1. Towards a pedagogy for employability Implications for learning design

2. Employability – what do we mean? “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.” Yorke, 2004, p7.

3. And at Sheffield Hallam University 'enabling students to acquire the knowledge, personal and professional skills and encouraging the attitudes that will support their future development and employment’ (Sheffield Hallam, 2002).

4. Reflecting on personal experience To what extent did your undergraduate degree or previous qualification embrace employability aspects? Do you consider this a strength or weakness? In what ways did your degree/qualification route enable you to be successful in your chosen career? Looking back, if you could have changed anything in this context, what would it have been?

5. 2004 Employability Framework Essential Framework features Progressive development of autonomy. Skills development (intellectual; subject; professional; Key Skills). Personal Development Planning (PDP). Inclusion of activities reflecting external environments. Reflection on the use of knowledge and skills between contexts. The development of career management skills. Engagement with learning from work (LfW). Additional features for appropriate courses Preparation for professions. Engagement with enterprise.

6. Questions Is employability pedagogy distinctive in some way? Is it different in any way to “good” pedagogy? If so what is the nature of the challenge when encouraging colleagues to integrate and embed employability within their LTA approaches?

7. Employability and the learning (and assessment) task Learning design as the vehicle for delivering the curriculum Learning tasks as multi-dimensional phenomena: propositional knowledge; specific skills; attitudes and dispositions (including ethics) The metaphor of "fusion" – " The union or blending together of different things (whether material or immaterial) as if by melting, so as to form one whole; the result or state of being so blended."

8. Example Learning outcome: "At the end of the module you will be able to...."Construct an international market development plan for a company wishing to internationalise its operations." How could students evidence achievement of this learning outcome? Exam – emphasises propositional and theoretical knowledge

9. Example Case study – skills (problem solving, identifying relevant data) and linking theory to practice Scenario/group work – inter-personal skills, group dynamics (Group) consultancy project with local company – work related skills and attributes, type 1 and type 2 knowledge (Group) consultancy project with reflective/reflexive evaluation of process and personal contribution – metacognition Placement project – WBL – holistic performance Self- employed placement – WBL, enterprise, opportunity awareness, risk taking etc.

10. Implications Employability teaching and learning need not: reduce the emphasis on propositional or theoretical knowledge be in addition to other aspects of curriculum engagement (resources) It does bring into focus the importance of the design of the learning task, and The position of this within the broader curriculum, As well as the life and organisational experience of tutors (personal/staff development) And the benefits of joint and collaborative approaches to learning design

11. A pedagogy for employability Will draw upon aspects of: Problem based learning Inquiry based learning WBL Co-operative/collaborative learning Experiential learning Using real world or simulated tasks Incorporating aspects of reflective and reflexive practice