Sharing Technology Enhanced Employability Learning (STEEL)
- Start date: 2010-01-04
- End date: 2010-08-31
- Status: complete
This is part of the Evidence-based Practice Seminar Series 2010 & Syntheses.
The STEEL project (Sharing Technology Enhanced Employability Learning) is a synthesis project based at Leeds Metropolitan University and funded by the Higher Education Academy. Its aim is to produce a synthesis of evidence-based research in order to inform decision-making by practitioners in the appropriate use of technology enhanced learning for employability and employee learning in higher and further education. The project started in January 2010 and will run until August 2010.
The project is adopting a case study approach, providing authentic examples that can be adapted by practitioners to address issues in their own context. Taking this approach allows us to draw on multiple sources of evidence, while providing a framework for analysis to allow comparison across different examples. The risk of generating too much data that is difficult to apply to other situations, or indeed too little, so that the cases are insufficiently detailed, is mediated in the project by developing a case study proforma to guide both data collection and analysis. This proforma focuses on key themes such as the technology used, context, activity, learning approach, challenges encountered, evidence of impact, cost and feedback. Cases are being collected from across the sector and the common format allows them to be directly compared to identify core themes and challenges for the use of technology in supporting employability development and employee learning.
The project will produce a synthesis report with an accompanying online resource, with additional case studies and reusable resources.
Background
There is growing demand from students, employers, and government for employability learning to be addressed within the curriculum (BIS, 2009a, CBI, 2009). This runs parallel to the government focus on increased employer engagement and the development of higher-level skills in employees (Leitch, 2006; BIS, 2009a). Because of the large numbers of learners involved, it is likely that technological support will be required to make these initiatives successful. Traditional mechanisms for developing employability skills, such as work experience and work-related learning, whilst effective, are problematic as numbers of students increase. University entrants are increasingly diverse: studying part time; by distance learning; in work places and by lieu of their entry credentials (BIS, 2009b). This variation in students, and study routes, has already led to the adoption of technology in assessment, learning and teaching. Successful deployment of technology is dependent on the appropriate selection of tools and services. This requires an assessment of evidence-based practice to allow practitioners and professional bodies to reflect on their own systems and tools and learn from effective practice elsewhere.
Latest News
The Higher Education Academy and the STEEL team will be hosting an event on 9 December 2010 to disseminate the findings of their syntheses project. To find out more information and to book onto the event please click here.
Leeds Metropolitan University