Key Employability Skills Research Articles

Bridging the gap between education and employment: a case study of problem-based learning implementation in Postgraduate Sport and Exercise Psychology

The purpose of this case study was to explore Postgraduate Sport and Exercise Psychology students’ and their lecturer’s experiences of PBL, and, its role in developing their employability skills. A focus group was conducted with four students (Mage = 22.75 years, SD = 0.96 years; n female = 2) and a conversational interview was conducted with the lecturer (age = 37 years, teaching experience = 11 years). Inductive thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts was used as a basis for developing portrait and composite vignettes to illustrate their experiences. Their underpinning themes suggested that PBL was instrumental for developing key employability skills: team working, communication and interpersonal sensitivity; thinking critically, creatively and flexibly; for helping students translate academic knowledge into application in future employment contexts, and for increasing awareness that learning is a lifelong developmental process.

An exploration of global employability skills: a systematic research review

The purpose of this paper is to explore and categorise, through a systematic research review, the key employability skills identified by researchers across the globe. This paper also aims to identify any similarities and differences present in employability skills demand of different sectors of industry or parts of the world. For the purpose of this study, 43 studies conducted across 17 countries were included and a systematic research review protocol was applied to develop categories. A vote-counting technique was used for the purpose of data analysis. The results revealed a set of employability skills commonly reported worldwide as important by all studies included in the review. These skills were further re-grouped under ten different skill sets. The findings of this study point to several implications for educators, employers, graduates and policy makers.

Public health teaching in practice, peer learning and partnership working: the Cook School project

Authentic learning opportunities replicating working environments will enhance learners’ employability and intrinsic motivation. Within most undergraduate curricula, opportunities for students to experience hands-on learning opportunities which mimic public health practice are limited. A pilot university cook and eat programme (the Cook School) was developed based upon community cook and eat programmes. The aim was to enable trained undergraduate Nutrition students to facilitate healthy eating activities to their peers, as a voluntary co-curricular activity. Two cook and eat programmes, each of five weeks duration, were offered to undergraduate students (12 participants per programme). Cooking was delivered by trained chefs and the healthy eating components were facilitated by trained undergraduate Nutrition students. Participants did not know beforehand that sessions would include nutrition information & activities in addition to cooking. Facilitators identified ‘employability’ as a key driver for their participation in this project. Their post-course evaluations suggested that key employability skills like team work, time management, communication and organisation were enhanced by involvement in the Cook School. Participants suggested that attending Cook School improved their knowledge of healthy eating. Whether this translates into improved diets long term is currently unknown. This pilot project offered undergraduate Nutrition students a unique opportunity to gain key employability skills within an authentic learning environment, working in partnership with their peers. Keywords: Authentic learning, Peer learning, Motivation, Partnership, Employability

Enhancing Students’ Confidence in Employability Skills through the Practice of “Recall, Adapt and Apply”

The ability to apply prior knowledge to new challenges is a skill that is highly valued by employers, but the confidence to achieve this does not come naturally to all students. An essential step to becoming an independent researcher requires a transition between simply following a fail-safe set of instructions to being able to adapt a known approach to solve a new problem. Practical laboratory classes provide an ideal environment for active learning, as the primary learning objective of these teaching sessions is to gain skills. However, laboratory handbooks can be presented as a series of fail-safe recipes. This aids the smooth running of practical classes but misses the opportunity to promote engagement with the underlying theory and so develop confidence in recalling approaches and adapting them to a new problem. To aid the development of employability skills, a practical laboratory series was developed for Bioscience teaching that requires on-the-spot decision-making, the recall of skills and their adaptation to new challenges. After using this approach, the proportion of student’s expressing a high level of confidence with each of eight key employability skills rose by between 9 and 35% following the practical sessions, showing that the approach of recalling, adapting then applying prior knowledge and skills can increase the confidence that students have in their employability related skills. The approach was developed for use within biological sciences practical laboratories but the principles can be adapted to any discipline involving project work.

A RETROSPECTIVE: DESIGNING A CAREER DEVELOPMENT PREPARATION COURSE IN A MANDATORY COOP ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

In the 2012-2013 academic year McMaster’s University School of Engineering Technology (SET) introduced a Professional Workplace Practices course (GENTECH 2PW3) within the Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) Program. The course uses an experiential learning approach to instill key employability skills required to successfully participate and progress in today’s dynamic engineering and technology organizations. It is a second year academic prerequisite before a student can commence the B.Tech Program mandatory 12 month coop work experience. The course is delivered and supported by a multidisciplinary team that includes faculty members, career development practitioner, who serve as instructional assistants, and the McMaster Engineering Career and Coop Services (ECCS) department. For the purposes of knowledge sharing, this paper will discuss the GENTECH 2PW3 course structure, delivery, administration, and outcome results for 470 students from the last three cohort years.

Learning-to-be in two vocationally-oriented higher education degrees

Purpose– This paper aims to explore the pedagogical approach of two higher education programmes aiming to develop both discipline-specific and key employability skills in graduates.Design/methodology/approach– This paper presents two case studies of degree programs in the broad field of the creative industries and focusses on the innovative pedagogy adopted based on a “learning to be” approach (McWilliam, 2008).Findings– The two case studies describe a different type of pedagogy taken up at one mixed-sector institution over two degree programs. The degrees offered within this institution are recognised as being vocationally oriented yet productive of the higher-order skills expected of degree programs. The case studies illustrate this through a pedagogy designed to orientate the students towards the development of a sense of identity whilst also placing them within the broader professional context of the discipline.Practical implications– The paper has practical implications for educators in the field and points towards the need to consider the broader professional context of the students in the course design and review phases of programmes in the creative industries.Originality/value– It is hoped the findings will be useful to educators and curriculum developers in other creative industries’ higher education programs with a vocational orientation to inform future course design, review and planning.

Peer-teaching in the food chemistry laboratory: student-produced experiments, peer and audio feedback, and integration of employability skills

This paper describes the author’s experience over the last several years of implementing an alternative Food Chemistry laboratory practical model for a group of third-year BSc Nutraceuticals students. The initial main objectives were to prepare students for the more independent final-year research project; to incorporate innovative approaches to feedback; and to integrate key employability skills into the curriculum. These were achieved through building the skills required to ultimately allow students working in groups to research, design and run a laboratory for their class. The first year of the project involved innovative approaches to feedback, including weekly feedback sessions, report checklists and audio feedback podcasts. Student evaluation after one year suggested the case group felt more prepared for final-year research projects and work placement owing to the redesign of the laboratory assessment. This, together with general positive feedback across several indicators, was proof of concept, and was a foundation for an improved model. The improvements related to the organisation and management of the project, but the same pedagogical approach has been retained. The second year saw the introduction of a more rigorous and easier to manage peer evaluation though use of the online Comprehensive Assessment for Team-Member Effectiveness (CATME) tool. The most recent revision has included a Project Wiki hosted on Blackboard to facilitate the organisation, communication, assessment and feedback of student-generated resources.More recently, the final-year students who had participated in the peer-teaching Food Chemistry labs when in third year have been evaluated. This evaluation took place following their research projects, and suggests that the peer-teaching model better prepared them for these activities, compared to traditional laboratories.

Peer-teaching in the food chemistry laboratory: student-produced experiments, peer and audio feedback, and integration of employability skills

This paper describes the author’s experience over the last several years of implementing an alternative Food Chemistry laboratory practical model for a group of third-year BSc Nutraceuticals students. The initial main objectives were to prepare students for the more independent final-year research project; to incorporate innovative approaches to feedback; and to integrate key employability skills into the curriculum. These were achieved through building the skills required to ultimately allow students working in groups to research, design and run a laboratory for their class. The first year of the project involved innovative approaches to feedback, including weekly feedback sessions, report checklists and audio feedback podcasts. Student evaluation after one year suggested the case group felt more prepared for final-year research projects and work placement owing to the redesign of the laboratory assessment. This, together with general positive feedback across several indicators, was proof of concept, and was a foundation for an improved model. The improvements related to the organisation and management of the project, but the same pedagogical approach has been retained. The second year saw the introduction of a more rigorous and easier to manage peer evaluation though use of the online Comprehensive Assessment for Team-Member Effectiveness (CATME) tool. The most recent revision has included a Project Wiki hosted on Blackboard to facilitate the organisation, communication, assessment and feedback of student-generated resources. More recently, the final-year students who had participated in the peer-teaching Food Chemistry labs when in third year have been evaluated. This evaluation took place following their research projects, and suggests that the peer-teaching model better prepared them for these activities, compared to traditional laboratories.

Science communication activities within the taught curriculum: “Science and Society” final year research projects

Many Life Sciences Departments are finding it difficult to provide wet, laboratory‐based final year projects for all their students. In addition, less than 20% of their graduates go into careers in scientific research. Our aim was to develop non laboratory‐based, alternative projects where students create and deliver science activities for local school children, evaluating and reporting on this exercise as their final year research project.Students design a teaching session, suitable for either elementary or high school students. They are free to choose the format of their sessions but it has to be interactive, support and enhance the National Curriculum. Topics selected included: “Spinal cord injuries”, “Creating super humans, the ethics of performance enhancement” and “Don't Bug me!”. Pupil and teacher feedback forms the results section of their dissertations which were written up in the same format as standard laboratory‐based research projects.These projects are an excellent means of engaging young people with science, a valuable tool in developing partnerships with local schools, promoting departments or faculties and encouraging school pupils to consider careers in science. For students delivering these sessions, they encourage them to be enterprising, innovative, enable the development of key employability skills and the opportunity to gain valuable experience.

Impact of Industry Guest Speakers on Business Students' Perceptions of Employability Skills Development

This study provides insights into the perceptions and expectations of Australian undergraduate business students (n=150) regarding the incorporation of guest speakers into the curriculum of a leadership unit focused on employability skills development. The authors adopted a mixed methods approach. A survey was conducted, with quantitative results analysed using SPSS allowing comparison of mean values between items and the identification of any statistical difference by student demographics. A thematic approach using inductive coding was applied to analyse the qualitative responses to open-ended questions. The results indicate that an appropriately briefed, qualified, interesting and engaging guest speaker plays an important role in active learning by exposing students to the ‘real world’ of the workplace and can reinforce the significance of key employability skills for future career success. The results also indicate that students' experience of guest speakers may be influenced by cultural factors and learning styles, with differences between the perceptions and expectations of domestic and international students with regard to certain factors. The paper has practical implications for those organizing the implementation of guest speaker programmes in HEIs and for the guest speakers themselves.

Real estate graduates’ employability skills

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report further on research funded by the Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) into real estate programmes of study in UK universities (Poon and Hoxley). The aim of this paper is to identify human resource managers’ view on the employability skills of real estate graduates. It also compares the views on the employability skills of real estate graduates between human resource managers, a large sample of real estate employers and real estate course directors.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents the research findings of eight interviews with human resource managers who work in different types of surveying firms. The approach for collecting their view of the employability skills required by real estate graduates was through gathering their opinions on three charts. These charts compare what employers feel graduates require and what they feel graduates demonstrate in 31 knowledge areas, 20 skills and 21 attributes, alongside a list of additional competencies made by graduates and employers which was developed as part of an earlier study.FindingsThe human resource managers identified the key employability skills for real estate graduates as soft skills, in particular report writing skills, communication skills, presentation skills, client care and professional standards. The human resource managers of real estate consultancy firms also voiced their concern regarding graduates’ lack of commercial awareness, which echoed the same view from real estate employers and real estate course directors mentioned in the previous research (Poon, Hoxley and Fuchs). Therefore, it is necessary for universities to embed these soft skills, such as commercial awareness in the curriculum in order to enhance the employability of graduates.Originality/valueThis paper makes an original contribution to existing literature on the identification and discussion of employability skills for real estate graduates. It describes pioneering research focusing on the human resource managers’ perspective of the real estate graduate employability skills.

A discussion of student research evaluators in ‘student as producer’ activity at the University of Lincoln

During the first months of 2012 a mentoring scheme was introduced at the University of Lincoln in the School of Social Sciences. This scheme brought second-year undergraduate students into first-year students’ research skills seminars to aid them with their studies. This project was led and conducted by a group of third-year undergraduate students, who acted as student research evaluators; they chose to take part because they saw the research as an opportunity to practise key employability skills, to lead a project and to apply methods and knowledge learnt during their three years of study. Focus groups, a World Café event and an interactive blog for the mentors to post on were used to examine the effects of this mentoring scheme for all students involved. This paper is written by two of the student research evaluators. It discusses the methodology adopted and the perceived benefits for all the students involved, and offers suggestions for improvements which may be applied to future mentoring schemes. It examines the findings from the use of an interactive blog, focus groups and World Café event, For a more detailed discussion of the use of the blogs in this project and the data gathered, as well as the impacts on the second-year mentors, see ‘How mentoring can benefit second-year students’ by Burton, Lill and Keen (this issue).

Development and Assessment of Key Skills in Undergraduate Students: An action-research experience

<p><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Employers look for professionals able to work in a team, able to approach the problems, with the capacity to analyze and resolve problems, under the constant renewal of knowledge and competencies. In this paper, a group of University teachers from different areas of knowledge presents an experience to introduce key employability skills in the higher education students’ curricula. This work has been developed under the action research scope. The first goal was to make an analysis of terms referred to key skills, generating an integrated denomination for each competency. The elaboration of general templates for key skills is proposed here as a useful tool that provides information about development, assessment and marking of each skill. Different types of rubrics and assessment templates, used during this experience, are presented.</span></p>

Using Critical Incidents to Create Learning Pathways Between the Real World and Places of Learning: Findings from a 2 Year Funded Project Aimed at Improving Understanding and Capability in Key Employability Skills

A scholarly article by authors Anne Hill, Celia Popovic, and Ruth Lawton, Jenny Eland, Nick Morton, Rachel Curzon, Diana Eastcott, Carmen Tomas published in The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review

Incorporating Problem-Based Learning Strategies to Develop Learner Autonomy and Employability Skills in Sports Science Undergraduates

This study investigated the impact of a 12-week problem-based learning (PBL) intervention on three psychological constructs (motivation, locus of control and self-esteem) linked to learner autonomy. Results indicated that there was a significant increase in the students’ intrinsic motivation (P<0.05) and a non-significant shift towards an internal locus of control after the intervention period. Students perceived the benefits of PBL to be the opportunity to work in teams and to consider a wider knowledge base. A short course of PBL was successful in developing learner autonomy and other key employability skills alongside the application of content knowledge.

Encounters in social cyberspace: e‐mentoring for professional women

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the barriers facing women aiming to progress in their careers, or return to work following a career break, and evaluate the effects of an innovatory e‐mentoring scheme designed to overcome such obstacles and promote career development.Design/methodology/approachAn online community of practice was formed for professional women in four UK regions. A survey of the career barriers they experienced was carried out and 122 participants were matched using psychological profiling and computer processing. The e‐mentoring process and participants' development was evaluated by means of pre‐, mid‐, and post‐mentoring evaluation questionnaires.FindingsMentees showed improvements in many key employability skills. For example, their ability to identify their weaknesses and ways to develop professionally improved substantially, as did their networking skills and ability to identify their strengths. Mentors also indicated that they had experienced development, for example, greater self‐awareness, increased confidence, improved reflective skills, and development of online skills. A large proportion of participants viewed mentoring as a fundamental aid to women's development. The majority felt that electronic communication was effective in facilitating this mentoring.Practical implicationsThe e‐mentoring programme which has been developed may be transferred to a range of other target groups. Matching mentees and mentors is one of the key challenges in e‐mentoring design: an innovative system was designed which was able to provide personalised matching for each mentee.Originality/valueE‐mentoring is still relatively under‐researched, particularly from a European perspective. This paper provides evidence for the benefits of e‐mentoring in the promotion of gender equality.

A case for advanced skills and employability in higher education

This article describes the Case Studies to Advance Skills and Employability (CASE) project and considers the role of case studies in the academic curriculum. The relationship between key skills in higher education and employability skills is discussed. The practicalities of implementing more key skills and employability skills orientated curricula are evaluated. The particular situation of non-vocational subject areas is raised. Outlines of a number of project strands from the CASE project are provided. The factors contributing to the success of CASE as an externally funded project are also reviewed, and employer and consultancy support in particular is described. The article continues beyond the scope of the project itself and concludes by assessing the opportunities for applying case studies of this type in other curricula and then suggesting that this may be the way forward for the embedding of Higher National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) within academic curricula.