Sport & Employability : What's the connection? By Doug Cole Senior Lecturer Bucks New University

The Context Introductions Officially started my research October 1 st 2009 having worked in the sport and leisure industry in the UK and Asia since Aims To explore the areas raised by the questions posed in the previous BUCS publication. To consider what is employability, what it is not, and how can sport contribute? To provide some brief insights into the employability research and how features of this may potentially be influenced through our own sports provision.

The Challenge As we go through this presentation I would appeal to you all to try and make connections between what you do in the workplace through your wider sports provision, with the specific information being presented. There are not necessarily any right or wrong answers here but hopefully there are opportunities for us all.

Introductions to the field Background Employability - high on the agenda “Panic on the campus as graduate jobs disappear” The Independent “The competition among graduates seeking work has got several degrees more difficult” The Times Provision Sport Emotional Intelligence Employability

Employability: Here to stay? Very first HE courses in subjects such as Law & Medicine Government Support - Dearing Report 1997, Leitch Review 2006, HE to offer opportunities to develop ‘job related skills’ QAA and Higher Education subject benchmark statements - Clear need to address employability & to commit to a pedagogical approach designed for the development of employability skills with students in HE Background ‘Society trends’ “We cannot call to mind any psychological text that commends one-off skills development units and recall that many say that ‘skills’ are best developed by being applied to a range of worthwhile material. Skilful practices are best developed across a whole programme in order to provide practice, reinforcement and opportunities to apply those practices to different content through increasingly authentic tasks.” (Knight & Yorke, 2004:43) Taking lessons from the sports fields and pitches and applying them in life.

Employability: What is it? What is employability? Range of definitions and models Yorke & Knight (2006:3) as: A set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy. Kumar (2007)Dacre Pool & Sewell (2007) Knight & Yorke (2004)

Employability: Common Themes Emotional Intelligence – Mayer & Salovey (1997), Goleman (1998) … the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. Emotional & Social Competencies – Boyatzis (2008) Emotional Intelligence – Dacre Pool & Sewell (2007) ‘Self’ in SOAR – Kumar (2007) Skilful practices, efficacy beliefs & metacognition – Knight & Yorke (2004) Multiple Intelligences – Gardner (1983) (Intrapersonal & Interpersonal) Practical Intelligence & tacit knowledge – Sternberg (2000) Emotional & Social Competencies – Boyatzis (2008)

Employability: What it is not? Common misconceptions/assumptions – Short-term / Linear views “Employment” V “Employability” – Employment is about a job, employability is about a career! Lack of understanding / Resistance “Vocational “v “Employability” Background Dacre Pool and Sewell (2007) raise concern that too many people may have a rather over- simplistic view of employability as being about securing a job or merely developing a number of individual skills. "...employability goes well beyond the simplistic notion of key skills, and is evidenced in the application of a mix of personal qualities and beliefs, understandings, skilful practices and the ability to reflect productively on experience." (Higher Education Academy Online)

So what’s the connection? How does this apply to sport? ?

Making the connections exercise In small groups please discuss how your wider sports provision can specifically hit these defined areas Group feedback

Employability: So what’s the connection? Education today typically subject specific focus / results and funding driven Considering the theories and models – Where are the gaps in education and training opportunities and how can we change this? Can sporting provision potentially address some of these gaps? How might we demonstrate this? Background The International Employer Barometer survey 2007 confirms that over 85% of the employers view social skills and personality type as the most important skills and capabilities when recruiting graduates. Direct links to participation in sport? 60% rate a ‘good degree qualification’ as important, Archer & Davison (2008)

It’s all about people! Reality? Education does not essentially value the ability of people to effectively engage and have productive relationships with others, sport can! Our sports provision already address many of these areas, but with further enhancement this could be made more explicit so that students recognize the value of these competencies, so that they may then be further developed and utilized in others areas of life Background ‘Creating Learning Partnerships’ – Carroll & Gimbert (2008) 2 way process / ‘relationships’

Lets use sport as a vehicle to help address this ongoing challenge!

References Archer,W. & Davison, J. (2008) Graduate Employability : What do employers think and want? The Council for Industry and Higher Education (report) London Boyatzis, R.E & Saatcioglu, A. (2008) A 20 year view of trying to develop emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies in graduate management education. Journal of Management Development, Vol.27, No. 1, pp Carroll.M & Gilbert,M.(2008) Becoming An Executive Coachee: Creating Learning Partnerships. England: Vukani Publishing, Collins,M. (2010) Examining sports development. 1 st ed. Oxon: Routledge Dacre, Pool,L, Sewell, P. (2007), “The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability” Journal of Education & Training, Vol.49 No 4, pp Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books Inc. Goleman, D. (1998), Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bloomsbury, London. Higher Education Academy (n.d) Employability in Higher Education, (online) Available from (accessed 12/12/08) Knight, P. & Yorke, M. (2004) Learning, Curriculum and Employability in Higher Education. Abingdon: Routledge Falmer. Kumar,A. (2007) Personal, Academic & Career Development in Higher Education. Abingdon: Routledge Mayer, J. and Salovey,P. (1997) What is emotional intelligence? New York: Basic Books Sternberg, R.J (2000) Practical intelligence in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2008) Hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism benchmarks 2008, Mansfield, UK Yorke, M. & Knight, P. (2006) Embedding employability into the curriculum. Learning & employability series one, York, UK: The Higher Education Academy

Thank you Any Questions?