Dr Heather Skinner, Julie Prior & Dr Paul Jones Fostering Employability Skills in Postgraduate Students – a lesson learned HEA July 2011

Overview  Vocational skills for postgraduates.  Glamorgan Business School postgraduate context.  Postgraduate students’ expectations.  Embedding employability through a skills based approach.  The employability skills programme.  Student and staff feedback.  Lessons learned.

Vocational Skills for Postgraduates Communication, Teamwork/collaboration, Planning and organising, Analytical thinking and problem solving, Personal effectiveness, Research, Managing information, Information technology, Numerical interpretation. (Johnston and Watson, 2004) Communication, team-working, problem solving, numeracy. Plus: Decision-making, Independent working, Information retrieval, Leadership, Personal learning and development, Strategic skills. (Maxwell et al, 2009)

Postgraduate provision in the Glamorgan Business School  Approximately 1,500 students.  18 taught programmes (26 named awards).  60% UK, 40% international and European Union (65 different nationalities).  73% on campus for taught masters programme.  30% full-time, 70% part-time.

Learning for employment  Embed learning for employment to prepare students with little or no prior work experience at graduate level.  Embed learning through employment for those already in work, and who may be embarking on a part-time postgraduate course.

What students wanted Develop professional presentations65% Plan and manage business projects58% Understanding of business uses of new social media 54% Effective in job interviews52% An effective leader50% Effective at networking48% Improve my English45% Plan and manage events44% Improve IT skills36% Publish my work in academic journals27%

Skills programme  Pilot funded by internal ‘Innovation in Learning and Teaching’ grant.  Weekly sessions delivered in term 1 alongside existing timetabled classes.  A designated ‘skills week’ (cleared of programme teaching).  54 sessions and 16 academic and support staff.  Certificate and transcript of sessions attended.

Embedding employability through a skills based approach Skills useful to gain employment self presentation interview practice individual learning styles work-experience projects Skills valued by future employers leadership negotiation working in groups technical skills for using social media Academic skills development report writing research skills referencing individual / group presentations

Student feedback 128 student participated. Positive feedback for programme. Wanted activities to be credit bearing. Overall Oral and written communication, ICT, numeracy and data analysis, Creativity and decision making, Planning, Ability to deal with pressure. Most helpful in developing skills in: Project management skills, Entrepreneurial skills. Also helped develop:

Staff feedback  Timing of sessions - link skills to programme.  Vary duration of sessions (1-2 hours).  Guide students through existing resources – don’t just tell them about them.  Paper based pre-booking for sessions problematic.  Recording attendance to award certificates, resource intensive.

Conclusion  Senior Management Team support.  Financial constraints of additional ‘bolted-on’ sessions.  New 20 credit module ‘Developing the Professional’.  Improved understanding of postgraduates own perceptions of skills.  Better staff and student engagement in skills- based programmes.

Julie Prior QUESTIONS?