Activity: Lens 2: Employability

Employability is: ‘a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations.’ (Mantz Yorke & Knight 2004 p7).

In this activity you will look at your learning design with a focus on employability. You will consider what skills, attitudes and knowledge your students will need to demonstrate to succeed in their chosen profession.

Tools and Resources

Your whole module outcome(s)

Your Storyboard

Your Course Map

Employability cards and design checklist

Scissors, blu-tac and pens

 Building an employability checklist

1. Begin by identifying the skills, attitudes and knowledge employers want from graduates in the sector. Add these to the checklist
2. Use the employability cards to begin to map out opportunities to teach and assess these skills onto your storyboard
3. As a group, consider whether the overall structure and shape of your learning design supports the development of these skills. For example: 
   • Are there opportunities in your design for students to choose modules or work areas within a module so they can tailor the content of their course to their perceived needs / interests?
   • Are the communication lines and relationships between students, and between teacher and student, set up so that appropriate professional attitudes can be developed and discussed?
   • Is it clear where work related learning activities take place in the course? How are these made explicit to students?

 To finish (5 minutes)

1. Transfer your notes to your Storyboard
2. Check to see if your Course Map needs updating based on the work you have just done
3. Identify action points for your plan

 HEA Academy Employability audit http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/resources/audit/employability.pdf

LTEU Employability page http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/lteu/resources/pages/employ.shtml

Yorke, M. and Knight, P. (2004) Embedding employability into the curriculum. Learning and Employability Series (3). York: Learning and Teaching Support Network. Available from: www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources.asp?process=full_record&section=generic&id=338