Impact: Lots of questions and some answers Ruth Lawton University Learning & Teaching Fellow for Employability

Content It’s all about me The big picture of measurements What am I measuring? A couple of definitions and the ‘lived’ experience What employability means to me and to you What is impact for me and you? What am I doing and what is BCU doing?

Some people think employability is about employment

What am I trying to impact? … not just employment! Students / parents, employers, ministers, VC’s and other stakeholders may think differently

What is employability? ‘Employability is having a set of skills, knowledge, understanding and personal attributes that make a person more likely to choose, secure and retain occupations in which they can be satisfied and successful.’ (Dacre Pool & Sewell, revision in italics from discussion) Or am I talking about career adaptability? ‘the capability of an individual to make a series of successful transitions where the labour market, organisation of work and underlying occupational and organisational knowledge bases may all be subject to considerable change’ (Bimrose et al, 2011)

Ruth’s definition (Monday this week) Students being able to recognise, record, evidence, articulate, demonstrate and make best use of their [unique] skills, abilities and experiences, that make them confident and competent to deal with change in their lives and the world around them, as those changes affect their working life. All about being able to handle life and the slings and arrows

What is Impact? Is what I am doing having an impact? –What am I doing? Intended / unintended? Real or imagined? Ticking the box, changing the life? How would I know? On whom? –Which of my stakeholders? I work with students / graduates / programme teams, individual lecturers / employers / ‘management’ / recipients of our graduates eg patients How and why? –Which bits are having an impact, why is that? Do the students know? How would they know? –Is it explicit? Can I replicate that? –Will what is working there work over here? Can I improve that? –Can I make it [even] more effective What if there is no impact? –Is anything working anywhere else, how would I know about it?

The big picture of impact and success The sector has been asking for a long time Pedagogy for Employability – ESECT - Pedagogy for Employability – Revised edition 2012 HEA Summit 2012 March 2014 – QAA announce commission to undertake research

The ‘lived’ experience For students & graduates: –I want a ‘good’ job down the road working with lovely people, 36 hours a week, no worries, secure but not tied down –Messages 1: get experience, any experience; get a job, any job –Messages 2: [Un]Fitness for practice = unemployable? –Completion rate for newly qualified’s eg how many nurses are still in the profession 3 years on? For lecturers [& HEI’s / Govn] –I want to do a ‘good’ job teaching my subject, with time to stay in touch with practice and keep up to date; I want a ‘good’ job down the road working with lovely people, 36 hours a week, no worries, secure but not tied down –Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE): improve the %’s –League tables –KIS (Salary data) –What employers want / what the economy needs Now In future?

My lived experience of employability Part time jobs at school / college / uni Disastrous first graduate job – mismatch both ways! Found a ‘job / any job’ Adult careers advice > became adult careers advisers Moved to HE careers Promoted to HE Careers management Moved to HE employability in learning & teaching

Your lived experience of employability What is your lived experience of employability? How much of your experience was a conscious choice? Do you know where you want to go next? Is it a conscious choice? Reflect individually Share with person next to you

How I changed my definition of impact WAS – quantitative –Trying to reach as many staff as possible eg workshops of any length on any site, including chocolate biscuits –Anything is better than nothing NOW – qualitative –Time and a carrot (assessment) –Assessed and explicit or it looks like we don’t value it

EEYP Embedding Employability in Your Practice (EEYP): M.Ed Learning & Teaching in HE - 30 credit module –Giving my students (academic / support / SU staff) from across the university and beyond eg NHS): Time Rehearsal / Practice Feedback: from stakeholders, me, peers, self Clangers without penalty – it’s all about the reflection :-0

EEYP: Aims This module will provide you with the opportunity to: Evaluate theories, models and pedagogic approaches to employability in a broad context Reflect on, and plan for, your own personal and professional development Consider employability as it applies to your subject and / or discipline or practice Experience career management strategies and tools to facilitate your own and your students professional development Exploit technology to support employability in the curriculum Identify and utilise resources within your own institutions / contexts to support employability

EEYP: Learning Outcomes critically review an area of academic or professional provision of your choice to enhance the employability of your students / stakeholders. create a highly developed informed action plan to demonstrate continuing professional development and augment your employability profile make explicit and effective use of feedback

Role models Does your lived experience impact / influence: –your attitude towards your students employability? –your feeling of responsibility for it - if any? –whether or not you are role modelling what you want your students to learn in relation to employability? Reflect individually Share with person next to you

EEYP: impact from assessment and more Today ‘Unfit for practice’ is not unemployable – guidance for staff Hospital HR investigation into drop-out rates of NQN’s New modules validated and delivered Word-of-mouth recruitment onto EEYP! I see, read and hear the difference

BCU – Future of Employability Hot off the press – meeting yesterday!! Review of employability, employment and enterprise strategy development and implementation –32 recommendations grouped into 6 priority recommendations Culture –All staff throughout BCU have clear line of sight about expectations of how their roles contribute to Partners for Success Accountability and responsibility Student offer and engagement Work related learning and experience Innovation Targeting

Embedding Employability in your practice Is there somewhere in your practice / role where you think you could make a change? Reflect individually Look out for ideas today