Abstract
To enhance employability opportunities, a range of co-curricular opportunities are offered to Nutrition students at Kingston University. Student uptake of these opportunities tends to be limited to a small group of highly motivated students. Using an unpaid public health project undertaken as a staff-student partnership as a case study, both the processes involved in the project and the motivation of staff and student partners are explored. Understanding what elements of motivation were involved may help to pinpoint aspects of co-curricular work to focus upon in order to increase student uptake, thus potentially enhancing graduate employability.Keywords: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, partnership, autonomy, engagement
Highlights
Employability is a key issue for graduates (Pegg et al, 2012); in a competitive jobs market they must demonstrate evidence of key personal, transferable and subject-specific skills and competencies
In order to enhance employability prospects for our undergraduate Nutrition students, at Kingston University (KU) we have developed a thriving co-curricular programme of activities
Motivation is considered to be a critical component of learning, in driving student engagement as well as how much they will learn from different activities (Trigwell & Prosser, 1991; Kember et al, 1997; Deci & Ryan, 2004)
Summary
Employability is a key issue for graduates (Pegg et al, 2012); in a competitive jobs market they must demonstrate evidence of key personal, transferable and subject-specific skills and competencies. Motivation is considered to be a critical component of learning, in driving student engagement as well as how much they will learn from different activities (Trigwell & Prosser, 1991; Kember et al, 1997; Deci & Ryan, 2004). The self-determination theory explores the quality of motivation for learning (Deci & Ryan, 2004). Intrinsic motivation is considered to be most valuable, resulting in deeper learning and engagement (Trigwell & Prosser, 1991; Kember et al, 1997; Deci & Ryan, 2004).
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