Abstract
The world of work is changing rapidly, with an increasing global demand for employees with higher-level skills. Employees need to have the right attitudes and aptitudes for work, possess work-relevant skills, and have relevant experience. Whilst universities are embedding employability into their curricula, partnerships outside of the taught curriculum provide additional, largely untapped, opportunities for students to develop these key skills and gain valuable work experience. Two extracurricular partnership opportunities were created for Bioscience undergraduates at the University of Leeds, UK: an educational research internships scheme, where students work in partnership with fellow students and academic staff on on-going educational projects, and Pop-Up Science, a unique, student-led public engagement volunteer scheme. Both schemes generate substantial benefits for all. They enhance student’s skills and employability, facilitate and enhance staff-student education practices and research, and engage the public with research in the Biosciences. Collectively, they demonstrate the extraordinary value and benefits accrued from developing extracurricular partnerships between students, staff, and the community.
Highlights
There is an ever increasing demand within the United Kingdom labour market for employees with higher-level skills, graduates from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (CBI & Pearson, 2016)
With the increasing focus of students, universities, and governments on graduate employability, opportunities to gain both work experience and develop these key employability skills are increasingly being embedded within degree programmes
Employers expect graduates to have experience of team-working; possess problem solving, analytical and communication skills; be culturally and ethically aware; and show selfmanagement and resilience. Many of these attributes and skills are best developed through the utilisation of high-impact educational practices (Kuh, 2008) and engaged learning (Stone, 2015), for example, through working in partnership, either with fellow students or with academic staff (Crawford, Horsley, Hagyard, & Derricot, 2015; Pauli, Raymond-Barker, & Worrell, 2016)
Summary
There is an ever increasing demand within the United Kingdom labour market for employees with higher-level skills, graduates from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (CBI & Pearson, 2016). Many of these attributes and skills are best developed through the utilisation of high-impact educational practices (Kuh, 2008) and engaged learning (Stone, 2015), for example, through working in partnership, either with fellow students or with academic staff (Crawford, Horsley, Hagyard, & Derricot, 2015; Pauli, Raymond-Barker, & Worrell, 2016).
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