The Centre for Career Management Skills (CCMS)

  • Start date: 2007-01-11
  • End date: 2007-01-12
  • Status: in progress
  • Funding Initiative: CETL

Over the next five years the Centre for Career Management Skills will focus on developing both the University of Reading CMS taught courses and the CMS online resources, putting the emphasis on leading-edge innovation in teaching materials and in e-learning.

The principal activities of the CCMS are the following:

  • Developing a new website for career learning, based on strong e-learning principles (i.e. learner ‘pull’ rather than teacher ‘push’) and incorporating video clips featuring employers and graduates. The content will become increasingly differentiated to reflect diversity of students learning needs, and varying context of different degree disciplines. Students, graduates and employers will be actively involved in the development of both video clips and other aspects of content.
  • Alongside these developments, working with the Careers Advisory Service (CAS) and with academic staff to make taught CMS sessions and assessment of CMS more relevant to the discipline studied and the learning needs of students.
  • Working with academics and CAS to develop programme-specific CMS resources (e.g. developing degree-specific content for CMS, introducing new delivery or assessment strategies or researching graduate destinations and skills needs in a particular subject area and developing appropriate curriculum interventions). This will be achieved by setting up small projects under a CCMS Fellowship scheme.
  • Extending CMS to postgraduate students (on a voluntary basis, and to include postgraduate research students) and to students on Foundation degrees. Ultimately, CMS resources will also be available for contract research staff.
  • Engaging with the wider Teaching and Learning agenda within the university, including changes to the personal tutor system, introduction of PDP, upgrades to Blackboard and accrediting prior learning.
  • Through a CCMS Partner Fellowship scheme, supporting other universities to adopt the new CMS website and to introduce new curriculum developments.
  • Setting up a national network of higher education institutions to share and disseminate good practice in careers education through events, newsletters etc.
  • Two PhD studentships. One examines circumscription in career choices, and the effect of CMS and CAS interventions on this. The other examines the impact of socio-demographic background, employment at university and CMS on academic performance, human capital and labour market destinations.

What is being offered to the wider teaching/subject community:

  • Online CMS version 2.
  • CMS email list for practitioners to share ideas and problems.
  • External Fellowship Scheme.
  • CCMS newsletters.
  • CCMS has also invited the wider community to join two working groups.
  • One looking at careers education materials for foundation degree students.
  • One looking at carers education materials for postgraduate students.
  • Both groups have wide membership and a schedule of meetings.

Organisation/Institutions:

  • University of Reading

Contact details