from the Introduction by Val Butcher
Within the context of hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism, employability has particular relevance because of the diversity of industries and the volatility of employment within these sectors. This means students in these disciplines often face particular challenges in gaining graduate jobs. The project which forms the basis of this book is one response to the employability agenda by academics in HLST and the case studies provide practical examples of how employability can be embedded into these curricula. Each chapter describes the experiences of a different HE institution, and collectively the ten case studies reflect the rich variety of approaches that can be adopted in curriculum development for employability.
Approaches to embedding employability
Knight and Yorke, in Learning, Curriculum and Employability in Higher Education (2004) outline four main strategies currently in use within higher education for embedding employability in the curriculum. These include:
- embedding employability through the whole curriculum
- embedding employability in the core curriculum
- incorporating employability-related modules within the curriculum
- work-based or work-related learning within or in parallel with the curriculum.
Embedding employability through the whole curriculum
Employability through the whole curriculum is perhaps the most ambitious strategy in which a set of transferable skills or competencies are integrated through an entire programme. Within the context of the Enhancing Graduate Employability project, one case study in particular focuses explicitly on the relationship between PDP and employability (although other case studies also touch on this).
As outlined in chapter three, students studying sport at the University of Ulster are being asked to use the university’s PDP system to help them audit and assess their employability skills and to identify ‘gaps’ in their skills base. This information is being used by students, in discussion with course tutors, to help them action plan for how they might enhance and develop their skills during an (optional) placement year or in their final year of study. This offers a useful example of how employability learning can be linked to wider institutional agendas such as PDP, and to current debates on how student achievement is measured and recorded (for example see Burgess Group Final Report published by Universities UK in 2007).
Embedding employability in the core curriculum
Embedding employability through the core curriculum involves the identification of a finite number of modules in which the development of a set of ‘transferable’ skills is addressed. This approach is arguably easier to implement than employability through the whole curriculum, particularly within large, diverse institutions and those that offer flexible modular programmes.
Several case studies contained in this book explore this approach and chapter four in particular emphasises this. The Department of Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Gloucestershire have carefully explored the impact of embedding employability in the core curriculum. Having identified the skills of reflection and reflective writing as being important in the context of employability and personal development, the department has embedded activities into their core level 1, 2 and 3 modules to progressively foster student development.
Of particular note is the use of the technique of storytelling (Danto, 1985; McDury and Alterio, 2003) at level 3 to encourage deeper reflection on, and to help students make sense of, the complex experiences that occur during their work placement. Other activities include the completion of a personal skills audit and authoring of a reflective portfolio, in addition to the use of critical narrative post-placement.
Incorporating employability-related modules within the curriculum
A further approach to embedding employability involves the development of specific employability-related modules such as personal skills development and career planning. This again may represent a more practical approach to embedding employability skills development and is a popular method within the HE sector. The case study undertaken by Sheffield Hallam University contained at chapter seven involves the piloting of a module entitled Developing Your Management Skills. This module is aimed at postgraduate hospitality and tourism students and designed to help them develop career management skills, drawing explicitly on students’ part-time work experiences which the researchers have identified as an increasingly common aspect of studying at the University. At Oxford Brookes University employability is being embedded via a compulsory first-year module in which skills are evaluated and assessed using, amongst other techniques, a card-sort exercise that focuses attention on what employers want and what makes employees successful at work.
Work-based or work-related learning modules within the curriculum
Work-based learning (WBL) and work-related learning (WRL) are strategies most commonly associated with enhancing employability: several case studies drawn together in this book illustrate this. The research being conducted at Liverpool John Moores University has focused on establishing a WBL forum made up of employers, lecturers and students that draw together the views of these key stakeholders ‘to produce a curriculum structure that transfers students’ employability potential into reality’. The partnership aspect of this case study is critical to developing a curriculum that is effective in developing ‘highly employable graduates’. City College Norwich and Westminster Kingsway College case studies also research aspects of employer engagement as a means of enhancing students’ employability, whereas case studies being undertaken at Leeds Metropolitan and the University of Worcester focus on postgraduate work placement and entrepreneurship respectively.
Conclusion
Higher Education institutions in the UK, working with employer partners, are learning that ‘vocational’ courses do not necessarily automatically produce employable graduates, and an increasing number have graduate employability prominent in their mission statements. The case studies contained in this book should further encourage that development by providing evidence-based examples of curriculum interventions that work, and by providing access to teaching and learning resources that enable students to develop competencies for employment.
Val ButcherReferences
- Danto, A. C. (1985) Narration and Knowledge. New York: Columbia University Press
- Knight, P. and Yorke, M. (2004). Learning, Curriculum and Employability in Higher Education. London: RoutledgeFalmer
- McDury, J. and Alterio, M. (2003). Learning through Storytelling in Higher Education: Using Reflection and Experience to Improve Learning. London: Kogan Page
- Universities UK (2007) Beyond the Honours Degree Classification: Burgess Group Final Report. Available at http://bookshop.universitiesuk.ac.uk/downloads/Burgess_final.pdf
