Graduate Employability: The what, the why and the how?

1
Graduate Employability The what, the why and the
how?

• Graduate employability and the legacy of FDTL
  projects
• Sarah Graves
• Angela Maher

2
The FDTL Initiative

• The Fund for the Development of Teaching and
  Learning was established in 1995 to support
  projects aimed at stimulating developments in
  teaching and learning in higher education and to
  encourage the dissemination of good teaching and
  learning practice across the higher education
  sector. (www.heacademcy.ac.uk)
• 164 projects have been supported across five
  phases of funding. The most recent phase, phase
  five, commenced in late 2004/early 2005 and
  funded a total of 32 projects across seven
  subject areas including Politics, BMAF,
  Archaeology, Education, Librarianship and
  Information Management and HLST.
• FDTL was funded by the Higher Education Funding
  Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department
  for Employment and Learning (DEL).
• Details of projects and associated resources can
  be accessed at http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork
  /networks/fdtl

3
Project Background

• Three year funded project under the fifth phase
  of the Fund for the Development of Teaching and
  Learning (FDTL)
• Network of 10 partner institutions representing
  subject disciplines of Hospitality, Leisure,
  Sport and Tourism (HLST)
• Awarded 12 months of transferability funding to
  enable broader dissemination across the academic
  community

4
Project aim and rationale

• The aim of the project was to develop, implement
  and evaluate a range of curriculum interventions
  to enhance the employability of Hospitality,
  Leisure, Sport and Tourism students (HLST)
• Importance of addressing employability has
  increased due to
• Government priorities for HE
• Labour market changes
• Changes in graduate career paths
• Changing expectations of students/parents
• Widening participation and student diversity

5
What does embedding employability involve?

• Exploring the concept of employability
• Identifying employability attributes
• Curriculum auditing
• Teaching, learning and assessment activities
• Assessing impact on students/staff

6
Teaching, Learning and Assessment Activities

• Employability through the whole curriculum
• Employability in the core curriculum
• Work-based or work-related learning interspersed
  within the curriculum
• Employability related modules within the
  curriculum
• PROJECT APPROACH 10 Action research case studies

7
Assessing impact on students/staff

• Some proxy measures of impact
• Change in TLA practices
• Number of graduates in employment
• Performance on course/module against learning
  outcomes
• Testing for key skills
• Assessing outcomes/impact of work experience
• Ability to plan career and job seeking skills
• PDP and portfolios
• Underpinned by views of COMPETENCE
• PROJECT APPROACH each case study chose which
  method suits them best often multiple methods.
  Development of a questionnaire to assess
  understanding of employability)

8
Employability resources and events

• International Dimensions of Employability
  Workshop, October 16th 2009, Oxford Brookes
  University
• Two complimentary publications
• Delivering Graduate Employability Case studies
  in Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism
• Edited by Sarah Graves and Angela Maher
• Graduate Employability Can higher education
  deliver?
• Angela Maher and Sarah Graves
• Project website at www.enhancingemployability.org.
  uk