1. Embedding employability: learning for workforce development Peter Knight and Mantz Yorke Enhancing student employability: enhancing workforce development conference Birmingham, 27-28 January 2005

2. Overview  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. foundation degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

3.  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. foundation degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

4. The ESECT view of employability A set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations.  Consistent with thinking in other countries — Hong Kong (Ed Ko), Australia (Simon Barrie), Canada (Alan Wright), USA (Marcia Mentkowski).  Likely to be adopted by the European Commission.

5. Embedding employability in the first degree  Main focus of ESECT work.  Embed employability in bachelor’s degree by evidence- informed design of:  Curriculum content.  Learning, teaching and assessment approaches.  The learning environment as a whole.

6. USEM  Good learning and the enhancement of employability involve attending to students’:  Understanding of subject matter  Skilful practices  Efficacy beliefs  Metacognition

7. Co-curricular responses  Co-curriculum  All those arrangements made outside the ‘regular’ curriculum for the educational enrichment of the undergraduate years  Equity issues  Employability for all – single parents, those already in work, historians, minority groups.

8. Employability as a curriculum issue  Employability lies less in curriculum content than in curriculum processes.  An entitlement approach to learning, teaching and assessment.  A programme-focused approach to employability, learning, teaching and assessment.

9. Employability Experience Questionnaire  A tool to help in curriculum design and evaluation  Pilot 1 complete; 1417 responses; suggests 5 factors  Academic confidence  (Un)certainty regarding personal capability  Confidence regarding employment  Influence of work-experience on academic studies  Personal autonomy  Pilot 2 to run during February 2005  Electronic version subsequently to HE Academy website

10. Curriculum responses  The LTSN/GC Learning and Employability series (2004). Further publications under development.  Other Higher Education academy and ESECT resources, tools and networks.  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/Employability.htm

11.  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. foundation degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

12. Employability: a matter of transfer and transitions?  Transfer of training.  A battle.  Situatedness of practice.  Tacit knowledge.  Making transitions.  Performance (and confidence?) dips.  Applied metacognition?

13. Looking beyond the undergraduate years Schooling Further Education or Community College Undergraduate years Foundation degrees Taught master’s Work-based training Professional doctorate Non-formal learning Part-time study

14.  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. Foundation Degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

15. Mid-level qualifications  Often directly employment-relevant.  Various modes of study.  Valued particularly in continental Europe and the US.  Foundation degrees introduced into England, Wales, Northern Ireland.

16. Foundation degrees  Designed in conjunction with employers to fit specific employment needs.  Strong emphasis on work-based learning, which raises issues regarding mentoring, assessment.  Notable contribution to upskilling in health, social care and education.  Some particularly successful industry/education institution partnerships.  A general, rather than a specific, foundation degree?  What will be the impact of top-up fees?

17.  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. foundation degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

18. Master’s degrees: improving employability  Variety of master’s degrees – conversion, specialist and professional.  Professional master’s typically entail:  Reflections on practice;  Drawing on research evidence;  Drawing on research concepts;  Beginning action research.

19. Master’s degrees: improving employability?  Coherence?  Are goals met?  Boyatzis and colleagues, 1995?  What about USEM?  Studies needed.

20.  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. foundation degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

21. Professional doctorates: improving employability  Growth area, especially in Australia.  Theory-practice-enquiry interplay.  With professional focus.  Mixture of ‘taught’ courses and dissertation/thesis/ project.

22. Professional doctorates: improving employability?  Dilemma:  Too ‘highfaluting’?  Bogged down in local practices?  USEM?  Studies needed.

23.  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. foundation degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

24. Employability and part-time students  Little, B. (2005, forthcoming) Part-time Students and Employability. York: the Higher Education Academy.

25.  Employability.  Implications for the first degree.  ‘Employment is temporary, employability can be endlessly renewed.’ Examples include:  Mid-level qualifications, incl. foundation degrees.  Taught master’s degrees.  Professional doctorates.  Cross-cutting themes.  Part-time students.  The quality of non-formal learning.

26. The quality of non-formal learning  Blackwell, A., Bowes, L. Harvey, L. Hesketh, A. and Knight P.T. (2001) Transforming Work Experience in Higher Education, British Educational Research Journal, 26(3), 269-286.  Bailey, T.R., Hughes, K.L. and Moore, D.T. (2004) Working Knowledge: work-based learning and education reform. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

27. Other readings  Boyatzis, R.E. and associates (1995). Innovation in Professional Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  Knight, P.T. (1997) Masterclass: learning, teaching and curriculum in taught master’s degrees. London: Cassell.  Knight, P.T. and Yorke, M. (2004) Learning, Curriculum and Employability. London: Routledge/Falmer.  Yorke, M. and Knight, P.T. (2004) Embedding Employability into the Curriculum. York: the Learning and Teaching Support Network.

28. More http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/Employability.htm peter.knight@open.ac.uk m.yorke@livjm.ac.uk