Graduate Skills for the Leisure Industry A Gloucestershire Perspective

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Graduate Skills for the Leisure Industry -A
Gloucestershire Perspective

• Aim of the project
• To undertake a regionally based study within
  Gloucestershire which identifies gaps in skills
  development from the perspectives of newly
  qualified Leisure Management graduates and
  locally based leisure managers

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Why is this project important?

• The project seeks to improve our understanding
  of what key skills terminology means to
• A - Newly qualified Leisure
• Management graduates
• B - Local leisure employers
• and how this can be linked to PDP?

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About Employability

• For Higher Education, preparing students for the
  working world and employability has become
  increasingly as important as imparting knowledge,
  and the role of skills has gained increased
  support.

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About The Graduate.

• .. should be able to to identify, analyse and
  disseminate information be creative, flexible
  and get the job done have specific subject
  knowledge, especially in vocational areas know
  the latest relevant techniques and have business
  awareness.
• Brown, R Council for Industry and Higher
  Education July 2003

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About Vocational Relevance

• Rapid changes in leisure provision leading to new
  demands in necessary skills and personal
  qualities of future leisure managers
• Bradshaw 2002 Education and Leisure
  Management Closing the Gap

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Key skills in the Leisure Context

• It is the application of key skills in a leisure
  context which is most important, for example,
• dealing with a range of customers
• events management
• budgetary control

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Key Skills at the University of Gloucestershire

• Problem solving
• Working with others
• Improving individual learning and performance
• Communication and literacy
• Information and communication technology
• Numeracy

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Research Methods a question of exploration

• Multi methods approach to explore key skills
  terminology
• The employer sample
• The new graduate sample

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The Employer Perspectives

• Decoding job advertisements
• Semi structured interviews with 9 local employers
  (Leisure Services Officers, Leisure centre
  managers public and Private sector)

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The Graduate Perspective

• Likert Scaling - sample size (30) - not
  sufficient for inferential statistical techniques
  but the evidence used as descriptive indicators
  of possible trends
• Extent to which your degree has equipped you
  with X skill
• Importance of X skill for your initial job

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Some Emerging Trends

• Perceived level of ability in particular skill
  area closely matched with perceived level of
  importance for initial jobs
• Improving learning and performance

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Example -Improving Learning and performance

• A perfect match in ..
• The ability to be responsive to change
• The ability to establish priorities, work
  unsupervised and manage time effectively
• Most important for initial job..
• the ability to work on own initiative

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More Trends

• Perceived level of ability in particular skill
  area less closely matched to perceived level of
  importance for initial jobs
• Problem solving
• Working with others
• Communication and literacy
• Numeracy
• Information and communication technology

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Problem solving

• The ability to research information to
  investigate a problem
• Highest rating in terms of skills development
• Lowest rating in terms of importance for initial
  job

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Perceptions of most important skills for work

• Problem solving
• The ability to prioritise and meet project
  deadlines
• Working with others
• The ability to take actions to address
  difficulties in a team
• Improving individual learning and performance
• The ability to work on own initiative

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Perceptions of most important skills for work

• Communication and literacy
• The ability to listen to others effectively
  including staff and customers
• Numeracy
• The ability to appreciate and use software
• ICT
• The ability to prepare reports, statistics and
  forecasts.

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Key trends emerging from focus group
investigation

• In relation to perceived skills development
• The value of modules
• The value of work experience
• The value of the university experience

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The Value of Work Experience

• In relation to developing
• - problem solving skills (on the job)
• - working with others (a range of people)
• - working independently (using initiative
• and gaining confidence)
• - communication (meeting customer needs)

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The Value of Modules

• In relation to developing skills in
• problem solving/dissertation
• working with others in practical modules
• improving performance particularly
• critical thinking and skills in reflection

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The value of the university experience

• In relation to
• being able to communicate with a range of people
• develop skills in individual learning and
  performance
• If you look at it (your experience) you can
  find something from every single part of it that
  will round your opinion and help you to question
  things it helps to improve the way you manage
  yourself LM new graduate

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One other issue!

• Understanding the idea of transferable skills
  development became clear only after a period of
  work experience

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Links to PDP

• Identifying key issues in how both graduates and
  employers understand key skills
• Analysing gaps and/or opportunities for teaching
  and learning in relation to PDP

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Implications for Learning and Teaching

• ?