Alumni feedback on employability skills development: responding through innovative pedagogy to embed employability within the curriculum
- Date: 12 May 2010
- Start Time: 10:00 am
- Location/venue: Centre of Excellence in Employability (e3i), Sheffield Hallam University
This seminar is part of the Academy's Evidence-based Practice Seminar Series 2010 and is offered by the the Employability CETL (e3i) at Sheffield Hallam University and the Higher Education Academy.
The Employability CETL (e3i) at Sheffield Hallam University has undertaken research and evaluation work to underpin its institutional approach to the development of student employability. Recently, the e3i team has been interested in obtaining feedback from alumni on the extent to which their courses have prepared them for the world of work, particularly in relation to their employability skills. In this seminar the e3i team will report the results of research undertaken (survey plus interviews) and carried out with recent alumni. This research focused on their perceptions of their employability skills development whilst at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). The research results provide an important and additional voice in the debate about the type of skills and attributes that universities should be developing as part of their provision. This will be followed by two case studies of particular courses at SHU (in real estate and mathematics) which have responded to the challenge of embedding employability skills in the curriculum via innovative pedagogy. The first case study, The European Challenge, makes use of an intensive project week across several European locations, involving employers and a focus on some of the more difficult employability skills to develop in a university context – emotional intelligence and inter-cultural sensitivity; findings from an innovative approach to evaluation will also be shared at the seminar. The second case study involves the use of a bespoke e-portfolio to support employability skills development via PDP, resulting in the highest NSS scores in the associated question in this subject area. Again, evaluation findings will be discussed in the seminar. The cases will be used to reflect upon the general features of curriculum design and pedagogy that support employability and encourage participants to bench mark provision they are involved in against these general features.
Presenters:
David Laughton, e3i Director
Jeff Waldock, e3i Associate Director
Nick Nunnington, e3i Associate Director
