Employability in the context of its stakeholders

1
Employability in the context of its stakeholders

• Victoria Jackson
• Helen Day
• Centre for Employability through Humanities
  (ceth)
• University of Central Lancashire

2
Background

• Employability is not a new development
• Robbins Report (1963)
• instruction in skills suitable to play a part in
• the general division of labour
• Dearing Report (1997)
• highlighted employability as an area of
  importance,
• in particular key skills development and work
• experience.

3
Background (Continued)

• Authors such as Bower-Brown Harvey (2004/2005)
  argue that employability has become increasingly
  important since the turn of the new millennium
• The last five years have witnessed an
  accelerating pace of engagement with
  employability within the higher education
  sector

4
Employability today

• Recent surge of interest in Employability
  attributed
• to governmental policy
• Employability data
• Employability agenda
• ESECT and the Higher Education Academy
• promoting the employability agenda in HE

5
Stakeholders

• Stakeholders include
• The Government
• Employers
• HEIs
• Students
• also
• Lecturers and other HE Staff
• Teachers and Parents/Guardians
• Trade Unions

6
The Government

• To sustain economic growth and maintain national
  social well being
• To widen participation in Higher Education
• Poverty reduction
• Social Inclusion
• Control of Wage inflation
• Improved productivity

7
Employers

• What employers want
• What employers can provide

8
Concerns with the Government and Employers
Agendas

• The economy simply can not provide enough
  graduate employment and expectations placed upon
  universities may be unattainable exacerbated by
  the governments widening participation agenda
• Long list of skills employers say they want

9
Higher Education Institutions

• Role of HE?
• To educate in an academic discipline
• To train the future workforce
• Expectations of students, their teachers and
  parents have grown
• Employability in the curriculum?

10
Students

• Many students were seen to be motivated to
  study at university principally by the prospect
  of getting a good (well paid) job, an aim
  which was rarely voiced by students in the past
• (Rolfe 2001)
• The dilemma for Higher Education is knowing
  where to concentrate its efforts
• (Sleap Reed 2006)

11
Conclusion

• In order to provide students with the
• maximum benefit from attending university
• (and highest employment figures) HEIs
• need to consider all stakeholders when
• formulating an employment strategy.

12
UCLans Student Employability and Enterprise
Strategy

• Implicit and explicit references and rationales
• Difficult to separate stakeholders /
  beneficiaries
• Employability and enterprise not defined
• Related stakeholders are parents/guardians and
  the media

13
Key Objectives

• UCLan will provide sector leading support to
  ensure that its students become confident,
  skilled graduates with the ability to make a
  success of their future learning, employment,
  self-employment or other choices.
• The University will present a single, positive,
  coherent message about enterprise and
  employability to staff, students,
  parents/guardians and to employers and other
  stakeholders in language and by communication
  channels appropriate to each audience.

14
Government

• Key driver for strategy is the potential impact
  of the sector on the UKs ability to compete
  internationally in a globalised and
  increasingly complex and uncertain world
• HEIs expected to contribute to regional/local
  economic and social development
• Supports Vickys analysis that the key rationale
  for employability agendas is to sustain and
  enhance economic growth

15
Higher EducationInstitutions

• We strive for excellence in all we do locally,
  regionally, nationally and internationally
  (Mission statement)
• EE Strategy is identified in Medium Term
  Strategy (2007-2012) as being significant in
  enabling the University to claim a distinctive
  edge in the Higher Education Market necessary
  because the expansion of HE has caused HEIs to
  consider differentiating their offer to students
  into unique/distinctive provision
• UCLan will establish itself as the leading
  university nationally for student employability
  and enterprise (measured in terms of graduate
  and long-term employment and salary levels)
• We will let the success of graduates speak for
  the quality of provision
• Marketisation of HE and the resulting
  proliferation of league tables has lead to drive
  of individual HEIs to be at/near the top

16
Employers

• We work in partnership with business, the
  community and other educators (Mission
  statement)
• Strong links to be developed with employers and
  employer groups to maximise opportunities for
  graduate employment
• UCLan would benefit from a more coherent
  institutional approach to larger organisations
  and the public sector
• Employers will engage with us if we provide what
  they need good placement students, graduate
  recruits and quick and visible benefits to their
  business
• No reference to what we can learn from employers,
  the benefits beyond longer term aims for graduate
  employment and little on what employers will get
  from this process. An employer need identified by
  this conference and elsewhere is to influence the
  teaching of skills and the employability agenda
  in general

17
Students (1)

• A Student Employability and Enterprise Strategy
  that addresses need of a diverse student body
• Need to equip students for a life of work and a
  world of life long learning (government target
  for national social well being)
• The strategy implies a fundamental shift in the
  contract with the student to embrace a more
  clearly defined element of personal and career
  development
• Transfer of cost of HE from state to individual
  provides imperative to ensure graduates are work
  ready on leaving HE
• High priority given to employment success by
  UCLans students and prospective students

18
Students (2)

• Strategy based on a series of opportunities in
  which all students will be expected to engage.
  Students will have the opportunity to benefit
  from a range of learning from work
  opportunities including placements, internships,
  live projects, volunteering etc.
• Current provision will be reorganised to present
  a single, high profile, easily accessible
  service to students
• Self-development and success in extra-curricular
  activities will be recognised and rewarded
• New alumni provision to enhance relationships
  with students following graduation
• Strategy emphasises the growing expectations of
  students and their parents

19
Lecturers

• Referred to as resources and deliverers of a
  service delivered as a hub-and-spoke operation
  within faculties
• EE embedded as fundamental component of all
  academic provision at all levels through
  structured student support (How this will be done
  is left to Implementation Strategy)
• New approach demands considerable changes in
  pedagogy, modes of assessment and the
  appropriate training of staff
• No mention of rewards and challenges of staff
  development or how to achieve staff buy in
  (employability enterprises demand intensive
  personal and professional development to support
  such changes in practice and identity)

20
Summary of Findings

• Students expectations and needs paramount - new
  role as customers
• Staff Development of lecturers under-articulated
  (and under-estimated)
• Employer needs simplified
• Emphasis on recruitment and the reputation of
  UCLan as market leader
• Not a criticism HEIs have to negotiate with
  their stakeholders, including Government and
  Media
• This strategy clearly indicates that the current
  role of HE is to train the future workforce
  with some concern for social well-being and other
  student success indicators

21
Thank you for listening

• Questions and comments to VJackson_at_uclan.ac.uk
  and HFDay_at_uclan.ac.uk