Employability & the Sociological Imagination - HEA workshop

1. Employability and the sociological imagination:
Fostering a critical awareness of employability in a
discipline where linkage to professional career
development is less clearly articulated
Kety Faina, Gordon Heggie, Jade McCarroll, Neil McPherson,
Paul McShane, John Melia, Donna Russell, Iqra Tusadiq
Higher Education Academy: Social Sciences workshop and seminar series 2013-14.

2. Employability
Partnership
Learner journey
Critical thinking
Targets
Student feedback
Student experience
Research mindedness
Engagement
Active learning
Collaboration
Creativity
Flexible curriculum
Citizenship
Interdisciplinarity
Communication
Change
Student as producer
Curriculum design
Performance
Inquiry-based
learning
Peer evaluation
Resilience
Peer-assisted learning

3. Going round in circles
Searching for an approach to employability
A framework for employability
(Cole & Tibby, 2013: 10)

4. First steps
Two key developments
• Create a series of core modules that reconfigured the relationship between
teaching and research through the introduction of active inquiry-based
learning
• Address an employability agenda where students are increasingly viewed
‘as consumers of education and academics’ identifications as producers of
consumer (that is teaching-and-learning) services’ (Boden & Epstien 2006: 227)
• Searching for a solution to what Neary (2012) calls the ‘impossible project’

5. Reconfiguring the curriculum
Engaging students in research and inquiry
‘our goal here is to move more curricula in the
direction of developing students as participants
in research and inquiry, so that they are
producers, not just consumers of knowledge’
(Healey & Jenkins 2009: 6)
(encouraging)…’the development of
collaborative relations between student and
academic for the production of knowledge’
(Neary & Winn 2010: 137)

6. Unpacking the employability agenda
Employability and higher education
‘Many of the graduates I met were unprepared, uninformed and lacking in self-
awareness. They struggled to demonstrate what it was they wanted from a job
and what they could bring to it.
Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (2006)
[Universities need to improve]… the business relevance of undergraduate
courses. Business of course have a key role in stepping up to work with
universities to improve the relevance of course content…[and]..to see moves
to greater flexibility in course design and delivery, leading to courses that fit
better with the needs of businesses…a readiness to take a much greater
share of the market for training provision.’
CBI (2013) Changing the pace: education and skills survey, pg.57

7. Embedding employability
‘Embedding employability into the core of higher education will continue to
be a key priority of Government, universities and colleges, and employers.
This will bring both significant private and public benefit, demonstrating
higher education’s broader role in contributing to economic growth as well as
its vital role in social and cultural development.’
(HEFCE, 2011, pg.5)
[But]…‘the complexity of employability and the variety that exists in curricula
in UK higher education mean that no single, ideal, prescription for the
embedding of employability can be provided.’
(Yorke & Knight 2006: 2)

8. Our initial model

9. Our initial mapping
Embedding employability in the social science curriculum
• Mapping of modules to CIHE competencies
and HEA student employability profiles
• Raising staff/students awareness of the
way in which employability competencies
are embedded in the curriculum
• Promoting graduate attributes

10. Our initial map

11. Questioning the employability agenda
‘The concept of employability…was introduced by corporations, marketed
as a response to the need to be flexible in the face of global competition…
Companies…could no longer offer job security to employees and
introduced 'employability' instead, as the new psychological contract. As
such, it forms part of 'the new spirit of capitalism’
(Chertkovskaya, 2013, non-paginated)

12. Targets, targets, targets
• By the end of AY 14/15, UWS will achieve a
graduate-level employment rate of 65% within
the annual DLHE survey
2013-14 SFC-UWS Outcome Agreement
• By the end of AY 14/15, UWS will achieve a
minimum graduate-level employment rate of
75% for our graduates within 3 years of
graduation’
2013-14 SFC-UWS Outcome Agreement
• The proportion of graduate
professional/managerial employment will match
(within 2%) or exceed average performance of post
1992 Scottish HEI in each subject area’
UWS LTAS V1.1, 5.4

13. But employability…
• ‘Employability…is about learning and the emphasis is less on ‘employ’ and
more on ‘ability’. In essence, the emphasis is on developing critical,
reflective abilities, with a view to empowering and enhancing the learner.’
(Harvey, quoted in Pegg, 2012: 4)
• ‘Is clearly not the same as graduate employment rates’
(Knight & Yorke 2004: 9)
• Nor is it… ‘something that can be quantified by any single measure.
Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey is a measure
of employment not employability’
(Cole & Tibby 2013: 6)

14. The employability agenda
Questioning the role of the University
‘[Employability] is now claiming time on syllabi at the expense of academic
subjects and inculcating market values at the expense of free and critical
thinking’
(Sarson, 2013, non-paginated)
‘the public and democratic character of the university is undermined, while
humanities and social sciences which, by their very nature, cannot attract
market interest are marginalized’
(Panayota & Grollios, 2012: 317).
Questioning the role of social science

15. How do we square the circle?
Key issues from Tibby (2012)
• Disparity between students’ perception of
employability and those of employers
• Many students are not engaged with
employability
• Employers and students value work-experience
but barriers exist in provision and access

16. Understanding what employers want
Most important factors considered when recruiting graduates
Source: CBI. Learning to Grow - Education and Skills Survey 2012

17. Understanding our students
0 20 40 60 80 100
Language
Degree classification
Work experience
Degree subject
Employability skills
Hamilton
Paisley
Which of the the following do you think are the most important factors
employers consider when recruiting graduates (%)

18. Understanding our students
0 20 40 60 80 100
Yes
No
Do you have a particular job/career path in mind after you finish
your studies? (%)
Paisley
Hamilton

19. Understanding our students
Survey of L7 social science students undertaken in week 1

20. Understanding our students
Raising awareness: an employability VLE

21. Understanding our students
Employment and the social sciences

22. Bridging the gap
Learning in partnership

23. Does it work?
What students say
The tasks have been
interesting because they gave
an actual taste of what a
research is like, on all its
levels, from organisation to
practical issues such as
funding or ethical approval
…has given a good
insight into real life
problems and
opportunities
The research/inquiry
based learning focus of
the module has been
great and grown my
confidence in relation to
independent study.
…led to me becoming
more aware as to what
employability skills I have
been developing whilst
learning in other modules
…made me reflect on my
learning journey so far, and I now
feel that it's easier to make
connections between skills
developed by doing different
types of assessments and the
skills sought out by employers

24. Our new model

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

26. Have we squared the circle?
Returning to Tibby (2012)
----
Disparity between students’ perception of employability and
those of employers
Our solution: embed in the curriculum through employability-
integrated assessment and partnership learning
----
Many students are not engaged with employability
Our solution: embed in the curriculum through employability-
integrated assessment and partnership learning
----
Employers and students value work-experience but barriers
exist in provision and access
Is WBL necessary? Can WRL be fully embedded in the curriculum?