Saturday, April 8, 2023 1ALT-C 2012

Practical ePortfolios: Embedding placement reflection and personal development processes

Kirstie CoolinCentre for International ePortfolio Development, (CIePD) Libraries, Research & Learning Resources

www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio @ciepd@kirstie_c

Overview

• Employability skills plus professional learning• Opportunities for learning about work• Employer involvement• Combining career learning and PDP – an

example from Nottingham• Interaction with employers• Another example from Nottingham (Researchers)• What do you think?

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Lets start with a video…

The Academy of Irving, Texas

Relationships – employer/HEI/student

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Placement administrator

Supervisor

Careers

Employer HR

Empl

oyer

men

tor

Challenge space

“The relationship between universities and colleges, students and employers is crucial to ensuring that students experience the higher education they want while studying and leave their course equipped to embark on a rewarding career”(HE White Paper, Students at the Heart of the System, BIS, 2011, p45).

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Relationship

What are professional skills?

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University of Kent www.kent.ac.uk/careers

What else? • Awareness of the employment marketplace• Understanding of the sector• Pathways and module choice• Work/employment opportunities• Different types of employers (SMEs/Social

Enterprise/self employment etc.)• Changing work patterns• Connecting gaps, action planning• Feedback from employers

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Opportunities to learn about work – how can students be supported in joining the dots?

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• Synthesising Career learning and the Course?• “What are my options?”• “How do I want to make a living?”• Skills recognition and showcasing skills• How can relationships between

student/employer/university be improved to support this?

Supporting students to find (out about) work• Access to placements, internships, work

experience

• Access to employers? Milk round? SMEs, microbusinesses, social enterprises, 3rd sector? Self employment?

“More than half of graduates are interested in jobs that will 'make a difference', despite increasing difficulty in finding work” Article in the Guardian 22nd August 2012http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/aug/22/graduates-principles-tough-jobs-market?newsfeed=true

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What do employers want?What do students want?

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How can these be reconciled with mutual benefit

to improve employability learning for students?

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Central place to find placements

Access to employer lists, tagged and searchable by

sector and organisational information

Previous placements information

Careers fairs with wider range of employers

Up to date links to the company application procedures.

Up to date links to the company application procedures.

Information about company project opportunities

Students Employers

Filtered based on interest

A ‘front door’ to the University

Access to research and innovation headlines,

University events

Find student skills for projects

More university engagement with social media for

easier personal networking and identifying key contacts

Knowledge transfer and research partnerships

From recent interviews (SHED Project 2012)

How can learners be motivated?

“Employability can be enhanced through personal development planning, but success will depend upon the extent to which students see a ‘pay-off’ for the effort that they put in.” (Embedding employability into the curriculum, HEA)

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/employability/id460_embedding_employability_into_the_curriculum_338.pdf

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Course and career learning as well as the practicalities of finding

placements, internships and work do not exist in isolation.

Construction Foundation Degree, Derby College“For Derby College, SHED saw the first use of Mahara within the College and in

particular, enabled the College to innovate in their management of student’s professional learning, using it as a platform for peer development, career reflection and learning from employer input.

Students gather information that is related to employer requirements and from that learn how their knowledge appears for an employer. This is not only learning for them, but for their peers and the College in understanding what sort of information is of interest to their employer contacts and how students should be advised to fine tune their employability information to improve their career prospects. “

For students, the ‘pay off’ may constitute short term interaction with employers for seeking work or work-experience which also provides real-world learning about the sectors they are interested in.”

SHED Project Report www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/shed/documents 04/08/2023 Event Name and Venue 13

Using ePortfolio processes for:-• Personal Development Planning (PDP) alongside

practical employability concerns for students.• ‘Marketing’ for students to match their skills to

employer interest• Communication and networking for career

learning• Differentiation in the job market

Self-motivation04/08/2023 Event Name and Venue 14

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“We come to University and

assume that employability is

getting the degree but are starting

to learn that it’s the degree plus

other stuff” (student participant in

SHED project workshop)

“Students would be motivated

to use their e-Portfolio if they

could have it when they leave

to help them find a job”

(Student, Nottingham)

“(ePortfolios) a tool for marketing to

differentiate ourselves to employers”

(Construction students at Derby

College)

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Happisburgh 2012 Kirstie Coolin

Interlude…

Example 1: Placement learning in Nottingham

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School of Biosciences

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Placement journey

Before

Researching employers and sectors,

application, letters, support

During

Recording skills/ relation of placement to

course, journal, feedback

(staff/employers), communication,

support and encouragement

After

Reflection, showcase, resume, career

information

Student-centred e-Portfolio: Placement lifecycle information and activity in one place

Careers/employability learning embedded throughout the lifecycle

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Support and information pages

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(student content)

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Student placement page. She has also created a page about the social side of student life with other

interns in the company.

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During placement – weekly reports shared with supervisor, placements coordinator and in some

cases, employer

(student content)

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Threaded feedback on student ‘placement ‘page’

(student content)

Example 2: Doctoral Training Programme (BBSRC)

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Analysing Research competences

• “The Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is a major new approach to researcher development, to enhance our capacity to build the UK workforce, develop world-class researchers and build our research base.” (Vitae 2010)”

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Using e-Portfolio to:• Integrate core researcher skill development into

the self-directed/professional development aims of the programme – Analysis and action planning

• Placement journal• Student-centred supervisor groups• Plus - technical developments to pull in relevant

University training courses linked to RDF competences for dynamic presentation into student portfolios according to their self-assessed skills gaps.

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• <screen shots – student page, supervisor group etc.>

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Example of student DTP page. We are seeking feedback from students on their suggestions for

analysing and reflecting on their skills needs

A U D I T

Courses

Research

Student searches employer profiles

Student opts-in, ‘releasing’ contact information and showcase

d

i

s

c

o

v

e

r

y

Institutional

Resource

Student

Events

Equipment

Expertise

Placements

Evidence,

skills, showcase

CRM

ePortfolio

Employers

Employer profile

student profile

Details, sector,

projects

Institution employer network

Employer searches student profiles

Professional Learning:

• About employment market

• Employment sectors

• What employers are interested in

• How to organise and present their skills

• Finding placement or work opportunities

• Learning to network (and integrate other

social tools)

Business engagement:

• More reasons to engage

• Easier to find University

resources

• Access to students for work

experience

• Wider range of employers (e.g.

3rd

sector, social enterprise,

SME)

Kirstie Coolin, CIePD, University of Nottingham September 2012

Personal

Administration

Careers and work

Learning + teaching

Over to you...• How can students and employers be motivated to

use new tools for employability?• Where do student, employer and institutional

requirements meet, and what would this look like in terms of processes and tools?

• How can existing institutional learning technology be used to promote student-led professional/employability learning?

• How can students be encouraged to reflect on their personal development autonomously?

• How can relationships between student /employer/university be nurtured to support this?04/08/2023 Event Name and Venue 29

Relevant CIePD Projects

Sharing HE Data (SHED)www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/shed

ESCAPES (..)

www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/escapes

Ingenuity KnowledgeHub

www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/knowledgehubhttp://fishbowl.ingenuitygateway.com

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Thank you

Kirstie.Coolin @ nottingham.ac.uk@kirstie_c

University of Nottingham

www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio

Designed by Gideon Coolin