Why is employability important?

To students:

‘To be employed is to be at risk, to be employable is to be secure’

The Art of Building Windmills, Peter Hawkins (1999)

• ‘A degree is no longer enough’
  Following dramatic increases in HE provision in the UK and fundamental shifts in the graduate recruitment market, a degree is no longer enough to guarantee a graduate a satisfying future career. This is all the more true in light of the current economic climate. In many sectors, recruiters are looking for 'work-ready' graduates with clear evidence of job specific skills in addition to high level graduate attributes. To have the competitive advantage in the job market, students need to have developed their employability throughout their time at University.
• Return on investment
  One of the main reasons students choose to study at university is to enhance their career prospects. This becomes increasingly important in view of rising costs of education and levels of debt on graduation, so individuals want to ensure it has been money well spent. This is even more of a driver for international students than home students.
• Engaging in the educational process
  Innovative teaching, learning and assessment methods help students engage in the education process and have the added benefit of also helping them to develop attributes which make them attractive to potential employers. Students’ interest is more likely to be maintained if they can see the relevance of their studies to their future careers and life beyond University.
• Engaging in the whole student experience
  Students who make an effort to fully participate in the total student experience (academic, co-curriclar, extra curricular and work experience) benefit from a well rounded education, contribute fully to the life of the University and community and hopefully have fun in the process.

 

To academic staff:

‘The things employers generally value in new graduates are things that most teachers in higher education generally value’

Helping Departments to Develop Employability, Harvey & Knight (2003)

• Employability plays an important role in the implementation of the Colleges' Learning and Teaching Strategies. It is part of good learning practice. Students who engage in developing their employability are likely to be independent, reflective and responsible learners.
• Innovative learning, teaching and assessment methods which promote students’ understanding and help them to engage in ‘deep’ learning will also enhance their employability.
• Involving employers in the education experience, for example, through placements, case studies, delivery of guest lectures, can help students appreciate the relevance of their course and learn how to apply theory and knowledge in practical ways in the workplace.
• In some subject areas, employability links to requirements for accreditation from professional bodies.

To your School:

‘Although a student’s experience of higher education cannot guarantee a ‘graduate level job’, the nature of that experience influences the chances of success’

Encouraging the Development of Employability, M. Yorke (2003)

• Employers target universities where they have successfully recruited in the past and where they recognise that courses are continuing to develop and innovate to produce graduates with the knowledge, skills and attributes relevant to their needs.
• Employability coheres with the concept of PDP (Personal/Professional Development Planning), encouraging students to become reflective learners and present themselves effectively.
• A focus on employability can encourage student motivation, leading to better results and higher positions in national subject league tables.

 

To the University:

‘We aim to produce graduates fully equipped to achieve the highest personal and professional standards’

Strategic Plan 2012-2016, University of Edinburgh

• The work of the Employability Initiative focuses on:
  • ‘embed[ing] graduate attributes and employability in all our curricula, and equip our students to compete in the global marketplace’;
  • ‘producing graduates with socially and economically valuable attributes and expertise’;
  • ‘increase[ing] student satisfaction with the opportunities and support for developing their graduate attributes and employability’;
  • ‘equip[ing] our graduates with the expertise and graduate attributes they need to achieve their full potential within the global community’; and
  • ‘brokering strategic partnerships between academics, industry, specialists and other institutions to enhance the development of graduate attributes in all students’. Strategic Plan 2012-2016

MAJOR TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN EDUCATION

According to the latest data, video for homework is on the rise; mobile computing is "beyond the tipping point"; and most kids don't use traditional computers to connect to the Internet at home. Those are just three of the major trends revealed in the 2013 Speak Up Survey from Project Tomorrow, which CEO Julie Evans revealed at the FETC 2014 conference last week.
The 2013 results represent more than 400,000 surveys from 9,000 schools and 2,700 districts across the country. Respondents included 325,279 students, 32,151 teachers and librarians, 39,986 parents, 4,530 district administrators and, new to this year’s survey, 1,346 community members.

1. Personal Access to Mobile Devices
According to the 2013 results, students overwhelmingly have access to personal mobile devices. “If there was any doubt in our mind that we were beyond the tipping point in terms of kids carrying a computer in their pocket, backpack or purse,” she said, “we’re there.”
Specifically, said Evans, 89 percent of high schools students have access to Internet-connected smart phones, while 50 percent of students in grades 3 through 5 have access to the same type of devices. High school student access to tablets tops out at 50 percent and laptops come in at 60 percent. In addition to personal access, the survey found about a third of students have access to a device (typically laptops or tablets) in their school.

2. Internet Connectivity
For Evans, this was an interesting set of  statistics showing the ways students generally connect to the Internet when at home. According to the study, 64 percent of students surveyed identify 3G- or 4G-enabled devices as their primary means of connecting to the Internet, with another 23 percent saying they connect through an Internet-enabled TV or Wii console. When asked why traditional broadband access wasn’t their primary means of connectivity, students said there was less contention for access with other members of the family through these non-traditional devices.

3. Use of Video for Classwork and Homework
Video is another tool that has been on the rise in recent years. While her presentation focused on students, Evans noted that 46 percent of teachers are using video in in the classroom.
One-third of students are accessing video online — through their own initiative — to help with their homework. Evans called this the “Khan Academy effect.” Additionally, 23 percent of students are accessing video created by their teachers.

4. Mobile Devices for Schoolwork
According to the 2013 results, students are leveraging mobile devices both to be more efficient in their day-to-day tasks and to transform their own learning processes.
Sixty percent of students are using mobile devices for anytime research, 43 percent for educational games and 40 percent for collaboration with their peers. Thirty-three percent of students surveyed use mobile devices for reminders and alerts related to their academic lives, 24 percent for taking photos of their assignments, and 18 percent for in-class polling.
Surprisingly, said Evans, 12 percent of the students responding said they use mobile devices to text questions to their instructors while in the classroom. “I do wonder,” she added, “how many of the teachers are responding to those texts.”

5. Using Different Tools for Different Tasks
Evans admitted, with the proliferation of so many tools, it isn’t surprising students are designing “best-fit” solutions for their very specific needs.
Rather than using one or even a few platforms for various tasks, students are increasingly savvy about taking advantage of the benefits of the tools available.
“We find them using video, social media and cell phones for communications; they use e-readers for reading texts and articles; they write, take notes and do research on laptops. But,” she paused, “where does that leave tablets?”
According to Evans, tablets were the second or third choice device for completing many of the academic tasks students are faced with.
“They like the devices,” she noted, “but they are more focused on using the right tool for the task at hand,” and many times tablets don’t seem to fit.

6. Paying Attention to the Digital Footprint
Digital footprint was a new research area for the 2013 survey and, according to Evans, showed some interesting results. Sixty-four percent of high school students responding admitted to being careful about the things they post online; 39 percent said they advise friends about the content they post, with 32 percent saying they stopped interacting with friends who post inappropriate content online. Finally, 44 percent of high school students said they believe a positive digital profile is an important part of their future.

7. An increased Interest in Online Learning
This year’s Speak Up found that students who have not taken an online course are increasingly interested in the opportunity, citing a desire to have more control over their learning and believing that they will get more support from an online teacher.
Math was the subject student were most interested in taking online, with Foreign language coming in second and science a distant third.

8. Gaming is Growing, and the Gender Gap is Closed
Another interesting area for Evans was student gaming. This year’s results showed 60 percent of students using laptops as a gaming device. Cell phones and game consoles tied with 54 percent use, while tablets clocked in at 44 percent.
Of particular note is students’ interest in taking gaming technology and applying it to learning difficult concepts, as well as their interest in using games as a way to explore career opportunities. Evans also noted no gender difference in students’ interest in games, with younger girls actually showing more gaming activity than their male counterparts.

9. Social Media in Schools
Another set of questions revolved around the place of social media in the school. When showing the data for text messaging, networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and chat rooms, it was clear the the student expectations for the use of these technologies far outpaced those of administrators, teachers and parents. Administrators scored the highest among the non-student groups represented.
According to Evans, the data identify “a clear disconnect in terms of the value proposition” of these tools. “Today’s students,” she added, “are looking at social media not as a separate thing that you do occasionally but as a pervasive part of the way they are living their lives outside of school — one they want to connect with their lives inside the classroom.”

10. What Devices Belong in 'The Ultimate School?'
The final piece of data Evans shared focused on students’ ranking of the relative importance of devices in their classroom experience. Fifty-six percent of students said laptops were most important; 51 percent chose digital readers; and 48 percent selected tablets.
“This is still an evolving area,” said Evans and one She said Project Tomorrow plans to keep and eye on in the coming years. Something of interest, she added, that may not come as a surprise is that 62 percent of students want to bring their own devices.
Full results of the 2013 Speak Up will be released to survey participants Feb. 5 and will be released publicly April 8 when Evans shares the report with Congress.