Professional capabilities in non-vocational subject disciplines Gwyneth Tyrer, Terry Dray, Joanne Ives and Mantz Yorke
Contents Page Preface 3 1. Executive summary 4 2. The policy background 5 3. The research 6 3.1 Methodology 6 3.2 Ethical issues 7 3.3 Results 7 3.4 Employers expectations 14 3.5 Some issues more focused on higher education 17 4. Discussion 20 4.1 Perspectives on employability 20 4.2 Matters arising from the present study 26 5. References 28 6. Acknowledgements 30 2
Preface A great deal of research has focussed on employers expectations of graduates and has informed employability support for students in higher education. Indeed, Pedagogy for Employability i demonstrated that a variety of good practice and approaches to the provision of employability support exists within HEIs. However, assessing the impact and the relevance of employability support and meeting the expectations of stakeholders remains challenging. This small-scale study funded by the HEA and conducted by staff at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) is innovative in that it assesses the extent to which selected programmes of study at LJMU allow for the development of the professionally relevant capabilities expected by retail employers. As the report states, by making an explicit link between employers expectations and higher education provision, it has the potential to stimulate informed engagement between the stakeholders (higher education institutions, students, employers) as well as contributing to developments in higher education provision. The Higher Education Academy is delighted to have supported this small scale study and hope that the methodology and the findings provided stimulate debate within higher education institutions and support employability policy and practice. Maureen Tibby HEA Academic Lead-Employability 3
1. Executive summary This small-scale study within a single institution explored the relationship between retail employers wish that graduates exercise professionally relevant capabilities and a sample of curricula in non-vocational subjects. The subjects were chosen in response to inquiry from ten large retail companies about the subject backgrounds of recent graduate recruits. The assessment requirements of students in the selected programmes of study were tabulated. The tabulations showed that the University s policy of fostering employability was generally being implemented, though there were some marked variations between programmes. Structured conversations were held with programme leaders (and in two cases an additional colleague), based on the assessment tabulations for their particular programmes and on some broader aspects of employability that figured strongly in employers wishes. These revealed that the curriculum specifications did not fully represent the employability-oriented experiences offered to the students. Put simply, more employability-related activities were going on than would meet the casual eye. The evidence from this study suggests that higher education and employers do not always share a commonality of understanding about the former s efforts to develop graduates professional capabilities, and that translation between one milieu and the other could prove beneficial to both parties. The study concentrated on larger employers in the retail sector, where a general graduate capability is typically preferred. In some sectors, subject-specific achievements play a larger part in recruitment. The situation may be different again in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises which, given their economic importance, merit further study along the lines of the present one. 4
2. The policy background Contemporary higher education policy stresses the connection between higher education and economic prosperity. A key part of this policy (which in the UK can be tracked back beyond the Dearing Report [NCIHE 1997] and the preceding Enterprise in higher education initiative to the Robbins Report [Committee on Higher Education 1963]) is the work-readiness of young graduates. Work-readiness encompasses not only academic achievement, but also a slew of professionally relevant capabilities (a combination of attributes and generic skills ; hereafter, professional capabilities ) that enable young graduates to be effective in workplaces. A weakness of the work on employability 1 that has taken place in the past decade or so is that employers have not been as fully engaged as they might have been in respect of the response of higher education to policy initiatives in the general area of employability. The same is true to some extent in respect of students, though students were represented in the Enhancing Student Employability Enhancement Team (ESECT) funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) between 2002 and 2005. A continuing issue is the extent to which higher education and employers share (or do not) a view about the relationship between them, as identified in terms of graduates professional capabilities. To what extent are differences of view a matter of a mismatch between the capabilities that graduates carry into the world of work and employers expectations a suggestion aired by Mason et al. (2006)? Or is the matter more complex? the research literature strongly indicates that, while progress has been made concerning HEI [higher education institutions] responses to employers needs, there is still much to be done to foster a shared understanding across employers, HEI and other stakeholders of graduate employability and how to promote it. [ ] there are still significant issues in terms of differences in mindset and expectations between some HEIs, employers and other stakeholders concerning who should be responsible for developing the skills of graduates. Lowden et al. (2011: 8) Liverpool John Moores University has taken an institution-wide approach to career development and employability the World of Work Programme. The Programme, which is managed by the World of Work Careers Centre, is co-designed, codeveloped and co-delivered with many employer partners, who systematically help to define and verify world of work skills; two employer groups actively support the Programme. There are three levels of award in the Programme: Bronze (which is compulsory), focusing on self-awareness (covering emotional intelligence, strengths and weaknesses, etc.); Silver (voluntary), focusing on organisational awareness (including workplace culture, business ethics and seeing organisations in the context of the external environment); and Gold (voluntary), focusing on making things happen (dealing with project management and creative and strategic thinking). In the summer of 2013 more than 7,000 students were actively engaged in the Programme. This University-wide approach provides the context within which the present study was conducted. The research project reported here, by making an explicit link between employers expectations and higher education provision, has the potential to stimulate informed engagement between the stakeholders (higher education institutions, students, employers) as well as contributing to developments in higher education provision. 1 Graduate attributes is roughly equivalent as a label, and is the preferred term in Australia (Barrie 2006) and in some UK institutions. 5
Number of graduates 3. The research The overarching issue addressed by this study is the extent to which curricular provision in subject disciplines relates to the expectations of large retail employers, where the connection between academic achievements and the demands of the workplace can be relatively indirect. The research has four components: The identification of what a sample of employers say they desire to see in graduate recruits, and what they find is the case in practice. An analysis of the assessment demands of a sample of curricula from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), which tend not to have an explicit employment-related focus. The choice of assessment demand as the focus reflects what the programme is able to affirm (via the assessment specified in module handbooks) about its graduates achievements. Clarification with programme leaders, via discussion, of the nature of the kinds of achievement expected of their students. A reflective commentary on the relationship between the perspectives of academic programmes and employers expectations regarding the development and evidencing of professional capabilities. This study focuses on generic professional capabilities: achievements in specific subject disciplines are, for the purposes of this study, taken as a given. 3.1 Methodology The starting point for the project was the identification, from ten large retail employers 2 with whom the World of Work Careers Centre had established contacts, of the spread of recently recruited graduates subject disciplines. Following an initial telephone call to these employers, the contacts were sent an email message asking for this information 3. The result of this inquiry gave the distribution shown in Figure 1, where red indicates clear relevance to retail business; blue indicates subjects not specifically oriented towards retail business, which involve professional-body accreditation; and green indicates subjects not specifically oriented towards retail business. Figure 1: The 20 most frequent degree subjects of graduates hired by ten large retail organisations 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 2 Two of these contracted out their recruitment to third parties. 3 A number of the employers commented during an initial telephone conversation that they had not been asked for this type of information for a research project and would consequently be interested in the findings from the research report. 6
Not surprisingly, the majority of graduate recruits possessed a business-related degree (red in Figure 1). A substantial minority, however, had been recruited from disciplinary backgrounds with generally no direct relevance to retail business (blue and green), though some students of Economics and Law might have taken their studies in the direction of business. Subsequently, these employers completed a short online survey focusing on professional capabilities: what they expected graduates to have; where they looked for this evidence; and what they would expect to have to develop upon recruitment. Programmes in the University were identified that related to the subject disciplines included in Figure 6, but for which there was no straightforward link to employment in retail business, and/or for which assessment was not influenced by the requirements of a professional body, i.e. the selected programmes related to the subjects coloured green in Figure 1. Four programmes were in the humanities and social sciences, and two had a scientific basis. For convenience, and to preserve the programmes anonymity, the former group are coded HSS1 to HSS4 and the latter coded S1 and S2. For this study, the precise nature of the programmes is in any case not a matter of importance. The module handbooks available on the University s intranet were examined and an initial mapping of the assessment demand was made for each and assembled into a table. These analyses had to be global for the subject discipline concerned, since students on each of the programmes had available to them a range of pathways through the University s modular scheme. This mapping exercise formed the basis of a series of conversations with five of the six programme leaders (in two cases a second member of the programme team was present), where the issues relating to capabilities and assessment were explored. 4 Conversations with lecturers took place either in their own offices or in an office at the relevant school campus. Notes and an audio recording were taken during the conversations, all of which lasted approximately an hour. 3.2 Ethical issues The ethical issues associated with this study relate to the need to report in such a way that individual programmes and programme leaders are not identifiable. There are no ethical issues related to students since their performances are not part of the study. The employers who contributed to this study have also not been named. 3.3 Results (a) Employer perspectives The capabilities most often mentioned by the contacted employers as being sought in graduate recruits are shown in Table 1, along with their views of the capabilities most often, and least often, demonstrated by graduate recruits. Table 2 shows the capabilities identified by employers which they know are frequently developed outside higher education, and also capabilities which need to be developed once appointed to post. Table 1: Capabilities most frequently mentioned by the contacted employers Capability Most often shown Least often shown Communication (and listening) x Team-working and collaboration x Influencing and negotiating x Leadership x Problem-solving x Customer focus and service x Sales acumen and commerciality Innovative and adaptable Personal effectiveness x Motivation, passion, energy* x * Attributes rather than capabilities. 4 The leader of programme S2 proved unavailable during the period set aside for conversations regarding assessment. 7
Table 2: Capabilities identified by employers which are developed outside higher education / need to develop once appointed Capabilities developed outside higher education Work experience Team-work Influencing and negotiating Achievements (including sporting) Business knowledge / financial skills Customer focus / service Extra-curricular activities Charity work / DofE / travel Leadership Values-led behaviour Most often cited Least often cited Capabilities graduates need to develop once appointed Communication and influencing and negotiating Planning and organising Personal effectiveness Leadership / business leadership Professional skills Managing career Networking skills Driving their own development Commercial awareness Expectations; realistic approach; generally adapting to the world of work; humility; resilience; authenticity; innovation (b) Assessment profiles The programme assessment analyses are given in Tables 3a to 3f. It should be remembered that the assessment profiles that the Tables present are for the totality of the modules covered by each programme; in practice students will sample from whatever options are on offer. Key for Tables 3a to 3f WOW Bronze = World of Work Bronze Award Review / Eval = review or evaluative assignment (broadly interpreted) Poster / Pres = poster or presentation work, some being group activities Reflect / Blog = reflective exercises of various kinds Particip n = class contribution, and in some instances including attendance Indep St Plan / Work = planning for / producing a significant independent study CW = coursework of various kinds Prefixes to (artificial) module codes reflect the level in the Qualifications Framework, thus L4 refers to Level 4 Orange shading indicates a clear relationship between the assessment requirement and professional capabilities; green shading indicates other kinds of assessment (which may cover professional capabilities). 8
Table 3a: Profiles of assessment in the sampled programmes HSS1 WoW Bronze Exam Plan / Essay Review / Eval Portfolio Poster / Pres Reflect / Blog L4-1 x xx x L4-2 x/x L4-3 x xx L4-4 x x Particip n Indep st plan / Work L5-1 x x x Database Exercise L5-2 x /x L5-3 x /x L5-4 x /x L5-5 /x x x L5-6 /x x x L5-7 x x /x x L6-1 x x L6-2 x x x L6-3 x /x L6-4 x /x L6-5 /x x L6-6 x x x L6-7 x/x L6-8 /x x /x Other 9
Table 3b: Profiles of assessment in the sampled programmes HSS2 WoW Bronze Exam Plan / Essay L4-1 x /x Review / Eval Portfolio L4-2 x x Poster / Pres L4-3 x x L4-4 x /x Reflect / Blog Particip n Indep st plan / Work L4-5 x /x Group assignment L4-6 x x L5-1 /x CW L5-2 /x x L5-3 /x x x L5-4 x /x L5-5 xx x Other L5-6 /x Job+org report L5-7 x /x L5-8 x /x L6-1 x CW L6-2 GDC Passport L6-3 x L6-4 x /x L6-5 x/x L6-6 x /x L6-7 /x x x L6-8 x x L6-9 /x x x x x 10
Table 3c: Profiles of assessment in the sampled programmes HSS3 WoW Bronze Exam Plan / Essay Review / Eval Portfolio Poster / Pres L4-1 x x L4-2 x /x Reflect / Blog Particip n Indep st plan / Work Other L4-3 x x Report L4-4 /xx x L5-1 x x/ L5-2 /xx L5-3 x x L5-4 x /x x L5-5 x x L5-6 /x x x L6-1 x x L6-2 GDC Passport L6-3 x L6-4 x /x L6-5 x L6-6 x x L6-7 x/x L6-8 /x x x L6-9 /x x L6-10 /x x Report x x 11
Table 3d: Profiles of assessment in the sampled programmes HSS4 WoW Bronze Exam Plan / Essay Review / Eval Portfolio Poster / Pres Reflect / Blog Particip n Indep st plan / Work Other L4-1 CW x 2 L4-2 x /x x/ L4-3 x x L4-4 x L5-1 x x/x x L5-2 /x x L5-3 x x L5-4 x/ CW L5-5 /x x CW L5-6 /x x L5-7 /x CW L5-8 /x x x CW L5-9 /x x x L5-10 x/ CW L5-11 /x x x/ L5-12 /xx x/ L5-13 x x CW L5-14 /xx x L6-1 x/x L6-2 x CW L6-3 /x x L6-4 x CW L6-5 x x L6-6 xx L6-7 /x x L6-8 x x /x L6-9 /x x L6-10 /x x x 12
Table 3e: Profiles of assessment in the sampled programmes S1 WoW Bronze Exam Plan / Essay Review / Eval Portfolio Poster / Pres L4-1 x x x L4-2 x x Reflect / Blog Partic ip n Ind. st plan / Work L4-3 x x CW L4-4 xx L4-5 xx Lab Report L5-1 xxx x Other L5-2 CW x 2 L5-3 xx Lab Report L5-4 x x Lab Report L5-5 x x Experiment Report L5-6 x /x L6-1 x Lab Report L6-2 x xx L6-3 x x L6-4 x Lab Report x 2 L6-5 x x Lab Report L6-6 x x CW L6-7 x x x 13
Table 3f: Profiles of assessment in the sampled programmes HSS2 WoW Bronze Exam Plan / Essay Review / Eval Portfolio Poster / Pres Reflect / Blog Partic ip n Ind. st plan / Work L4-1 x D base ex. L4-2 CW L4-3 x CW L4-4 x L5-1 x CW L5-2 x CW, D base ex. L5-3 x x L5-4 x Simulation, CW L5-5 x x CV & cover letter L6-1 x Simulation; CW L6-2 x CW L6-3 x x L6-4 x x Other L6-5 Unstated Making allowance for students choosing different pathways through their programme, the profiles of assessment tasks nevertheless vary considerably between the programmes even between programmes that most would regard as cognate. Some programmes appear, more than others, to offer a wide range of assessments in which an employability dimension is readily discernible. However, as conversations with programme leaders revealed, there may be more employability-related achievements embedded in what the students are expected to be able to demonstrate than appear in the Tables. Examples of ambiguity can be found, for instance, in the Reflect/Blog columns where some assessment requirements are clearly linked to professional capabilities but any such relationship is unclear in others. (c) Themes from conversations with programme leaders This section is divided into two parts, somewhat artificially since their respective contents do overlap. The first part concentrates on abilities that appear prominently in employers expectations, whereas the second addresses matters of greater interest to higher education institutions. 3.4 Employers expectations Team-working/collaboration As Tables 3a to 3f show, group work figures in all the selected programmes from the humanities and social sciences, albeit to a varying extent. As one might expect, group work is not to every student s taste: [Group-work] gets a variable response. As they will have variable experiences. We stress to them [that] when you go out into the world of work you re going to be working in teams, you re going to have to deal with differences. You re going to have to deal with someone not pulling their weight. We do very much try to impose on them that it s their responsibility, that the way that the group works is their responsibility. (HSS3) 14
Further, individuals on programme HSS3 are encouraged to reflect on their work within the team. In programme HSS1: Creating a poster [is] a group-work exercise. They do it as a group-work exercise, they have to plan it as a group, they have to assemble the information all sorts of stuff that students resent but actually it s damn good for them when they do it. Implicit in group-working are two aspects of professional capability that are of relevance to employers: influencing and negotiating, and leadership. However, some students will be better placed than others to demonstrate these, though such demonstration is difficult to capture in assessment. Communication The ability to communicate is consistently high in the list of employers requirements of new graduates, often expressed in terms of oral communication. Tables 3a to 3f show that the selected programmes, with the possible exception of S2, involve students in various kinds of presentation, often in ways that require them to ensure that the messages are crisp and tailored to a particular kind of audience. Students are strongly discouraged from reading from a prepared text or PowerPoint slides: they have to know the content sufficiently well to speak freely about what they are displaying. In programmes HSS3 and HSS1, for example, presentations are expected early on: We do start this off really, really early in fact, we get them into groups at induction and give them a task which they then later bring to class as a poster and it s very interesting to get them to start their posters. This is early on in level 4 so they re all very new to each other, they re still developing their friendships. We go round the room and talk about each of the presentations constructively and ask students to comment on what s good and how it might be enhanced and it s even about the size of the font,... whether there are any images, or whether you need a little more introduction to the topic. It s really useful to students: it s a kind of ice-breaker and starts the group-work thing. (HSS3) In the first year they do a presentation on a piece of work they ve done. It s a 10-minute presentation in class. They speak for 7 or 8 minutes (we encourage them to use PowerPoint), with 2 minutes questions at the end. At the end of that we give them individual feedback. When we do this for the first time, we re always very supportive. [ ] We do a lot of work on getting students to actually ask questions. (HSS1) In the latter programme, there is an expectation that students responding to questions will think on their feet: they are not penalised for doing poorly in this respect, but good responses can boost the mark the presenter receives. In HSS3 some presentations are formalised at a local conference centre with the programme also including visiting speakers. It s very much like what one might do for a professional conference. So students will be asked to research a particular issue but present the data in a different way rather than writing a report or writing an essay. It s about presentation and thinking about how you present it to a different audience in a different sort of way. You obviously can t put as much information on as you can if you re writing a report so you have to think about well, what are the important things; what is the message I want to get across; how to make it more meaningful for people who are only seeing this part of it. Problem-solving Problem-solving was seen as a component of the programmes in the humanities and social sciences as well as in S1. The nature of the subject area determined the nature of the problem to be solved, and some problems were of different range to others. As the leader of HSS2 put it, regarding problem-solving: I think it s integral to nearly everything we do. For social sciences in fact... there isn t necessarily one truth... you need to pull different elements together and try to come to your understanding of what the situation is. We have workshops... and they will be doing that on a weekly basis. [ ] It [problem-solving] is their most sellable skill. The leader of HSS3 pointed to the action-oriented nature of problem-solving in that programme: Problem-solving will be about identifying social issues and inequalities and those sorts of things. It s about the philosophy of [the subject] here [ ] there is no point in doing any research unless there is going to have some effect in making things better for people. [ ] looking at [data relating to] Merseyside that s a problem and how can we solve it? 15
Numeracy In all the programmes in the humanities and social sciences there were opportunities to engage with numerical data local and national datasets, statistical analyses of texts, financial records of organisations, and so on. Programme HSS2, for example, explicitly built in the handling of numerical data: Research methods, SPSS, they are encouraged to engage with the technology in terms of research which uses GIS technology. We introduce [named national dataset] to them in the first year in second year we [develop] much more solid quantitative expertise. [ ] It s very important to get them [numerical skills] in there. Reflection Reflection was not particularly prominent in the assessment schedules for the selected programmes, but conversations with programme leaders revealed that it was a significant part of their programmes. The World of Work Bronze Award requires a reflective response to initial feedback on a self-analysis submission, and reflection occurs during sessions devoted to personal development planning. The leader of HSS2, for example, noted: Meet with all tutees individually that is a time when you encourage reflection about their academic performance, employment in the future, and also how they can utilise their performance so far to try and achieve their goals. Though reflection was incorporated in programme S1, the leader suggested that more might be done in this respect: Probably what we need to do is teach the students about reflection generally in other fields so, reflection is used in medicine with practitioners a lot, it is used in nursing it s not a [named subject] thing, but is about how you develop well as a practitioner A problem with reflection is that students do not necessarily get it at the outset. The leader of S1 went on to remark: For some students they grasp it and they appreciate the importance of it. I think the thing with reflection is that students find it dull. And until they re 5 years into their career the penny doesn t really drop as to how important it really is. And for that reason a lot of the students go through the motions, if you like, they just do it. Cultural awareness Cultural awareness is arguably underplayed in employer organisations listings. This may be because culture is construed by some employers as relating to foreign countries with which they do not do business, rather than to a more general appreciation of diversity. Probably beyond the focus of attention here is the issue of the culture of the organisation itself, which is also of importance. Some of the programmes in this study made a point of engaging their students in activities beyond the shores of the UK, which must surely enhance their understanding of different national cultures. HSS3, for example, arranges for its students to do a research project in a foreign setting: This year the students went to Nepal where the member of our team has a lot of contacts. Before they go, they write a proposal about some research or something they want to investigate whilst they are there and they make connections if they can and start their networking from here which they then follow up there. So there are all these sorts of transferable skills that students will have developed In HSS4, students have had to find their own placements in the United States and sort out all their travel and accommodation arrangements, and to come to terms with living in a different cultural environment. While in the US, they are required to write three blogs that demonstrate, inter alia, their cultural awareness. Ethical awareness Although none of the employers contacted for this study mentioned the issue, a sensitivity to ethical issues is important. HSS3 makes a point of bringing ethics into its students work: We have very much taken the stance of if we encourage our students to do it in an ethical way we re concentrating specifically on entrepreneurship but within an ethical [framework] and we re thinking about social enterprise. 16
Personal attributes With varying degrees of explicitness and implicitness, the sampled programmes provided opportunities for students to demonstrate and/or develop a range of personal attributes the discussions with programme leaders provided plenty of testimony in support of the modules over which they presided. As the leader of HSS4 remarked, in respect of the programme s opportunity for students to spend a period in the United States: Students have to find their own work in the States, and have to reflect on the experience and skills they are gaining from the whole process from making the phone calls, sending the e-mails and all of that. [They have to] reflect on their personal characteristics. It s very striking to us how their confidence develops, their articulateness and they reflect on that for themselves and that s built into assessment. Perhaps not as obviously as some aspects of provision, dissertations and projects were seen as developing a range of capabilities as well as requiring positive personal characteristics (such as motivation, initiative, commitment and perseverance) if students were to be successful. As the leader of HSS1 put it: I would suggest [completing] a dissertation shows high order skills. [ ] if you re looking for high order skills and personal character (application, ingenuity, willingness to take the initiative), that s probably when you see it in spades. So ironically the very things that are often pilloried as being traditionally academic are actually the ones that generate the sorts of skills that employers say they want. A student could not do well without giving evidence of a high level of engagement. The leader of HSS4 noted that, in the current economic climate, graduates would need to explore opportunities for employment beyond simply going to a graduate careers fair they would need to take the initiative to hunt out opportunities in smaller organisations. 3.5 Some issues more focused on higher education Employability The development of students employability is a tenet of policy at LJMU, with the World of Work Bronze Award being a required component of curricula (the more advanced Silver and Gold Awards are voluntary). The connection between employability and academic work is not always made as clear as it might be, as the leader of HSS2 admitted: I think that there is a realisation within higher education that employability and graduate skills have to be integral in the curriculum. I think that the GDC 5 and John Moores policy at a general level have made us within the programme think about that in much more detail and maybe try to articulate where it is in our non-vocational subject areas There [have] been academic articles written about employability and how the skills are inherent to humanities students but we don t necessarily market it as such. An orientation towards employability pre-existed its formalisation in University policy, as the leader of HSS3 remarked: Before they introduced the World of Work programme we were doing those activities, students were getting those skills. The difference is that it s been formalised putting a neon sign on it. We ve always produced graduates with a certain set of skills that are attractive to employers. Programme leaders reported that the compulsory nature of specifically employability-related components of curricula did not find favour with some students, even though as the leader of HSS1 forcefully stated his colleagues defended the approach to students: I think part of the problem has been this kind of assertion that there will have to be a module that covers career planning... students have to do it and there is very little we can do about that. And we defend it quite fiercely with the students we argue that it is going to have benefits but the students I should say a large proportion of students don t buy it. It s the element of compulsion that s the problem. 5 The Graduate Development Centre, now renamed the World of Work Careers Centre. 17
A colleague commented: A lot of the academic staff haven t bought into this. It s as if they apologise to the student. I m afraid you ve got to do the employability. It gives the message to the student that this is something that s not of the same value as the rest of the course. Mature students (there were relatively small numbers of them on the sampled programmes) tended to dislike covering ground that they felt had already been covered. One mature student in HSS4 had written on a module feedback form: I do not feel this module has been any good to me whatsoever. I d have preferred another regular taught module [...] I really appreciate the work the tutors are doing... I can understand how many students will benefit from this module and the requirements about how actively to seek work but strongly suggest that for mature students an alternative is offered... In contrast, one student in his sixties was said to have enjoyed the employability-related work in the HSS2 programme. Students on HSS4 tended to be highly critical of work-related activities on their programme. However, when it came to putting the work to practical use, such as when preparing for their placement in the US: They ve never complained over writing a résumé because they have to write a résumé. As the leader of HSS3 put it: Students have differing reactions they react in the same way as they react to us asking them to do study skills initially, why am I being asked to do this? A student wrote his reflection on doing these in the first year at the time he didn t see the value but now he can see that it has been so valuable to him. A colleague added: I d echo that. Students are very focused on the academic discipline the modules they see as add-ons tend to be thrown at them, it s not until they re asked to reflect on it that they see the value we ask our alumni to come back and speak to our current students. Programme-level assessment A continuing issue for modular programmes is the relationship between the learning outcomes specified for the modules and those specified for the programme as a whole. The issue is made more complex when students can take differing pathways through the programme. The leader of S1 had, shortly after taking over the role, presented to staff at an away day a schedule of assessments for the whole programme. With module leaders perhaps focusing on their particular parts of the programme, the leader remarked: If I m completely honest, I don t think that a lot of staff think about the bigger picture in terms of employability, and when they re designing assessment. Hence why I m trying to take that programme level. A similar concern was expressed by the leader of HSS1: One of the things we need to do is to sit down and think about assessment across the whole of the programme. Portfolios There is a maximum limit set by the University of three assessment items per 24-credit module. A portfolio counts as one assessment, and is employed in some modules as a way of allowing an ongoing series of assessments with formative feedback, which would otherwise cause the assessment limit to be exceeded. In other cases the portfolio acts more as a device for circumventing bureaucratic restrictions. While indicating that one portfolio was composed of two essays, the programme leader of HSS2 concerned told how a portfolio was used elsewhere in the programme as a progressive learning and assessment device: 18
They have some portfolios which actually are portfolios, which students build up over the year which is composed of different elements of assessment which they present at the end of the year for summative assessment and they get a formative assessment as they take that forward during the year. When it s done appropriately and properly it s done really well The leader of HSS4 noted, similarly, that a portfolio was a device to sequence a series of formative assessments that might not otherwise be undertaken. Work-related activities Placements in enterprises or voluntary organisations were a feature of the programmes selected for this study in some, totalling 70 hours. These placements contributed significantly to the University s commitment to developing the employability of its students. The personal circumstances of a few students meant that this aspect of their studies was not conducted in a setting where there was a connection with the specific subject being studied. The leader of HSS2 noted that the lack of fit with the academic discipline presented a problem: Students who have employment being a carer for a relative, they can use that as a basis; we have students working in M&S they can use that as their employability.... it throws up some interesting dilemmas of things in terms of [how the placement fits with the academic content of a programme as a whole]. The programmes all had significant connections with organisations and people capable of assisting their students to appreciate working environments. Alumni were increasingly being seen as a resource to this end. The leader of HSS3 said: Within the professional development the work-based learning module... we ask our alumni to come back and speak with our current students because it s all well and good us seeing the value of it, but I want the students to understand the reason we are asking [them] to do this in the first place. [ ] We ve got a guest speaker series where I m building a network of stakeholders from local industry industry in the widest sense organisations, charitable organisations, people working in self-employment, different schemes that are going around Merseyside... actually around the northwest, not just Merseyside. In this particular programme, the assessment of student work involved some external stakeholders as well. In HSS2, the engagement of external speakers provided an opportunity for students to offer their services as voluntary workers. Knowing one s students As the leaders of HSS2 and HSS4 were at pains to mention, knowing their students and their achievements (both academic and work-related) was of key importance when making recommendations regarding work placements or references for jobs. 19
4. Discussion 4.1 Perspectives on employability A report by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) based on 235 employers (AGR 2006) noted that the following capabilities and attributes were the most sought after, in order of importance to their business: Commitment and drive Motivation and enthusiasm Team-working Oral communication Flexibility and adaptability Customer focus Problem solving Managing learning and career Commercial awareness Planning and organisation Time management Leadership Numeracy Cultural sensitivity Computer literacy Project management Report writing Risk taking/enterprise. Setting these against their perceived availability in graduates produced Figure 2. Figure 2: Perceived importance of attributes and capabilities to employers businesses and their perceived availability in graduates. Source: AGR (2006: Tables 4.13 and 4.14). Ratings were on a 4-point scale from -2 to +2. 1.4 AVAILABILITY 1.2 Computer literacy 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 Oral comm Flex/adapt Commit 0.2 Report writing Cultur sensit Customer focus 2nd language Manage career Problem solving 0.0-1.0-0.5 0.0 0.5 Project mgt 1.0 1.5 2.0-0.2 IMPORTANCE -0.4 Risk/enterprise Numeracy Time mgt Leadership Plan/org Teamwk Motiv'n -0.6 Commercial awareness -0.8 20
A survey conducted for AGR by a different agency two years later focused on the shortfalls that 242 employers predicted in graduate recruits (Figure 3). Figure 3: Predicted shortfalls in hard and soft skills from a sample of 242 employers. Source: AGR (2008: 33-4). Other unspecified shortfalls omitted. HARD SKILLS Writing skills Leadership skills Project management Numeracy skills Fluency in a foreign language Administration Basic computer skills SOFT SKILLS Communication Managing your own learning Independent working Motivation Problem solving Analytical skills Organisation Team working skills Confidence Cultural sensitivity 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 The International Employment Barometer (IEB) survey run in late 2007 showed considerable similarity of perspective to that of the 2006 AGR report, this time across 233 differing employers. The IEB survey concentrated on the ten most important skills and capabilities when recruiting new graduates: the overall picture is presented in Table 4. 6 Table 4: The ten most important skills and capabilities in the recruitment of new graduates. Source: Archer and Davison (2008: 7). Skill or capability Percentage agreeing Communication skills 86 Team-working skills 85 Integrity 83 Intellectual ability 81 Confidence 80 Character / personality 75 Planning and organisational skills 74 Literacy (good writing skills) 71 Numeracy (good with numbers) 68 Analysis and decision-making skills 67 Three of the above list should not be termed skills or capabilities: integrity, confidence and character / personality are attributes which may well be developed during a student s time in higher education but might only be assessed (using the term 6 For a breakdown by employer type, see Archer and Davison (2008: 7). 21
broadly) indirectly or directly during some form of employment-related experience. The Employability Skills Framework that emerged from a project in Australia (Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Business Council of Australia, 2002) contained a list of desirable attributes longer than in most employability-related reports: Loyalty Commitment Honesty and integrity Enthusiasm Reliability Personal presentation Common sense Positive self-esteem Sense of humour Balanced attitude to work and home life Ability to deal with pressure Motivation Adaptability The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) (2007: 12) included the overarching attribute of a positive attitude 7 to its list of employability skills : Self-management Team working Business and customer awareness Problem solving Communication and literacy Application of numeracy Application of information technology The list subsequently expanded: entrepreneurship was added a couple of years later (CBI 2009). Later, skill surveys were commissioned, in which employers were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction with graduates employability skills (the most recent data are shown in Figure 5). Figure 5: Employers satisfaction with graduates employability skills. Source: CBI (2012: 35). Use of IT Basic numeracy skills Basic literacy and use of English Analysis skills Positive attitude to work Problem solving Knowledge about their chosen job/career Teamworking Self-management Very satisfied Satisfied Not satisfied Relevant work experience International cultural awareness Business and customer awareness Foreign language skills 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 7 Andrews and Russell (2010: 39) noted that, in their study which had a number of similarities with the present study, The CBI emphasis on a positive attitude was initially omitted from the survey on the basis that it is an attribute rather [than] a skill, and therefore difficult to develop and virtually impossible to assess. 22
Professional capabilities The term professional capabilities is used here to focus on the combination of attributes and generic skills that employers over the years have valued, and acknowledges that in work settings success depends on an amalgam of attributes and abilities that will vary from situation to situation. For the purposes of this study, subject-specific aspects of achievement are set to one side. In practice, of course, academic achievements and professional capabilities overlap to a considerable extent: in their work on employability, Knight and Yorke (2004) were at pains to stress that employability and good (academic) learning were constructively inter-related, rather than oppositional, concepts a perspective explicitly adopted by Barrow et al. (2010) in the Classical Civilisation BA programme at Roehampton University. The relationship can be depicted as an analogue of the parallelogram of forces that those who have studied Physics will recall, where the resultant of two forces can be larger than either force on its own (Figure 6a). Programmes vary in the relative weightings that they give to academic achievements and professional capabilities, and hence the lengths of the sides of the parallelogram will vary, as will the magnitude and direction of the resultant indeed, if academic achievements and professional capabilities are construed as fairly oppositional, then the resultant can be quite small (Figure 6b). Figures 6a and 6b: Illustrations of the inter-relationship between academic achievements and professional capabilities a Professional capabilities Academic achievements b Professional capabilities Academic achievements A longstanding issue has been the match between what employers expect from, and what higher education curricula seek to develop in, new graduates. In some subject areas the match is explicit: for example, in nursing, social work, engineering and law the accreditation process of the relevant professional/statutory body establishes a set of expectations of new graduates. In subject areas where there is no clear linkage between higher education curricula and a segment of the world of work, the issue of the development in graduates of professional capabilities is much less straightforward. Large employers in the retail sector typically run programmes designed to induct newly graduated employees into the needs of their particular workplaces. In appointing new graduates, their approach could be summarised as it does not matter what academic subject the graduate studied provided that s/he can demonstrate a range of achievements and personal attributes that offer the prospect that they will be an asset to our workforce. This is often articulated in the recruitment literature in phrases such as students from any academic discipline are encouraged to apply. Glass et al. (2008) found that a minority of employers in their case studies 8 recruited graduates on the basis of their specific technical skills. The majority of the employers providing case studies saw a degree as an indicator that the graduate would possess an acceptable level of competence. 8 Twenty-three of the 30 enterprises in their sample had between 10 and 249 employees, so these researchers were not paying much attention to large companies. 23
Running through the literature on employers preferences is a strong theme of a desire for as Archer and Davison (2008: 8) put it universities to: equip graduates with deep intellectual capabilities and a battery of applied practical skills which make them more work-ready. The word more in the above quotation is important, since employers expect that new recruits will, in general, need a bit of time to grow into their jobs. Hinchliffe and Jolly (2011: 570), for example, note from an online survey of 105 varied employers that: the majority of employers require graduates to perform to expectation by the end of the first year, with many attributes required on appointment. This judgement is not confined to smaller businesses, but applies across all sectors and sizes of organisation. Hinchliffe and Jolly (ibid.) go on to observe that: it is clearly those personal ethical qualities of honesty, integrity and trust that are expected at appointment, ahead of any other skill or competence. Moreover, technical skills are not expected to be as highly developed as so-called soft skills (e.g., listening skills, ability to integrate). [ ] [F]or many employers, less is expected regarding technical skills than the one thing that all graduates are presumably good at: the ability to present ideas clearly, both verbally and in writing. Indeed, the ability to demonstrate cultural and social awareness, on appointment, comes ahead of IT skills. This observation aligns with many of the statements emanating from employment-related organisations, where personal attributes figure strongly in the lists of qualities expected of new graduates. Ashton (2011) observes, in respect of study in a university-operated industry-facing media production studio, that professionalism is not ideologically neutral it is culturally normative. However, the norms may take on a different colouring in media and creative industries from those in other workplace environments. Hinchliffe and Jolly pick up the theme of graduate identity that Holmes has discussed in a number of papers (see, for instance, Holmes 2001, 2013). Like Holmes, they are critical of lists of skills and attributes, seeing these as prompting a tick-box notion of appraisal that draws attention away from the more holistic aspect of graduateness. 9 They propose a concept of graduate identity that encompasses value, intellect, social engagement and performance. One might construe intellect in terms of Ryle s (1949) knowing that or theory, and social engagement and performance in terms of knowing how or practice, all of which is influenced by values. But without personal attributes such as integrity, initiative and perseverance, coupled with the ability to analyse (or reflect on) the performances of oneself and others, the graduate is unlikely to succeed in the wider world. Figure 7 is an attempt to capture the inter-relationships, though it misses the innate fuzziness and dynamism. 9 Though they do not cite it, they would probably have levelled the same criticism at the Higher Education Quality Council s notion of graduateness (see HEQC 1997). 24
Figure 7: Theory and practice, set in values and personal attributes Personal attributes Value system Practice Reflection Theory An alternative depiction would be to place the USEM (Understanding of subject; Skilful practices in context; Efficacy beliefs and personal qualities; Metacognition) approach to employability 10 in the centre circle of Figure 6, indicating considerable commonality with the graduate identity approach favoured by Holmes and by Hinchliffe and Jolly. The social dimension of graduate identity comes across clearly from Eraut s perspective on professional learning. Eraut (2010: 47) lists the following kinds of contribution to the personal knowledge that influences the level of success enjoyed as a professional: codified knowledge in the form(s) in which the person uses it; know-how in the form of skills and practices; personal understandings of people and situations; accumulated memories of cases and episodic events [...]; other aspects of personal expertise, practical wisdom and tacit knowledge; self-knowledge, attitudes, values and emotions. The list (which also acknowledges learning from experience 11 ) maps quite well on to both Stephenson s (1992) conception of capability and to the USEM perspective on employability (Yorke and Knight: 2006). The challenge in respect of assessing professional capabilities is, as Eraut (2004: 804) observed, that professional achievements are based on chunks of behaviour rather than on the exhibition of separate skills: treating [required competences] as separate bundles of knowledge and skills for assessment purposes fails to recognise that complex professional actions require more than several different areas of knowledge and skills. They all have to be integrated together in larger, more complex chunks of behaviour. This presents a palpable difficulty for those who desire to codify standards relating to professional capabilities. It also raises an implicit query about the usefulness of lists of desired characteristics that pervade the literature. 10 See, for example, Yorke and Knight (2006). 11 Learning from experience is not necessarily good, since the experience may be based on poor professional practice. 25