ENHANCING STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY:

Higher Education and Workforce Development

Ninth Quality in Higher Education International Seminar in collaboration with ESECT and The Independent.Birmingham27th-28th January 2005

Developing a multi-input critical competencies and skills assessment tool which adds value to casual, temporary and volunteer work experiences

Lelia Green, Robyn Quin, Joe Luca

School of Communications and Multimedia

Edith Cowan University, Western Australia

Abstract

This paper reports on the second stage of a project that aims to produce a critical competencies and skills assessment tool for students in work-based learning situations. Initial trials indicate that this assessment tool is both seen to be of value to employers, and also applicable across disciplines and different work sites – particularly when combined with a graduate attributes perspective.

The first phase of the investigation took place in terms of adding value to (and recording the outcomes of) work-based learning, casual employment and volunteering. This report documents a range of additional groups who may benefit from this initiative, and outlines the policy and practice drivers which demand robust but flexible methods for recording and collating evidence of skills and competencies development.

Background

Over the past decade there has been a growing concern about the role of higher education institutions and how they are meeting the needs of employers. Increasingly, higher education institutions are being asked by industry, students, parents, government and higher education regulatory bodies to produce graduates with versatile workplace skills, as well as subject-specific skills. This is causing a major reappraisal of higher education institutions purpose, learning outcomes and research activities (Australian National Training Authority, 1998; Bennett, Dunne, & Carre, 1999; Candy, Crebert, & O'Leary, 1994; Dearing, 1997; Mayer, 1992).

Within this scenario, universities are increasingly under pressure to provide job-ready graduates for the workplace. Also, as participation rates rise in higher education, in parallel with a per capita decrease in public funding, universities are also seeking ways to deliver their courses more efficiently and cost effectively. Over three decades the proportion of an education cohort participating in higher education has quadrupled. Government policy increasingly expects students to contribute towards the costs of their education, raising the emotional and financial investment of students and their family support networks. A degree is longer the automatic passport to a middle class income that it once was, but it still has to deliver financial, as well as intellectual, value. These forces drive the parallel development of work-ready skills alongside critical and analytical competencies.

In many circumstances, a universitySchool or Department finds that locating and supervising an appropriate work placement as an integrated element of academic study is more demanding on staff and resources per student than delivering a conventional academic programme. Liaison with employers, academic supervision in the workplace, individualised assessment, a general lack of comparability between different work environments and opportunities, and the public relations requirements of visible accessibility and commitment to participating employers: these all involve the academic supervisor in a time-and energy- consuming hands-on engagement with the student’s workplace experience. Nonetheless, for the majority of higher education institutions, it is no longer appropriate to argue that we are solely in the business of developing students’ intellectual capacities and critical analysis skills, workplace competencies have become a significant element in the higher education agenda.

In Australia, Graduate Employability is recorded in terms of the independently administered (Gradlink 2004) Graduate Destinations Survey, the most recent iteration of which processed data from over 112,000 new graduates. Under the twin pressures of Quality Assurance protocols (AUCA 2004) and benchmarking activities, the proportion of new graduates available for full time work who succeed in gaining employment has become a statistic of significant relevance to the higher education marketplace. A relative ranking of a University’s graduate employability is a critical factor in student decisions regarding where to study. Given the financial and pedagogical implications of increasing the proportion of an undergraduate degree devoted to work-based learning, however, it behoves universities to find ways to add value to students’ non-university related employment experiences.

The requirements upon students to support themselves and pay towards the costs of their studies means that or an increasing number of university students combine further education with part time, casual or temporary employment. Students also harness their energy and enthusiasm in volunteering and in political and environmental activities. Work and leisure opportunities available to students prior to completing higher education – eg fast food production, telemarketing, cleaning etc – do not require graduate skills. Nonetheless, such positions and activities can help students demonstrate a range of competencies sought by graduate employers. A pilot project working with students and potential employers has indicated that students are receptive to such an approach and employers believe that it would be useful in identifying suitable employees (Quin et al 2003).

Educational philosophy currently promotes the concepts of lifelong learning, student centred curriculum and the evaluation of outputs/outcomes rather than inputs. Students are constructed as active learners, required to manage their learning and educational experiences within the context of their studies and their institution. If students are invited to commit themselves to proactive career planning and self-development, this introduces a fresh focus on utilising casual, temporary and volunteer experiences as elements in a work-ready career portfolio. Further, this perspective of seeing experiences in other contexts as critical pathways towards career-ready skills may add value to University assessments from the point at which it is fist introduced and championed. Properly developed and explained, the minutiae of unit assignment requirements can help students relate their academic studies to the development of employment-ready competencies. This approach adds value to their intellectual engagement and creates a new context in which assessable tasks are completed and delivered.

Increasing student employability at ECU

At Edith Cowan University (ECU) a range of approaches have been developed to refocus students’ attention on the graduate employment market while adding value to their current studies and their temporary and volunteer work activities. In addition to conventional approaches such as work-based learning; employer input into course and unit development; industry-based tutors in appropriate subjects and external accreditation of courses by professional bodies (where these are available); two newer innovations have been introduced: the graduate attributes grid (Appendix A), and the skills and competencies assessment initiative (Appendix B).

The Bachelor of Communications (Advertising), discussed below, is one of a suite of major areas which can be studied under the generic classification of a ‘Communications’ degree. Other majors available are: Creative Technologies, Film and Video, Interactive Multimedia Technologies, Journalism, Mass Communication, Media and Cultural Studies, Performance Writing and Criticism, Photomedia, Public Relations and Screen Studies. B. Comms students constitute the major proportion of the students within the School of Communications and Multimedia (SC+M). Together with the School of Contemporary Arts (specialising in installation, experimental and visual culture) and the WesternAustralianAcademy of Performing Arts, SC+M constitutes the Faculty of Communications and Creative Industries.

SC+M’s leadership in the field of work-base learning has been recognised nationally in Communication and Media Studies in Australian Universities (Putnis et al 2002, p. 72). Putnis’s survey of the Australian discipline area identified SC+M as having an exemplary commitment to semester-long structured work placements as part of a number of vocational focus areas within the B. Comms via the Professional Placement unit. This unit – equivalent to ¼ of a full-time student load – is seen as a key way in which graduates learn about the workplace and requires them to construct an individualised workplace learning contract in cooperation with employer supervisor and academic tutor. Students are required to find their own work placement, which gives them early exposure to the vagaries of job searching and effective self-presentation. (This also means that the unit cannot be made compulsory, even if it is available to all third year students in the School.)

The comparative shortage of extended work placement opportunities and the intensive academic supervision and support make it unrealistic to significantly increase the proportion of the degree dedicated to Professional Placement. Further, it may not be politic to do so. While students pay for their higher education on a per unit basis, they are prevented by insurance conditions from receiving income in the workplace learning context. Some Professional Placement participants construct this situation as requiring them to pay for volunteering their labour. The skills and competencies assessment initiative operates as a complement to Professional Placement, and allows paid work to contribute to a portfolio record of work-readiness.

Together, the graduate attributes grid and the skills and competencies assessment initiative add value to a University degree course already committed to workplace learning. These innovations do not replace authentic work practices already integrated within the curriculum, but make the entirety of the University degree programme more outcome-focused and clarify its role as simply one element in a career-long development process.

The graduate attributes grid (Appendix A)

Many universities claim that their courses produce graduates with particular sets of skills or competencies, and most of these have a distinctly generic feel: oral communication skills, problem-solving, critical thinking, teamwork, literacy, numeracy, cultural sensitivity. Some universities include the applications and use of technology and interpersonal skills. A few, such as ECU, include graduate attributes closely allied to their mission. In this case, enterprise and service are added to the list of generic professional capabilities in keeping with the University's avowed mission:“To provide, within a diverse and dynamic learning environment, university education of recognised quality, especially for those people employed in, or seeking employment in, the service professions.”

The introduction of statements of graduate attributes by universities has not been accepted uncritically. There are questions of definition (few universities define what they mean by a specific skill). There are questions about the extent to which such skills can be said to exist (Holmes, 1995); about the inconsistencies in demand from different employers; about whether, how and by whom such skills can be assessed and whether indeed they should be assessed prior to entry to the workforce. However, both students and employers believe that a university education should prepare graduates for the workforce. One way in which ECU is communicating its firm commitment to this end is the integration of graduate attributes with the assessment requirements of undergraduate degrees. The example offered is that of Advertising.

The B. Communications (Advertising) was developed in the mid-1990s with the input of the Western Australian (WA) Advertising industry, specifically the Education Committee of the Advertising Federation of Australia (WA) branch. Over the years the content has been developed and changed in consultation with the industry professionals leading, teaching in and advising the course; but prior to 2002—3 there had been no rigorous attempt to map attributes and assessments to the individual units which together constitute the award. The graduate attributes grid marks such an attempt. It was developed in tandem with a thorough-going review of the course which looked at each unit individually and at the suite of units as a whole to ensure that all necessary elements were covered but that information redundancy was eliminated or kept to a minimum.

ECU’s four core/generic attributes were revisited in terms of their specific meaning in the context of the Advertising degree. These attributes are:

  1. Enterprise, Initiative and Creativity: An ECU graduate displays enterprise, initiative and creativity, and applies knowledge to generate innovation.
  2. Workplace experience and applied competencies: An ECU graduate has first hand experience of the workplace, or can apply learning effectively in practice.
  3. Professional knowledge: An ECU graduate has a commitment to lifelong learning and operates effectively with and upon a body of knowledge to be competent professionally, vocationally and academically.
  4. Service: An ECU graduate is aware of the value of a service ethic and seeks opportunities for close and productive involvement with communities and appropriate organisations.

In the context of an industry/university two-day non-residential ‘think tank’ retreat, each of these competencies was interrogated within the context of an ECU Advertising to express it in a specific way. For example:

Enterprise, Initiative and Creativity: An ECU graduate displays enterprise, initiative and creativity, and applies knowledge to generate innovation

was re-stated as:

  • Students will be able to identify potential opportunities for advertising and integrated marketing communications and produce strategies to manage them for clients
  • Students will use lateral thinking to devise creative approaches in the design, presentation, implementation and evaluation of advertising and communications plans and projects for clients.

In all, the four generic ECU graduate attributes were expanded to eleven attributes specific to the B. Communications (Advertising) major. At this point the joint industry/educator committee investigated the assessable work for each of the eight units (plus the generic third year unit Professional Placement) that constitute the Advertising major. The assignments were plotted against attributes to identify ‘portfolio’ opportunities. These were constructed as opportunities for the student to use the assignment task to provide evidence of mastery of the specific attribute. The grid constitutes an invitation to the student to view each portfolio assignment as a chance to create a piece of work which serves a University purpose and can also be used as part of a portfolio demonstrating graduate competencies. The individual constituents of the Advertising Graduate Attribute Grid are expanded in Appendix C.

The skills and competencies recording instrument

This instrument arose from a small scale research project (Quin et al 2003) which identified that the issue of the scholarly assessment of a range of skills in addition to the University’s graduate attributes is somewhat contentious. Academics have argued in the past that they are not in a position to judge whether or not a student exhibits “flexibility and adaptability”, “initiative”, “ability to benefit from on-the-job training” and the like: particularly as these relate to the workplace rather than the tutorial. The University classroom, they argue, does not offer the opportunity for students to demonstrate many of the skills which employers rank highly. On the other hand, employers argue that a university transcript listing a Credit grade (60—69%) in CMM 3109 Culture and Theory tells them nothing about a student’s problem-solving, teamwork, communication, numeracy/literacy or communications skills.

The instrument recorded in Appendix B resulted from an investigation of

  • the skills employers seek in graduates and more importantly the sort of documentation of such skills that might be of value;
  • cost effective ways of assessing skill development through unsupervised work experience;
  • ways in which to enhance students’ awareness of desirable (as identified by employers) graduate attributes.

Aiming to identify the ‘best’ instrument for assessing students’ work-based skills and competencies, as evidenced in casual employment, the research privileged the point of view of employers, since they would have to use the instrument to assess the students, and judge the validity of the results. A selection of ‘professional’ employers – employers with whom students might seek work upon graduating – was also interviewed, to check the usefulness of the instrument developed in the research.

Students at ECU are used to accessing a range of web-based materials to support their face-to-face learning experiences. A range of second and third year students – all of whom had been exposed to the concept of graduate attributes and portfolio development – were asked to assess the 25-item ranked 1—5 scale of skills and competencies to see if they would be prepared to ask employers/volunteer leaders to assess their work performance against the criteria offered. Of 68 students surveyed, 60 said that they would want to use it. There was no specific feedback offering suggestions on ways to improve or alter the form resulting from the research with employers.

The CCI research team is negotiating with industry sponsors to construct and research a dedicated website to work with SC+M students and with the partner’s temporary and part time employees to create a secure yet interactive online portfolio of skills and competency instruments. This would be controlled by the student who would be unable to change employers’ assessments, but who would be able to include them or not in the data prepared for potential employers. Instructions and online advice would offer guidance as to how to leverage the benefits of casual and voluntary work experience to enhance a student/worker’s employment prospects. This would include suggestions as to how to develop a skills profile which might demonstrate the qualities and attributes capable of securing desirable jobs into the future.

References

Australian National Training Authority. (1998). Australia's national strategy for vocational education and training 1998-2003. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

AUQA (2004). Australian Universities Quality Agency – website (accessed Dec 2004)

Bennett, N., Dunne, E., & Carre, C. (1999). Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education. Higher Education, 37(1), 71-93.

Candy, P., Crebert, G., & O'Leary, J. (1994). Developing lifelong learners through undergraduate education. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Dearing. (1997). Higher education in the learning society. London: HMSO.

Gradlink (2004). Graduate Careers Council of Australia – website (accessed Dec 2004)