Transcript Document

‘What is Employability?’
Jane W Denholm
Critical Thinking
Enhancement Theme Roadshow
19 October 2004
Employability: developments
– Learning to Work by SFCs
– SfCs-sponsored longitudinal study of
learners by MORI/Critical Thinking
– Ongoing work of the big UK research
studies
– ESCET practical toolkits
Backdrop: Tomlinson Report, Burgess
Report
The session
Consider ‘what is employability’
using
Scoping Study Higher Education:
Higher Ambitions (Critical Thinking,
Policyworks, Scottish Council
Foundation 2003)
Other more recent research
New longitudinal study
commissioned by SFCs
Higher Education: Higher Ambitions
Scoping Study commissioned by
SHEFC and LearnDirect Scotland
Conducted by Critical Thinking,
Policyworks and the Scottish Council
Foundation in 2002-03
 literature review over 70 types of
written information
 supplemented by focus groups
with recent graduates
 a small number of interviews and
an expert seminar.
Available at:
www.criticalthinking.co.uk/comments
Higher Education: Higher Ambitions
Key sources
Great Expectations: the new diversity
of graduate skills and aspirations
(Purcell and Pitcher 1996)
Graduates’ Work: organisational
change and students’ attributes
(Harvey 1997)
Working Out? Graduates’ early
experiences of the labour market
(Purcell, Pitcher and Simm (1999)
Moving On: graduate careers three
years after graduation (Elias,
McKnight, Purcell and Pitcher 1999)
and Scotland’s Graduates….Moving
On (2001 abstract)
Enhancing Employability,
Recognising Diversity (Harvey/UUK
2002)
Employability-related initiatives
Enterprise in Higher Education
University for Industry
Employability PI
Foundation degrees
Employability’ issues:
Employers: ‘the system is not
meeting our needs’
Government: ‘there has been good
progress but more must be done’
Higher education institutions: ‘we’re
doing it already/it’s not our job’
Students and graduates: ‘help us to
help ourselves’
Definitions of ‘employability’
SFCs (2004) ‘a set of achievements – skills
understandings and personal attributes –
that make individuals more likely to gain
employment and be successful in their
chosen occupations’ (from Yorke/ESECT)
Hillage and Pollard (1998) ‘about being
capable of getting and keeping fulfilling
work…the capacity to move self-sufficiently
within the labour market’
Harvey (2002) ‘the propensity for the
individual student to get employment’
‘employability is the property of the
individual’ (Harvey 2002).
Aspects of employability
Assets
Deployment
Presentation
Context
(Hillage and Pollard, 1998)
Assets deployment presentation
context
Three components
– knowledge – what they know
– skills - what they do with what they
know
– attitudes – how they do it
Purcell and Pitcher (1996)
- Traditional academic skills (e.g.
specialist knowledge, logical
thinking, research skills,
communication skills)
- Personal development skills (e.g.
self-confidence, reliance,
motivation, creativity, desire to go
on learning)
and
- Enterprise or business skills (e.g
entrepreneurial skills, prioritising,
interpersonal, time management,
teamworking, leadership, risk-taking)
Assets deployment presentation
context
Knowledge
– largely from higher education
Skills and Attitudes
– some from higher education
– some from work experience and
extra curricular activities?
assets Deployment presentation
context
deployment is about a graduate
being able to manage their career,
search for jobs and adapt to and be
realistic about labour market
expectations
assets deployment Presentation
context
presentation is about the ability of
the graduate to demonstrate their
employability by presenting their
assets to employers
e.g. CVs, qualifications, references
and testimonials, interview
technique, work experience and track
record
assets deployment presentation
Context
the context in which the graduate is
seeking work is clearly going to have
a very important bearing upon their
employability
graduate has some control over:
choice of course, institution of study,
degree classification achieved
graduate has little or no control over:
age, gender, and social class,
employer ‘prejudices’, labour market
conditions
In 2004 we can conclude that:
lack of clarity of purpose and/or
leadership by government ….but this
is changing with the SFCs Learning
to Work Report
Significant proportion of graduates
are not as employable as they might
be, as quickly as they might be…but
there seem to be some simple and
effective remedies to begin to tackle
this
There is or could be consensus
about the main skills and attitudes
which graduates should
possess…which provides a base to
work from
Students do not think early enough
about their careers and how they are
going to manage to get the job they
want…but we can learn from
graduates and feed this back to
students
On Track Survey 2004-2009
Longitudinal study of a cohort of
leavers
7000 leavers from HEIs and FECs in
2004
approx: 15% of all leavers
first results December 2004/January
2005
The survey will track progress to
explore the impact of their learning
experience on their future paths of
employment and further study.
On Track Survey 2004-2009
On Track will to provide information
that will:
– help universities and colleges to
assess and improve their provision
and services to learners;
– help learners and potential learners
to make decisions about their
learning and career paths; and
– contribute to a better understanding
of how higher education institutions,
further education colleges,
employers, policy makers and others
can work together to help learners
develop the knowledge, skills and
understandings they need to make
the most of their potential
In 2004 we can conclude that:
Structured work experience is key
and yet still not widespread…and
may not be – other solutions?
Structured opportunities to reflect on
extra curricular experience is
growing but not widespread or
standardised…and there is no
agreement about who should be
responsible for supporting this
activity
The enhancement theme on
employability to grasp the nettle and
move the issues forward…