10 Steps to Employability A story of collaboration to develop and deliver a pilot employability workshop… Ruth Saville Konica Stones

Quick exercise!  You’ve chosen this session for a reason!  Maybe you have your own ‘war stories’…?  Your task:  Capture in a few words a key issue or challenge you have faced when seeking to work collaboratively with an employer  perhaps specifically in projects based within academic departments…?  Write it on your post-it note  You have 2 minutes to do this

Objectives Enable participants to:  Become familiar with our approach to launching ‘10 Steps to Employability’ workshop  Identify practical activities and learning outcomes for ’10 Steps’ student participants  Describe key features and benefits of workshop for all involved, and lessons learned  Gain tips and techniques to encourage productive collaboration with academics and employers

Contents  Why we did it  What we did  How we did it  Including an opportunity to try it out!  What we’ve learned – insights and tips  Questions and shared experiences

Drivers – for all Stakeholders PwC?  Opportunity to exploit Employability Guide differently  Face-time with students - profile enhancing  Convey clear messages about expectations Careers Service?  Convey broad messages thru specific (PwC) example  Getting the right messages across; raise awareness Students?  Wanted clear messages about employability and opportunity to develop skills further within their School Business School?  Cue Dr Wendy Loretto – Director of UG Programmes…

Dr Wendy Loretto Director of Undergraduate Programmes University of Edinburgh Business School

Agreed Workshop Scope & Features  Materials: PwC ‘Employability Guide’ + Careers Service inputs  Parameters: 2 hrs – optional - up to 45 students  Target audience/timing: Honours yrs - outside teaching weeks  Marketing: s; Business Soc; Lectures; Careers talks  Co-development & delivery  Agree generic messages – not just PwC-relevant/centric  Set-up meetings with CA as common link, plus 2 formative reviews  Delivery & facilitation:  Led by PwC  CS/academic input & facilitation (inc. ‘top & tail’ contextualising)  Significant opportunities for group work and presentation:  ‘Pace, relevance, energy and interaction’

Snapshot of workshop materials  Key sections and activities…

Ten Core Competencies PwC terminology but these competencies are general competencies that most employers assess These competencies are assessed at recruitment stage but also as you progress your career with PwC

Competencies that PwC assess 1. Develop Self and Others through Coaching At PwC we take personal development seriously  It’s about getting the most out of others and yourself  Are you committed to developing yourself?  Demonstrate the things you’ve done well  Act on feedback Being Passionate about development – and able to show it!

Exercise 1 – Your Employability skills Your task… In groups you will be allocated a competency We would like you to match your skills/experience to… How you have developed and hence can demonstrate the competency e.g: Coaching: You sought feedback from tutor in relation to your dissertation…How you acted upon this feedback…  10 minutes to discuss in your group  Put your ideas on a flip chart  One person from the group to feed back

Exercise 2 – Your Employability skills Your task in groups…… How can you continue to develop that competency through the remainder of your time at university?  10 minutes to discuss  Put your ideas on a flip chart  One person to feed back

How do you demonstrate your experience in relation to the competencies at application stage?

PwC Application Form Exercise! How could this candidate have improved their answer? Take 5 mins to try this activity from ’10 Steps’ workshop:  Q: Striving for excellence through working as part of successful teams is key to our work. Please describe a group activity that you have been involved in where you have contributed to the team’s success. (150 word limit)  A: Last term at university, part of our course in taxation required us to examine a company's financial statements with regards to the interests of potential investors and creditors. I was assigned team leader and had ultimately responsibility for the project. I delegated the work and made sure my teammates finished their tasks before the set deadlines. The project was finished comfortably before the submission date and we obtained the joint highest mark in the year.

How do you demonstrate your experience in relation to the competencies at interview stage?

Provide SPECIFIC examples  Tell me about a time you have worked in a team?  What was your role?  What challenges did you face?  Tell me what your greatest achievement to date has been?  Why? What have you learnt from it?  Tell me what you know about PwC/the graduate role?  Tell me about a recent business issue that you have read about?  What is your opinion?  Why does it interest you?  What impact does this have on PwC/our clients?  Describe your strengths/your development areas?

‘It was the most useful workshop I’ve attended during my time at Uni.’ ‘It went wider than just PwC’ ‘It was good to get chance to practise some skills without anyone assessing us’ ‘I particularly liked being able to put my own experiences into context’ What did our students get out of it?

Opportunity to:  Recognise employability experience already gained  Develop ideas on how to gain new experience/plug gaps  Need to be creative, and to keep developing evidence  Recognise opportunities within as well as extra- curricular  Better articulate their skills in selection process  Practise 2 of ‘10 steps’ in workshop (‘experiential’)  Lead & contribute to team success  Communicate with impact & empathy  Network/share ideas with ‘new’ group of students  Reflect on group-work outputs and presentation materials after event  Link to PwC and Careers Service support materials

Dr Wendy Loretto Director of Undergraduate Programmes University of Edinburgh Business School

Lessons Learned/Benefits Gained?  Mix of years/experiences in student participants  Value of contribution & buy-in from all stakeholders  Tie-in of competency examples to academic experiences  Tie-in of competency examples to roles within employer  Face-time with employer  Chance to practise skills in ‘safe’ environment  Minimises potential for mis- or biased messaging on employability (chance to dispel ‘confusion’)  Choose carefully who to collaborate with!  One of many different mediums to convey employability messages to students  Students may not come – whatever you try!  …But keep trying!

Questions & Shared Experiences