This document discusses the need for universities to shift towards a model of learning in partnership between students and academics to better prepare graduates for the 21st century. It highlights how skills are becoming obsolete more quickly with technological advances, and employers seek adaptable "change makers". The document advocates for integrating teaching and research, collaborative knowledge-building communities, and discovery-guided learning over mere transmission of information. It presents a model located learning in partnership at the center of sustainable change for universities.

1. Personal development planning, employability
and learning in partnership
Presentation to UWS PDP User Group, 2015
Dr Gordon Heggie
Dr Neil McPherson
School of Media, Culture & Society
University of the West of Scotland

2. The G21C attributes and qualities
Graduates for the 21st Century, QAA Scotland Enhancement Theme
http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/docs/publications/graduates-for-the-
21st-century-integrating-the-enhancementthemes-leaflet.pdf

3. It is a 21st century reality…
‘…that such skills are in ever greater demand, while those of
specific subjects are likely to erode at an increasing rate as
technology advances. Careers themselves have become more
volatile and employers are seeking 'change makers' as much as
those who can adapt to change.’
(Lines, 2011: 7-8)

4. So we…
‘…cannot sit in our ivory towers, observing and imagining that
we will be unaffected by the changes taking place around us. If
you keep doing the things you’ve always done, you keep getting
what you’ve always got – and in the future that might not be
enough.’
Professor Craig Mahoney, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of
the West of Scotland. Launch of the UWS Corporate Strategy, Houses
of Parliament, 28 January 2015.
http://www.uws.ac.uk/news---categories/corporate/uws-houses-of-
parliament-event/

5. What we need is a radical rethink…
‘…not just to improve employability, vital though that is, but
also to enable students to evaluate information critically and
convert it into knowledge and action; to solve problems by
collaborating with people from very different backgrounds and
cultures, and to combine entrepreneurial creativity and
technological know-how with humanistic values and vision.’
(Lines, 2011: 8)

6. What we need is a vision of higher education…
‘…where academics work collaboratively in partnership with
students as members of inclusive scholarly knowledge-
building communities; where teaching and research are
integrated, and where both students and academics are
engaged in the challenging process of coming to understand
the world through systematic investigation and collaborative
decision-making.’
(Brew, 2006)
What we need is renewed emphasis…
‘… on a point strongly made by John Dewey almost a century
ago: learning is based on discovery guided by mentoring
rather than on the transmission of information.’
(Boyer Commission, 1998: 15)

7. Heggie & McPherson, 2014
What we have done:
Learning in partnership a model for sustainable change

8. Locating learning in partnership at the centre:
a model for the 21st century university

9. Making employability ‘real’
Our employability-integrated assessment map