Transcript EBL and Employability - University of Manchester

EBL and Employability
Catherine Franc
University of Manchester
EBL in Languages
26 September 2008
The world is flat: employment
and globalisation
42% of the UK’s 18-21 year old study in
higher education
 1 million full time students
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Language graduates’ careers
3.5% of language students go into teaching
 21% of employers consider language skills
an important capability
 Language graduates ‘have the highest
employability rates of all humanities
graduates’, coming ‘second only to
graduates in more narrowly defined
vocational subjects such as dentistry.’
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Developing ‘soft’ skills
The Leitch Report (2006)
 ‘Graduates will play a vital role in creating
wealth and underpinning the UK’s
international competitiveness.’ Richard
Brown (CIHE)
 70% of employers consider soft skills vital
for potential graduate recrutees
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Skills favoured by employers
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Skills
Communication skills
Team-working skills
Integrity
Intellectual ability
Confidence
Character/personality
Planning and organisational skills
Literacy (good writing skills)
Numeracy (good with numbers)
% of employers favouring
these skills
86%
85%
83%
81%
80%
75%
74%
71%
68%
Analysis & decision-making skills
67%
Archer and Davidson, 2008
Employers satisfaction
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Importance rank
Commercial awareness
Analysis and
decision-making skills
Communication skills
Literacy
Passion
Relevant work experience
Planning and organisational skills
Confidence
Personnal development skills
Satisfaction rank
Gap
13
33
-20
10
1
8
12
17
7
5
21
26
16
23
25
30
17
13
28
-16
-15
-15
-13
-13
-10
-8
-7
Skills developped by language students
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Communication
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Self-management
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Interpersonal
Efficient communication
Ability to work with others
Support and motivate others
Operate effectively in teams
Efficient with time management
Flexibility and adaptibility
Self-reliant
Leadership
Cultural awareness (to value diversity)
Skills developed by language students
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Intellectual/cognitive
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Practical and applied
Produce material and think under pressure
Reflect and judge critically
Organise and structure ideas in a coherent manner
Mastery of the studied language
Subject-related knowledge (politics, history,
literature, linguistics…)
Use of reference material, library research
Language related skills (self-aware independent
language learners)
ICT skills
Employers categories from: King and Honeybone, 2000
Language graduates skills categories from: Employability profiles, 2007 and QAA benchmark, 2007
French language at the University
of Manchester
200+ students
 10+ languages tutors
 3 hours per week (oral, written and
grammar)
 The oral seminar: 25% of the overall
language course
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The phonetics project
EBL and TBL
 The task itself: scenario; organisation of the
groups; information on blackboard;
research; tutors’ facilitation; class
presentation; dossier; self-reflection
 Assessment: 10% of oral mark
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Language skills developed during
this project:
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Year
Phonetics skills improved94%
Phonetics exam (over 60%)
Oral French improved
2007
2008
94.3%
86.4%
84%
77%
88.6%
Transferable skills developed by
EBL
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Cognitive skills (problem solving, work with
information and handle them, draw conclusions);
Generic competences (team work, communication
skills, listening and questionning, written and oral
communication, organistion, interpersonal
sensitivity),
Personal capabilities (improve ones self awareness,
ability to start and finish a job, flexibility, creativity,
initiative, leadership and tolerance of stress,
responsbility),
Technical abilities (working with relevant
technology, including ICT).
Transferable skills developed
during this project
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Research
Presentation
Group work
2007
2008
94%
96%
96%
92.4%
92.4%
93.6%
A few of the 2008 quotations
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‘Being able to give presentations confidently is a
vital skill that I know I will need for my future
career.’
‘We learned to cooperate and work together towards
the same goal.’
‘It has helped me to understand how everyone in the
group needs to communicate for a successful
project’.
‘The best aspect of doing a project like this is that
one is improving their transferable skills’.
More 2008 quotations
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‘It was interesting to put yourself in the place of the
teacher and it did make me actively learn the
phonetic rules. It is quite complicated to plan a
lesson in a group, however, because it relies on
everyone having the same understanding of the
problem-quite frustrating sometimes.’
‘This project prepares you for later life, as it requires
interpersonal skills, and the ability to talk in front of
a group or audience.’