employability and the sociological imagination - kety faina, gordon heggie, jade mccarroll, neil...
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Presentation at the HEA-funded workshop 'Employability and the sociological imagination' The workshop examined the potential of using the ‘sociological imagination’ to raise awareness of employability by engaging students in a reflective sociological critique of the concept. It considered how a pedagogic approach can be used to support personal development and career planning in a less-obviously vocational discipline. This presentation is part of a related blog post that provides an overview of the event: http://bit.ly/1impOjY For further details of the HEA's work on employability and global citizenship in the Social Sciences, please see: http://bit.ly/17n8KnjTRANSCRIPT
Employability and the sociological imagina3on: Fostering a cri3cal awareness of employability in a discipline where linkage to professional career development is less clearly ar3culated
Kety Faina, Gordon Heggie, Jade McCarroll, Neil McPherson, Paul McShane, John Melia, Donna Russell, Iqra Tusadiq
Higher Educa3on Academy: Social Sciences workshop and seminar series 2013-‐14.
Employability
Partnership Learner journey
Cri3cal thinking
Targets
Student feedback
Student experience
Research mindedness
Engagement Ac3ve learning
Collabora3on
Crea3vity Flexible curriculum
Ci3zenship
Interdisciplinarity
Communica3on Change
Student as producer
Curriculum design
Performance
Inquiry-‐based learning
Peer evalua3on
Resilience
Peer-‐assisted learning
Going round in circles Searching for an approach to employability
A framework for employability (Cole & Tibby, 2013: 10)
Stage 1. Discussion & reflec1on
‘Crea3ng and defining a shared point of reference’
Stage 2.
Review/Mapping
What are we doing/not doing?
Stage 4. Evaluate
What does success look like & how is it measured?
How can we enhance prac3ce further?
Goal: A defined, cohesive and more Comprehensive approach to employability
Stage 3. Ac1on
How do we share & enhance exis3ng
prac3ce? How do we address ‘gaps’ in provision?
First steps Two key developments
• Create a series of core modules that reconfigured the rela3onship between teaching and research through the introduc3on of ac3ve inquiry-‐based learning
• Address an employability agenda where students are increasingly viewed
‘as consumers of educa3on and academics’ iden3fica3ons as producers of consumer (that is teaching-‐and-‐learning) services’ (Boden & Eps3en 2006: 227)
• Searching for a solu3on to what Neary (2012) calls the ‘impossible project’
Reconfiguring the curriculum Engaging students in research and inquiry
‘our goal here is to move more curricula in the direc3on of developing students as par3cipants in research and inquiry, so that they are producers, not just consumers of knowledge’
(Healey & Jenkins 2009: 6)
(encouraging)…’the development of collabora3ve rela3ons between student and academic for the produc3on of knowledge’
(Neary & Winn 2010: 137)
Unpacking the employability agenda Employability and higher educa3on
‘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 Execu3ve of the Associa3on of Graduate Recruiters (2006)
[Universi3es need to improve]… the business relevance of undergraduate courses. Business of course have a key role in stepping up to work with universi3es to improve the relevance of course content…[and]..to see moves to greater flexibility in course design and delivery, leading to courses that fit beier with the needs of businesses…a readiness to take a much greater share of the market for training provision.’
CBI (2013) Changing the pace: educa3on and skills survey, pg.57
Embedding employability
‘Embedding employability into the core of higher educa3on will con3nue to be a key priority of Government, universi3es and colleges, and employers. This will bring both significant private and public benefit, demonstra3ng higher educa3on’s broader role in contribu3ng 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 educa3on mean that no single, ideal, prescrip3on for the embedding of employability can be provided.’
(Yorke & Knight 2006: 2)
Our ini3al model
Our ini3al 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
• Promo3ng graduate aiributes
Our ini3al map
Ques3oning the employability agenda
‘The concept of employability…was introduced by corpora3ons, marketed as a response to the need to be flexible in the face of global compe33on… 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)
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 gradua3on’
2013-‐14 SFC-‐UWS Outcome Agreement
• The propor3on of graduate professional/managerial employment will match (within 2%) or exceed average performance of post 1992 Scoqsh HEI in each subject area’
UWS LTAS V1.1, 5.4
But employability…
• ‘Employability…is about learning and the emphasis is less on ‘employ’ and more on ‘ability’. In essence, the emphasis is on developing cri3cal, reflec3ve abili3es, 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 quan3fied by any single measure. Des3na3ons of Leavers from Higher Educa3on (DLHE) survey is a measure of employment not employability’
(Cole & Tibby 2013: 6)
The employability agenda Ques3oning the role of the University
‘[Employability] is now claiming 3me on syllabi at the expense of academic subjects and inculca3ng market values at the expense of free and cri3cal thinking’
(Sarson, 2013, non-‐paginated)
‘the public and democra3c character of the university is undermined, while humani3es and social sciences which, by their very nature, cannot airact market interest are marginalized’
(Panayota & Grollios, 2012: 317).
Ques3oning the role of social science
How do we square the circle? Key issues from Tibby (2012) • Disparity between students’ percep3on 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
Understanding what employers want Most important factors considered when recrui3ng graduates
Source: CBI. Learning to Grow -‐ Educa3on and Skills Survey 2012
Understanding our students
Which of the the following do you think are the most important factors employers consider when recrui1ng graduates (%)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Language
Degree classifica3on
Work experience
Degree subject
Employability skills
Hamilton
Paisley
Understanding our students
0 20 40 60 80
Yes
No
Do you have a par1cular job/career path in mind aHer you finish your studies? (%)
Hamilton
Paisley
Understanding our students Survey of L7 social science students undertaken in week 1
Understanding our students Raising awareness: an employability VLE
Understanding our students Employment and the social sciences
Bridging the gap Learning in partnership
Does it work? What students say
The tasks have been interes3ng because they gave
an actual taste of what a research is like, on all its
levels, from organisa3on to prac3cal issues such as
funding or ethical approval
…has given a good insight into real life
problems and opportuni3es
The research/inquiry based learning focus of the module has been great and grown my
confidence in rela3on 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 connec3ons between skills developed by doing different types of assessments and the skills sought out by employers
Our new model
Making employability ‘real’
Our employability-‐integrated assessment map
Have we squared the circle? Returning to Tibby (2012) -‐-‐-‐-‐ Disparity between students’ percep3on of employability and those of employers
Our solu3on: embed in the curriculum through employability-‐integrated assessment and partnership learning
-‐-‐-‐-‐
Many students are not engaged with employability
Our solu3on: 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?
For cri3cal friends
To provide feedback, comments or to ask any ques3ons, please contact:
Dr Gordon Heggie Lecturer in Social Sciences University of the West of Scotland [email protected]
Dr Neil McPherson Lecturer in Social Sciences University of the West of Scotland [email protected]