated Study in
Academic Practice 30 Credits
Enhancing Practice in Higher Education
Through Research and Evaluation
Enhancing Assessment Design and Feedback Negotiated Study in
Academic Practice 60 Credits
Becoming an Innovator in Higher Education The Effective Use of Social Networking /
Media in Higher Education (pending
approval)
Embedding Employability
in Your Practice (on-line /
distance learning only)
(pending approval)
Tutoring, Mentoring, Advice and Supervision Engaging Students in Reflection Through
Curriculum Design and Delivery (pending
approval)
Enhancing the Student Experience through
Curriculum Design and Development
Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching
Embedding Employability in Your Practice
Educational Leadership for Change

29. Impact
• My changing philosophy and
practice: from having a small
impact on a lot of staff to having a
bigger impact on a few
staff

30. Your turn
Activity - What is your measure of success
for your employability?
> Turn to person next to you - two minutes
each
How are you going to translate that into your
practice?

31. ‘Employability’Communities
• There are a number of – formal and informal – communities to save
you reinventing the wheel
– AGCAS
– SEDA
– HEA – thematic and subject
– Employability Developers network + jisc + LinkedIn
• To join the ‘employability-development’ list go to
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/EMPLOYABILITY-DEVELOPMENT
and click on the option ‘join or leave employability-
development’

32. References – where not on slide
• Bartram D (2012) SHL Universal Competency Framework:
http://www.shl.com/assets/resources/White-Paper-SHL-Universal-
Competency-Framework.pdf
• Bimrose J et al (2011) The Role of Career Adaptability in Skills Supply:
UKCES http://www.ukces.org.uk/publications/er35-role-of-career-
adaptability
• Dacre Pool, L & Sewell, P (2007). The key to employability: developing a
practical model of graduate employability. Education + Training, 49 (4), 277
– 289.
• Hallett R (2012) The Rhetoric of Employability: Bridging the University-
Employer divide
• Hawkins P (1999) Art of Building Windmills: Liverpool: Graduates Into
Employment Unit
• Hawkins (2012) No Regrets on Sunday: Liverpool: Windmills Limited