This document discusses aligning information literacy teaching with the employability agenda in business schools. It describes how the author embedded information literacy instruction in employability modules over three years of a business degree program. In year one, the focus was on searching for academic sources and evaluating information. In year two, students learned to find and evaluate company and industry information for a business project. For the final year, the author proposes teaching students about developing commercial awareness but has not yet identified a role for librarians. The document argues that linking information literacy to employability has benefits but also disadvantages that require consideration.

1. ‘Selling’ information literacy to the business
school through alignment with the employability
agenda in higher education
Laura Broadbent
Subject Librarian
University of Huddersfield
l.k.broadbent@hud.ac.uk
Bluesky/Twitter/X: @laurascupoftea
LILAC 2024

2. Plan for this workshop
Background
Activity
Reflection and
discussion
Employability and HE
My own experience
Developing commercial awareness
Information literacy and
employability

3. 2023
headlines

4. Rip-off degrees?
“[The Labour government’s HE expansion] led to thousands of
young people being ripped off by degrees that did nothing to
increase their employability or earnings potential…
So, we are stopping universities from enrolling students on
courses that do nothing for their life chances. Under us, no
more rip-off degrees.”
(UK Prime Minister Sunak, cited in Morgan, 2023)

5. Augur Review: Purposes of post-18 education (UK)
 Promote citizens’ ability to realise their full potential, economically and more broadly.
 Provision of a suitably skilled workforce.
 Support innovation through research and development (R&D), commercial ideas and
global talent.
 Contribute scholarship and debate that sustain and enrich society through knowledge,
ideas, culture and creativity.
 Contribute to growth by virtue of post-18 institutions’ direct contributions to the economy.
 Play a core civic role in the regeneration, culture, sustainability, and heritage of the
communities in which they are based.
(Department for Education, 2019)

6. Employability and the business school
 6,004 business undergraduates in Australia: Concerned with how well their degrees
prepare them for graduate employment and would like them to be more relevant
(Bennett et al., 2020).
 UK business undergraduates motivated by employability, particularly students whose
first language is not English (Buglear, 2014).
 Management and Computer Engineering academics in Portugal “more open to
embrace employability as a mission for higher education” and align curriculum to
employment market, than Arts academics (Sin et al., 2017, p. 927).

7. My own
experience

8. Employability modules
Year 1
Relevant
module
outcome &
assessment
 Demonstrate an awareness of
academic skills, behaviours, and
attitudes required to learn effectively
in your subject.
 Questions on module content and
reflection on own development.
Librarian
teaching
 Searching for academic sources,
reading, evaluating & referencing.
Year 1 Year 2
Relevant
module
outcome &
assessment
 Demonstrate an awareness of
academic skills, behaviours, and
attitudes required to learn effectively
in your subject.
 Critically evaluate a range of information
sources for understanding a business
context (in relation to a real business
project).
 Questions on module content and
reflection on own development.
 Presentation to client; Reflection on
academic, personal and professional
development.
Librarian
teaching
 Searching for academic sources,
reading, evaluating & referencing.
 Finding and evaluating company, market,
industry and financial information.

9. Relevant learning theories
Constructive alignment (Biggs & Tang, 2011)
“In constructive alignment we systematically align the teaching/learning activities, as
well as the assessment tasks, to the intended learning outcomes” (p. 11).
“The intended outcomes specify the activity that students should engage if they are to
achieve the intended outcome as well as the content the activity refers to” (p. 97).
Spiral curriculum & scaffolding (Bruner, 1960)
Revisit key concepts throughout curriculum with additional complexity or different
contexts. Gradually remove ‘scaffolds’ as learners develop.

10. First and second
year activities

11. Employability modules (2)
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Relevant
module
outcome &
assessmen
t
 Demonstrate an
awareness of
academic skills,
behaviours, and
attitudes required to
learn effectively in your
subject.
 Critically evaluate a range
of information sources for
understanding a business
context (in relation to a
real business project).
 Critically evaluate the global,
political and social context of your
post-degree aspirations.
 Make reasoned decisions…
selecting appropriate knowledge,
tools and methods.
 Questions on module
content and reflection
on own development.
 Presentation to client;
Reflection on academic,
personal and professional
development.
 Mock graduate assessment
centres; Professional report on
employability skills development.
Librarian
teaching
 Searching for
academic sources,
reading, evaluating &
referencing.
 Finding and evaluating
company, market,
industry and financial
information.
???

12. Final year: Commercial awareness
“Commercial awareness goes beyond having just an
understanding of an organisation; it is also about having an
understanding of the multiple influences that could positively or
negatively affect a sector and/or organisation”
(Timmins, 2020)

13. Commercial awareness for employment –
questions
 What services/products does the company provide? How are these
similar/different from competitors?
 What external factors are they and/or their clients affected by?
 Do any of the above provide opportunities or threats to the organisation?
 How is the company viewed by others?
(Timmins, 2020)

14. Activity:
Developing
commercial
awareness
(or why it pays to do
your research!)
Task instructions and
resources

15. Discussion points
 How useful do you think these activities could be to your context/how
might you adapt them?
 Are you currently linking your teaching to employability, or can you see
any opportunities to do so?
 What are some advantages and disadvantages of linking information
literacy to the employability agenda?
Padlet

16. Issues and adaptations
Students
Company
Time
Subjects; aspirations; abilities;
prior experiences; numbers
Size; portfolio; history; relevance
Class time; preparation time

17. “Is employability displacing higher
education?
... I think this is emerging as an
existential crisis for the sector.”
(Marginson, 2023)

18. “Information literacy is for life, not just for a
good degree” (Inskip, 2014)
Information literacy frames (ACRL, 2016)
 Authority is constructed and contextual
 Information has value
 Searching as strategic exploration
CILIP definition of IL (2016)
 “Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced
judgements about any information we find and use”.
 5 contexts, including the workplace and everyday life.

19. References
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2016). Framework for information literacy for higher education.
https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
Bennett, D., Knight, E., Jevons C., & Ananthram, S. (2020). Business students’ thinking about their studies and future
careers. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 24(3), 96-101,
https://doi.org/10.1080/13603108.2020.1757530
Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university (4th ed.). Open University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Harvard University Press.
Buglear, J. (2014). Why are we here? An investigation of academic, employability and social facets of business
undergraduates’ motivation using Thurstone scaling. Athens Journal of Education, 1(2), 101-114.
https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.1-2-1
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. (2018). CILIP definition of information literacy 2018.
https://infolit.org.uk/ILdefinitionCILIP2018.pdf

20. References (2)
Department for Education. (2019). Independent panel report: Post-18 review of education and funding. HMSO.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-18-review-of-education-and-funding-independent-panel-report
Inskip, C. (2014). Information literacy is for life, not just for a good degree: A literature review [Information Literacy
Project 26]. Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1448073/
Marginson, S. (2023). Is employability displacing higher education? International Higher Education, (116), 3-5.
https://doi.org/10.36197/IHE.2023.116.01
Morgan, J. (2023, October 4). Sunak: Labour HE target ‘one of great mistakes of last 30 years’. Times Higher Education.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sunak-labour-he-target-one-great-mistakes-last-30-years
Sin, C., Tavares, O., & Amaral, A. (2019). Accepting employability as a purpose of higher education? Academics'
perceptions and practices. Studies in Higher Education, 44(6), 920-931. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1402174
Timmins, J. (2020). What is commercial awareness, why do you need it and how to develop it? HudUniCareers – The
Employability Blog. https://blogs.hud.ac.uk/services/hudunicareers/our-
categories/employability/2020/commercialawarenesswhyyouneeditandhowtodevelopit

21. Selected bibliography – international research
Boffo, V., Gamberi, L., Odusanya, A., & Akkeila, R. (2022). The dimension of policies to foster employability in
higher education. Sisyphus, 10(2), 85-106. https://doi.org/10.25749/sis.25573
Chadha, D., & Toner, J. (2017). Focusing in on employability: Using content analysis to explore the employability
discourse in UK and USA universities. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14, 33.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0071-0
Mei, W., & Symaco, L. P. (2021). Higher education for development: The role of university towns in China. SAGE
Open, 11(3), 215824402110465. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211046586
Okolie, U. C., Nwosu, H. E., & Mlanga, S. (2019). Graduate employability: How the higher education institutions can
meet the demand of the labour market. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 9(4), 620-
636. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-09-2018-0089