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

Embedding employability: a holistic approach

Fiona Drew and Gudrun Myers, Faculty of Organisation and Management

SheffieldHallamUniversity

Theme 1: Embedding and enhancing employability

Abstract

The language courses at SheffieldHallamUniversity embed fully all the elements of the University's Employability Framework. These cover pedagogical aspects which are clearly articulated in all relevant programme documentation and which have the central aim of stimulating ownership of the learning process among students. Further embedding occurs via our team approach to preparation of the students before they travel overseas, the support which we offer students while they are studying or working overseas and via a number of debriefings and assessments following their return. In addition, the last few years have seen a number of initiatives aimed at promoting staff engagement in enhancing employability, including allocation of formal roles, participation in relevant funded projects and the nomination of leaders for specific innovative developments, such as the use of digital technology to enhance language learning. This paper will attempt to demonstrate, by use of specific examples, how the framework is embedded throughout the courses and how it enhances student employability.

1. Introduction

This paperaims to show how to the "Languages plus" programme which is delivered at SheffieldHallamUniversity integrates and embeds the institution's employability framework. The "Languages plus" programme is a four year undergraduate programme in which students are offered the opportunity to study two foreign languages, one of them post A level and one of them ab initio. The languages currently offered are French, German, Spanish and Italian. The study of the foreign languages occupies two thirds of the student's total programme of study and the remaining third of the programme is made up of study of a business related subject from which students can choose International Business, Marketing, Tourism or e-commerce. This choice of subject combinations and the opportunity to study 2 languages (one post A level, the other ab initio) with 18 months of mandatory and assessed study and work experience abroad is extremely unusual in UK Higher Education and has meant that, since the introduction of this new programme, recruitment to our courses has remained stable in terms of student numbers. Each year, the programme recruits a total of 60-80 students, giving a total of approximately 300 students across all four years. Figure 1 provides a visual overview of the course structure and content.


Figure 1:Course structure and content

Post A/AS Level Post A/AS Level International

Language Language Business Studies

or Marketing

ab initio Tourism

Language e-commerce

2. Integrating and Embedding Employability

The SheffieldHallamUniversity employability framework defines employability by specifying seven essential curriculum features. These are: -

1. Progressive development of autonomy

2. Skills development

3. PDP

4. Real world activities

5. Reflection on use of knowledge and skills

6. Career management skills

7. Work-related learning

The languages courses have fully embedded and integrated all of the features outlined above and have been able, as a result, to achieve excellent outcomes in terms of student employability. For our graduates this means that they will have acquired subject knowledge and expertise in two languages and one non-language subject together with subject specific and transferable key skills in areas such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, time management, working across cultures, etc. They will also have developed their self-belief through the successful completion ofa series of carefully graded challenges posed by the course curriculum. And last but not least they will have developed into reflective practitioners, who can identify their own strengths and weaknesses, and through appropriate action, influence their career path by identifying relevant employment opportunities and the necessary self-development.

2.1. Learning Outcomes

The curriculum design and content is lively and varied. The challenge for the students is at the correct level.

Guides provided for each module ensure students are aware of assessment procedures and marking criteria used. The practice of stating learning outcomes and marking criteria is in my view excellent.

External examiner comments – 2004

Our approach to the embedding and integration of employability skills is based on a very co-ordinated approach which takes as its starting point the clear articulationof learning outcomes at all levels of study. The learning outcomes of all modules (language and relevant business units) have been determined in such a way that they achieve meaningful horizontal as well as vertical integration. This means that modules complementand reinforce each other across each level of study, as well as allowing for progressive development of students' knowledge, skills and level of autonomy as they advance through their courseresulting in a holistic programme design whose defining elements are closely interlinked and cannot be disaggregated. Furthermore, careful explanation of relevant documentation and regular reference to it in classroom sessions as well as its use by students when working away from the classroom combine to stimulate a feeling of ownership of the learning process among students.

The main mechanisms by which coherenceon the "languages plus" routes is achieved are: the preparation for the 18 month study and work period abroad, the use of portfolios, the use of real world activities as the basis of assessed course and exam work, the use of final year modules as vehicles for the integration and application of previous learning, a tailor-made approach to PDP, appropriate supporting staff structures and a culture of active evaluation and review. In order to benefit optimally from their study and work placement abroad students do not only need to be prepared linguistically and culturally, but must also develop their language learning skills and a sense of confidence that they are sufficiently prepared to live, study and work in a foreign country. Preparation in all these areas starts from day one. Figure 2 provides a visual representation of the discussion that follows.

Figure 2: Integration and embedding of the SHU employability

Framework

2.2. Portfolio practice

The portfolio is obviously underpinned by a well resourced learning centre and the language learning/portfolio guide which staff have produced to enable learners to produce an effective portfolio is the best of its kind which I have seen across the sector.

External examiner comment - 2001

As part of the language skills modules the languages programme requires the students to submit a portfolio of language related exercises at all levels of study. Via the portfolio, the course team endeavours not only to enhance the student’s linguistic ability, but also to develop the student’s awareness of his/her strengths and weaknesses as a learner. This process of learner development consists of a number of steps. Each student starts by completing an individual needs analysis and then formulates an action planof how he/she intends to improve in terms of linguistic competence. At the end of each semester, having completed the language tasks they have selected themselves,the learners reflect on their progress and make the necessary adjustments to their action plans. The language portfolios, which form part of the students' official diet of assessed work, are marked for content (50%), degree of independence (20%), level of planning and reflection (20%) and the overall quality of presentation and organisation (10%). A student in the upper second range, for example, would be characterised by the following descriptors.

  • Content: The tasks chosen are generally at an appropriate level for the stage of study, are relevant to the needs analysis and action plan and completed to a high standard. There is some evidence of follow-up work and of progress made.
  • Independence: A substantial degree of initiative and some originality is evident in the choice of materials. Appropriate resources and activities have been selected and exploited.
  • Planning and reflection: There is clear evidence of the learner’s ability to identify needs and to plan work accordingly. There is evidence of reflection. The tasks have been completed fairly regularly.

A further significant feature of the portfolio is that the students are required to build links between their non-language modules and the languages studied by developing the appropriate lexis and register of their specialist field. In other words, through the choice of texts appropriate to their non-language subject the learners will be able to acquire the relevant vocabulary and also become familiar with the particular ways in which different types of text are written, cf. the academic style of writing on marketing versus practical examples of marketing texts aimed at promoting a particular product or service. This gives students an ideal opportunity to integrate the study of the foreign language with the study of their business subject.

The effectiveness and success of the portfolio elementrest to a large extent on staff commitment with regard to maintaining and constantly updating existing banks of suitable learning materials in the Language Learning Resources Centre as well as in the university’s Adsetts Learning Centre. The whole process is further enhanced by the teaching and learning opportunities offered by digital technology.

2.2.1. Placement diary

The encouragement to establish effective learning habits and to develop reflective skills via the portfolio also prepares students for the requirements of the placement diary. Whilst on work placement abroad students record on a weekly basis the tasks they have been completing for the company, observations about how their department/section/company functions and significant events both in terms of the business world as well as those of the wider society. The diary forms the basis of the placement report, whose purpose it is to help the students to draw together their experience of living and working in a foreign country and to reflect on their professional and personal development. The placement report as well as the employer’s, visiting tutor’s and student’s own evaluations are subsequently used to determine whether the student has successfully completed the placement period and can move into the final year of study.

2.3. Assessment via increasingly more demanding real world activities

A wide range of tasks is tested with a good mix of coursework, oral and written assignments, blackboard exercises and exams. Students are challenged at appropriate levels. The better students are able to prove themselves and weaker students are “stretched” to reach high potential.

Many of the skills that are practised by the students in their classes are good communication ones that can be usefully transferred to other areas of learning.

External Examiner comments - 2003

Within the language skills modules students are required to undertake, in addition to the portfolio work, a number of further language skills assessments,all of which are related to the world of work and increase in difficulty and the level of challenge throughout the course. At level 4, for example,assessed tasks include the oral presentation of a product or service, whilst at level 6 students engage in detailed and complex business negotiations conducted in the target language, as well as liaison interpreting and written translation.

Bespoke content modules, Business, Society and Culture 1, 2 and 3, aim to familiarise students with the political, economic, social, technological and environmental issues of their target language countries. This consists of a general introduction at level 4 and the specific study of the higher education sector and the world of work at level 5. As in the language skills modules the target language is the medium for teaching, learning and assessment. All assessed work in the content modules closely focuses on the preparation of the students for placement abroad, e.g. the production of a written CV, the completion of a job/placement interview, the oral presentation of information gathered on the town/region where they will be undertaking their ERASMUS study, as well as the schooling in some of the likely tasks students may need to undertake while on placement, such as providing written and oral summaries ofEnglish texts/communications in the target language.

Comments from our placement companies, including Iberia, Ernst & Young, Desert Rose among others, confirm that our students are well-prepared and culturally competent in the business environment. They further acknowledge that the students bring cultural diversity to the workplace and share fresh ideas and practices.

2.4. Personal and Professional Development Review (PDR) and Student Support

Going abroad to live, study and work is a daunting undertaking for anybody and students often have doubts about whether they will actually have the required courage and spirit of enterprise to cope. This is why the languages team have adopted a tailor-made personal development review (PDR) system. This system means that students on the “languages plus” routes are grouped together and tutored by a member of the languages team. During the first year, apart from inducting students into the university and their chosen course, PDR sessions also serve as a platform for disseminating information about the ERASMUS study semester and the work placement. The information provided by tutors is complemented and, more importantly, verified by final year students, who are invited to specially organised sessions. The second year PDR tutorsare also the placement co-ordinators, who maintain the links with our placement companies abroad. This means not only that students have access to the specific knowledge that these members of staff have about the various companies in question, but also that students, by now well-known to the languages staff, can be carefully matched in terms of their own strengths and aspirations to a company’s specific requirements and demands. A further element in the preparation for the work placement is the ERASMUS semester. The period of study abroad allows students to acculturate and to get their first taste of living abroad, whilst still being tied into the supportive network provided by our partner institutions.

Students continue to be supported whilst on placement via telephone and e-mail and, crucially, are visited at their placement company by a member of the languages staff, normally a colleague teaching in the relevant language area, and thus well equipped to resolve any difficulties the student may be encountering. The purpose of the visit is to check that the student has settled in, is functioning within the work environment and is given appropriate tasks. Feedback from both the student and employer are taken into consideration and any areas of potential disagreement or unhappiness can be addressed. The visit also provides an opportunity for the tutor to give feedback and comment on the placement diary and its content.

2.5. Final Year Synthesis, Critical Evaluation and Incorporation of the Placement and Academic Experience

The third stage in developing the students' employability skills is the final year of study at SheffieldHallamUniversity. All Level 6 language modules incorporate an assessed element which specifically requires the students to reflect on their placement experience and gives them the chance to debrief. Within the Business, Society and Culture 3 module students prepare and deliver an oral presentation where they link their placement company and their own experience whilst there with one of the major themes of the module content, e.g. the effects of globalisation on VW at Wolfsburg as experienced and observed by the placement student in the light of theory and developments world-wide. In this way the learners have a vehicle forintegrating their personal and professional experience with the achievement of the following outcomes, namely to:

1Demonstrate a critical understanding of how companies behave in the Target Language business environment and apply this knowledge and understanding to analysing and discussing authentic case studies

2Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the way in which the business and political context of the Target Language country/ies affects the conduct of business in that country and elsewhere

3Demonstrate the ability to analyse specific issues of relevance to the students' specialisms and to apply the outcomes of this analysis to a range of problem-solving activities concerned with the social, political and business environment of the Target Language country

The second of the final year language modules, the International Consultancy Project(ICP) takes this approach one step further by providing the students with an opportunity to apply the linguistic and cross-cultural competence and expertise gained during their previous academic study and the work placement abroad in a real life situation by undertaking a group consultancy project for a local/regional company or organisation. The underpinning rationale for the International Consultancy Project is to integrate the student into the local/regional economy by providing a service which local businesses will find valuable. It is hoped that, by undertaking such a project, students will be able make the appropriate connections between their studies and the world of work, thereby further enhancing their employability skills. In preparing for this project, a survey was undertaken with local SMEs in order to ascertain whether they would welcome this type of initiative and the response was universally positive.

In terms of the specific employability skills that the ICP aims to develop and enhance the module specification states that on completion of the module students should be able to

  1. analyse, synthesise and make decisions regarding complex open-ended situations and formulate appropriate strategies to deal with them
  2. analyse and compare, if applicable, cross-cultural differences in the business environment and to communicate those differences appropriately
  3. work effectively as a member of a group in order to fulfil the project brief
  4. to evaluate and reflect on their own performance with regard to
  • defining objectives and determining strategies
  • communication skills
  • teamwork
  • time management
  • language skills
  • intercultural communication
  • creative thinking

2.6. Team Approach