Connecting and collaborating with University departments to achieve a more impactful curriculum career education Anna Graves, Kim Smith & Ranjit Nainu

Who are we? Curriculum Team Manager Medicine, Biosciences & Psychology Project Officer Arts, Humanities & Law Geography & Geology Project Officer Social Sciences Maths, Comp Sci & Engineering Project Co-ordinator Physics, Chemistry & Natural Science

What challenges does your service face working in the curriculum? What challenges do you think academics face trying to accommodate us in their curriculum? Icebreaker

What challenges does your service face working in the curriculum? Challenges we’ve identified Low student attendance Not enough resource No buy in from academics Careers seen as a ‘bolt on’ Unable to meet department needs or demands Trying to engage students in a ‘boring’ topic

What challenges do you think academics face trying to accommodate us in their curriculum? It doesn’t ‘fit’ in the academic module Students complain about careers activities taking up teaching time The curriculum is already full Competing demands/lack of time to give careers attention Challenges we’ve identified

Learning Outcomes Explain the key challenges of working within the curriculum Demonstrate the use of Service Level Agreements & Employability Summits to manage relationships with university departments Identify good practice in the delivery of workshops in the curriculum

Service Level Agreements What are they? Annual agreement with Heads of Departments and Careers Tutors. Background Implemented SLAs for the first time in Sep Just agreed the second round Why did we do it? Lack of institutional awareness Improve relations with academic departments Agree an action plan for the year ahead

Employability Summits Background First summit took place in July 2012 and we’ve had one every 6 months since What are they? Half day event to promote the Career Development Service Why did we do it? Promote our strategy and interventions Gain buy in Share labour market updates Learn by doing/discussing

Activity Half of you will look at designing an Service Level Agreement Half of you will look at designing an Employability Summit All institutions are different so consider how you would approach this in your organisation 15 minutes to discuss and then we’ll hear feedback and share some of the benefits we’ve gained

You are looking to implement Service Level Agreements at your institution, and you need to design a document and a process. The aim of the document is to improve your relationship with academic departments, and to plan your interventions in each department for the next year. What information will you include? Who will be involved in the agreement? What will the process be for creating and signing off the agreement? When will the process take place?

Service Level Agreements What do we include? Our rationale and strategy, and departmental DLHE data to give context. Engagement data by department, showing attendance at various interventions. A review of the previous year’s activity in the curriculum and a plan for the next year. Success stories – This year all 24 Heads of Department had signed off their department’s SLA before the deadline. Who is involved? – Our careers lead for the department, senior management from the Career Development Service, Heads of Department and Careers Tutors.

Commitment to employability Sharing and defining responsibility Top- down approach Key Values & Benefits Key Values & Benefits Streamlining our offering Reduced ad-hoc requests Planning a coherent programme Interventions embedded and integrated Students no longer see careers as a ‘bolt-on’, but as part of their course

The Careers Service at your institution has been asked to plan an employability summit: As a team you have been given the opportunity to agree and decide on the format and agenda of the event: What theme will your summit have? - Consider the current needs/focus of your institution What will the format be? What are your 3 key messages? Who will you invite?

Employability Summits Supported and communicated via the Vice-Chancellor & Director of Student Experience. Format of events - different theme each time, key note speakers, interactive break out sessions, typical attendance approx. 100 Who attends ? Heads of Departments, career tutors and other appropriate academic staff members, other professional service such as welfare, sport services etc. Success stories – Academics sharing best practice and promoting our service

Opportunity to learn by doing -Putting the academics through an assessment centre -Discussing Service Level Agreement template Key Values & Benefits Key Values & Benefits Communicate a clear & consistent message Wilson review – its impact Key messages to students via personal tutors Creating a collaborative working environment Clearer and transparent roles Forum to identify key challenges and solutions After each summit – we come away with key take away points & actions

Our delivery in the curriculum Compulsory Timetabled Departmental specific tailoring Enhancing existing modules Less lecturing, more doing!

Kim- Ranjit- Anna- Any questions?